Getting To The Other Side of "No"

Every book you read about teaching your child a second language will tell you its totally normal that your child will go through phases where he or she does NOT want to speak, hear or have anything to do with the language you are introducing. That doesn't make it any easier when it happens! My older son Emmett (6) must have read those books because he is in a full on frontal defense mode, practically arm wrestling me with his eyes when I try to speak French with him. He says "don't speak French!" and sometimes covers his ears in case I don't get it. Happily, he has been hearing French since he was a baby, so even though he's far from fluent, he's pretty comfortable and I know that this is just a phase. I can also always speak French to his 2 1/2 year old little brother in ear shot!

Even so, I must admit that it has not been fun. For awhile I stopped speaking French to him, it just didn't seem worth the battle. This was until last week when I was interviewed by Roxana of SpanglishBaby about helping her get her daughter started on her third language (French). We commiserated about kids occasional resistance to our language (she taught her daughter Spanish), and her persistence inspired me to re-commit to teaching Emmett.

I made a promise to Roxana and to myself that I would speak French at breakfast to my boys every day for two weeks. To make it fun for Emmett I told him that at the end of the two weeks I'd take him out for a special French breakfast ( he loves croissants and chocolat chaud!). That did the trick. Now we are back on track, drinking our 'jus d'orange' in the morning and having 'du lait s'I'll vous plait' in our cereal!

Thanks Roxana!

Too all the moms and dads getting through "No" right now, hang in there and remember to keep it fun! Make up a new game or offer a special treat but don't give up. They will thank you later if you keep it up.

Watch my video blog with Roxana below.

Happy Bastille Day!

Today is Bastille Day, or as the French say, le 14 juillet. On July 14th, 1789 the Bastile prison was stormed and the French Revolution officially began. If you're lucky enough to be in Paris today you'd be enjoying fireworks, parties, and an incredibly jovial environment.

Today is the perfect excuse to use the French word in your vocabulary. Eat traditional French foods like croissants, baguettes, French fromage (cheese), wines, fondue. Make reservations at a French restaurant and be sure to learn the words to La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

What do Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, & Michelle Obama Have in Common?

Ils parlent français! They all speak French!

If you follow my blog you already know about the multiple advantages of being bilingual. From improved cognitive development to educational and professional advantages, there are so many reasons to get your child started learning a second language. You may not have known that Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnny Depp and Michelle Obama are French-speakers, as well as all the celebs listed below, many of whom are also teaching their children to speak French!

Other French-speaking celebs:

Johnny Depp

Gwyneth Paltrow

Michelle Obama

David Sedaris

John Travolta

Orlando Bloom

Jodie Foster

Chloë Sevigny

Meryl Streep

Read the whole list on About.com’s French page by Laura K. Lawless: http://french.about.com/od/teachingresources/a/celebrities.htm

Halle Berry's Bilingual Baby

I was recently forwarded a lovely thank you note from Halle Berry for a Birthday Bag her daughter Nahla received via Jewels & Pinstripes that contained a Little Pim Deluxe French Gift Set.

As you may know, Halle Berry is raising her daughter bilingual in French and English. She has given interviews saying it was very important to her that her daughter learn French, the language spoken by her father, Gabriel Aubry, who is from Montreal, Canada.

Babycenter.com recently reported on how little Nahla's language learning is going.

"While out for dinner last night at Malibu’s Nobu restaurant with her mom and dad, 18-month-old Nahla was overheard speaking en français. A worker at the restaurant says, 'The little girl was pointing at the colorful drinks in the cooler and speaking French, like ‘Papa!’ and ‘Regarde!'"

Sounds like Nahla’s French is vraiment très bien! Merci, Halle Berry, we are so glad Little Pim can help you bring French into Nahla’s life.

Fun with Flashcards? Absolutely!

Lately I have been making up games with the Little Pim French Word & Phrase cards to help my son Emmett learn new French vocabulary words. When we leave the house, I grab about 10 cards from the 60 in the Little Pim deck and carry them with us in the sturdy Little Pim box or a plastic bag. They tuck nicely into my purse for a low tech game! Then on the subway or while waiting for food in a restaurant we'll play what we call "The French Game”. I offer him an M&M if he can get ten right which makes it more of a game and less of a "let's learn vocabulary" exercise.

First, I run him quickly through the ten flashcards telling him how to say each word in French and asking him to repeat ("le fromage" ..."le toboggan"). He does not need to say the English, just the French. Then I start over and it's his turn to remember! He gets so excited when he can say the new words and we have a great time. He loves my silly hints: for "noir" which he has trouble remembering, I tell him to think of his favorite fruit, "poire" - pear - and then he gets it!

