Ana's really not wanting to speak French anymore...

[conuly]

The other day, my mother was giving her her bath, and she said something (in French) about the soap. Savon. And Ana quite seriously replied "No, it's soap!"

Mommy: Non, savon.
Ana: No! SOAP!
Mommy: Ana, non, c'est savon.
Ana: It's soap!
Mommy: Savon.
Ana: *sighs* Nanen. Dit soap.

She understands the French, but she wants to speak English. So my mother's really trying to only speak French to her, and not English. Once she's got that down, she plans on making the replying in French more important.

In other news of multilingual (kinda) adventures, I was sitting on the bus yesterday. And this kid and her mom(?) get on. Kid can't be more than seven, just reading. And the kid reads a sign across from us: LOOK! FOOD!

Mother: (clearly bored to tears) Yes, food. How do you spell that?
Kid: F-o-o-d
Mother: *still bored*
Connie: *flash of inspiration* And you know, you can spell that with your hands too! Look, f, o, o, d!

Kid was fascinated. Mother was grinning. Another kid came up to watch and surrepitiously follow along as I carefully spelled out everybody's names and completely exhausted my ASL vocabulary by teaching them "thank you". I'm lucky nobody had a name involving P or Q, 'cuz I kinda can't do those :)

And this kept everyone occupied through the entire bus ride. So I think I may do myself a favor and work on a little basic vocabulary building in that area. I have no delusions, I that this does not in any way comprise knowing the language, but if it can keep kids from making nuisances of themselves, I'm all for it.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest a little French from other sources. Children tend to try to be normal, as sick as that sounds. It's part of why kids who grow up in the US often speak English with the accent of their area, while their parents may speak it heavily accented or poorly. They start out learning what is presented to them, but then they try to get rid of anomalies that they only hear from one person or such. So, to Ana, she probably thinks that French is talking wrong... not consciously really, or maybe, hard to say, but that's the general idea. If she were exposed to it from a few other sources, even in small amounts, it might really help her see it as worth learning.

If you can get your hands on a kids video in French or somesuch, that might be good exposure (as long as the video doesn't totally suck). And a little French here and there from other people can help it sink in that this is worth learning.

[conuly]

She has French music, and French books (Martine and Babar, mostly), but anything else will simply have to wait.

[leora.livejournal.com]

French music sounds good, because it's French she can hear and from another source. Same basic idea as videos. Plus, you can throw in a little French if you can learn some. Learning a few phrases of the language should be easy... although accent is much harder. I know my Spanish, despite years of study, sounds like it's being said by an American English speaker.

[conuly]

*laughs*

I can *pronounce* French. I used to even be able to read it. I just can't speak it.