French Immersion

As I've told those who've asked, we're starting this academic year with French Immersion class. It is always satisfying, once we've been in Switzerland a couple days, to hear our children using the French words that I've known were lurking there somewhere in their craniums. Several times I've seen someone ask one of our girls a question, and on her face I see a searching look, searching her brain for the right answer and the right way to say it. Sometimes they look to us for help, but more and more often, to my satifaction, the drive to be understood and participate in conversation overcomes discomfort at being grammatically incorrect. They try out the words and phrases that they know and those they've just heard and learn something more in the interchange.

We've had occasions this visit to play with other children (thank goodness, our friends over here have finally started having kids!) They all speak only French, which means for our kids that if you want to communicate with them, you have to make an effort to use the words you know. Card games, it turns out, are a form of international language as are toy cars and motorcycles. At the wedding nine year old Manon got better acquainted with our girls through Dutch Blitz and long games of war. Three year old Leonard who let Zarli play with his toy motorcycle make me chuckle by saying to me earnestly in very nice three-year-old French that the motorcycle was "le mien. Je le prets seulement. Quand je pars je le prends avec moi. Il ne peut pas le garder." It's mine. I'm just loaning it to him. When I have to leave, I'm taking it with me. He can't keep it. That is the same message in any language.