After reading what I wrote about Amelie’s language (posted on 12 April), my younger daughter Sabine - Amelie’s mother - sent me an email to let me know about the little one’s exposure to and knowledge of French. (I hadn’t noted any sign of French during the weekend they stayed at the cottage).  This is what she had to say:

By the way, as regards Amélie and her French.  Amélie is with her child-minder Nathalie 3 days a week, but as Nathalie has other children to look after as well  (apart from Friday) who are all English speakers it is difficult to gauge how much French Nathalie actually speaks to her. 

As for what she learns from me, when I am with my friends or Gerry I try to speak French to Amélie as much as possible but of course she is hearing me speak English to my friends or Gerry at the same  time. 

At this time she usually answers in English but it is clear that she

understands French as much as English.  For instance one weekend she translated word for word what I had just said to her to one of my friends who had come for Sunday lunch. 

When I am on my own with Amélie and she is just hearing French she sometimes uses French words, especially verbs. Classic examples are         "I tombé"  (= I fell) which is very similar to how I was mixing up both languages when I was in Algeria.  She also has key French words which she uses regularly.   ‘Biberon‘ (= bottle for her milk)  is always used in French only.  Nounours is translated as teddy and she transfers maman and papa to mum/mummy and dad/daddy.  One day when I got her

from the nursery she said very proudly "that's my maman!" 

 I think that she associates and uses French with me as it seems that apart from Nathalie I am the only person who speaks to her in French!   All my

French-speaking friends who are mostly teachers, including you all speak to her in English.  I do sometimes feel that it is an uphill battle for me. 

Probably the main reason that you did not hear any French from Amélie the weekend we came over was that everyone around her was speaking English and there was no reason for her to speak it.  I probably wasn't speaking as much French as I usually do because of this too. I would really like it if you spoke French to Amélie as well as English in the future.  You will be surprised to see that she  understands it as well as English.  It would also be good for her to realise that you speak it too as at the moment she probably thinks that you only speak English like her daddy!  And it would also help with her French!

I was told by the nursery that when Amélie went into the toddler room at the age of 2 it was clear that her 1st language was French!  Remember I was with her exclusively until she was nearly one and was speaking to her mostly in French as had been suggested by Céline if I wanted her to be bilingual.  Since then of course she has been in an English speaking environment so English has of course taken over!

So, next time we are all together, I will follow Sabine’s suggestion and alternate French with English. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Also, Sabine and Gerry are planning to take Amelie to France quite soon when she will be able to spend time with French-speaking relatives of her generation and older. That is the situation in which French should come on with a spurt, when she realises that there are people in the world who don’t speak English (or, if they do, prefer not to).