Bean is 13 months old

* this post was written in January but I never quite got around to publish it. 

When you decide to raise a child with more than one language, there are certain things that you expect to encounter: envy from people who only speak one language, curiosity from those who are genuinely interested in the "how"s and "why"s, ridiculous questions (my favourite, which I hear far too often is "how many languages does he speak?"- "none, he's one!"), much appreciated advice from people who have successfully raised bilingual and trilingual children, and, of course, resistance from possibly well-meaning, good intentioned educators and health care professionals. So far, thankfully, we've only encountered one of the latter, a doctor who informed C that he should rather address Bean in his mother tongue (French), as addressing Bean in German would not work unless it was C's first language. Said Doctor could only speak French, so we shall take that criticism with a pinch of salt and carry on as we started. Me in English, C in German, Creche in English and Skyping in whichever language the person we are speaking to is most comfortable.  

Bean seems to be adapting well to 40 hours of French a week at Creche. He seems really happy there. The other children always greet him very enthusiastically. And he's already come home with a few French words. So far we have:

"..garde" ("regarde" - "Look"), "...tend" ("attends" - "wait"), "donne" ("give") and "ouvre" ("open"). All words that give you some idea as to what a determined and curious little creature we have created. He's also learnt the hand actions to a few little French nursery rhymes - although he's still obviously getting the hang of his motor skills).

In English we have: 

"Daddy" (for C), "dada" (for me... yes, seriously. I am unamused. I have managed to get him to call me "mama" possibly 5 times), otherwise we have "juice" (when he wants his sippy cup or to try some of whatever is in our cups - evidently things are more delicious when from someone else's cup), and of course "no" (although he says "nah!"- which for the moment I think I prefer). 

Currently our favourite word in English is "go!". It's usually given as an order whilst he's being carried, and is accompanied by adamant finger pointing. If you fail to "go" to wherever it is that he wishes his noble stead (that's you if you're carrying him) to go, he will actually move your face to point in the direction, point again and stare at you before saying with increased vehemence "go DARE!" ("go THERE!"). It's bound to get old, but right now it's great as we know exactly where he'd like to go and what he's seen that really interests him.

In German we have only one word: 

"Nein!" which he's adopted when "nah" does not work. 

I've decided to do a regular tallies of Bean's progress in each language. So far French and English are practically equal... but only time, and lots of patience will tell....

A little background info

Fun fact: South Africa has 11 official languages.

I spent 24 years of my life in South Africa. I left, able to speak a shameful two out of the eleven languages. Now, I'll be honest, languages were never my thing. I loved Maths, Science, Biology. I loved books- classic English books. I took no pleasure in attempting to speak my second language, happier to listen to and write it. But as time has gone by, I have lost my ability to speak the second language (due to a mix of lack of practice and a general lack of motivation) although I do still understand it. However, in the years that have since passed, I have picked up French, and improved my comprehension of Dutch and German. It has not been an easy road, but I'm quite confident in my spoken French now (after many years).

About a year into my stay in France, through a language exchange group, I met C, a French-Austrian born on the other side of the world. Due to his accent and the ease with which he spoke, I assumed he was English (he was not). The first time I heard C speaking to his family on the phone, I was blown away. He switched from German, to French, to English seemingly effortlessly, depending on who he was talking to. I couldn't believe it. I was so jealous. And then I found out that he spoke Spanish too. I was intrigued as to how how he had managed to achieve such an impressive feat. The answer to which was "My parents never gave up".

C's father is Austrian and speaks to him in German. His mother is French and speaks to him in French. They sent C to an international school where he received instruction in English and therefore speaks English with his brother. The language around the dinner table is German (or English if I am there) - and that is how it is, no "if"s,"but"s or "maybe"s. It apparently got really tough (C is quite a stubborn man), but they persevered and it paid off in heaps.

So in raising our little Bean, we will be following their model. C has spoken to Bean in German since before he was born, I speak to him in English, he attends a French Creche for 40 hours a week, and our table language is English. We know that it's going to be tough. We know he might take a little longer to speak than his peers and his cousins. But we also know that it's an opportunity that not every child has, and we're not going to waste it!