I like making up the "sounds like" part (“sounds like revenge meets today... ‘reveille!’") and he has started making up his own mnemonics as well. There’s always quite a bit of giggling! What’s also wonderful is that a few days later I'll say "how do you say "cheese?" and he pipes right up, "fromage!" with the biggest grin on his face.

P.S. We have phonetic spelling on the back of each card, so you don't have to speak French (or Spanish, the other language in which we offer flash cards) to play the game I played with Emmett!

Little Pim French flash cards

Little Pim Spanish flash cards

How do you use language flashcards with your kids?

The Little Prince: Where Are You From?

Earlier this week I introduced Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), a classic french children's book that has had a significant influence on me. Intriguing questions are asked throughout the short book. In Chapter 3, the narrator and the Little Prince discuss places of origin. "Where are you from?" is a universal questions that is becoming more and more complicated to answer as we become globally-oriented. It can be answered in a variety of different ways: Where are your parents from? Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Where do you live now? What country do you most identify with?

Many of today's children have parents who were born in different countries. It seems as if the only correct answer to this seemingly simple question is "Earth". It is no wonder that so many families are choosing to raise multilingual children. Nobody is a foreigner when you're communicating with them in the same language.

Le Petit Prince: Chapter Three (en Français)

Il me fallut longtemps pour comprendre d'où il venait. Le petit prince, qui me posait beaucoup de questions, ne semblait jamais entendre les miennes. Ce sont des mots prononcés par hasard qui, peu à peu, m'ont tout révélé. Ainsi, quand il aperçut pour la première fois mon avion (je ne dessinerai pas mon avion, c'est un dessin beaucoup trop compliqué pour moi) il me demanda:

"Qu'est ce que c'est que cette chose-là ?"

"Ce n'est pas une chose. Ça vole. C'est un avion. C'est mon avion."

Et j'étais fier de lui apprendre que je volais. Alors il s'écria:

"Comment! tu es tombé du ciel!"

"Oui, fis-je modestement."

"Ah! ça c'est drôle..."

Et le petit prince eut un très joli éclat de rire qui m'irrita beaucoup. Je désire que l'on prenne mes malheurs au sérieux. Puis il ajouta:

"Alors, toi aussi tu viens du ciel ! De quelle planète es-tu?"

J'entrevis aussitôt une lueur, dans le mystère de sa présence, et j'interrogeai brusquement:

"Tu viens donc d'une autre planète ?"

Mais il ne me répondit pas. Il hochait la tête doucement tout en regardant mon avion:

"C'est vrai que, là-dessus, tu ne peux pas venir de bien loin..."

Le Petit Prince: Chapter Three (in English)

It took me a long time to learn where he came from. The little prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the ones I asked him. It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little, everything was revealed to me.

The first time he saw my airplane, for instance (I shall not draw my airplane; that would be much too complicated for me), he asked me:

"What is that object?"

"That is not an object. It flies. It is an airplane. It is my airplane."

And I was proud to have him learn that I could fly.

He cried out, then:

"What! You dropped down from the sky?"

"Yes," I answered, modestly.

"Oh! That is funny!"

And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.

Then he added:

"So you, too, come from the sky! Which is your planet?"

At that moment I caught a gleam of light in the impenetrable mystery of his presence; and I demanded, abruptly:

"Do you come from another planet?"

But he did not reply. He tossed his head gently, without taking his eyes from my plane:

"It is true that on that you can't have come from very far away..."

The Little Prince: Part One

One of the joys of being bilingual is being able to read in another language and having access to an entire body of literature outside your own. I recently picked up a copy of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) I had kept from my childhood and was delighted to re-immerse myself in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s magical realism. There is a good reason this tale has been translated into 180 languages and is one of the best selling kids books of all time. I also think it has one of the most clever first pages I have ever read. De Saint-Exupéry immediately establishes the humorous, wry tone of the book, which is part of what makes it delightful for kids and adults alike.

Read the first few paragraphs below in French (also provided in English, scroll down) and then go dig your own copy out of storage! You wont regret it. Or just come back for my next installment. I’ll be blogging excerpts of Le Petit Prince for the next two weeks. Vive le Petit Prince! Someday your child will be able to read books in another language, and might teach you a thing or two while they are at it!

Le Petit Prince: Part One (en Français)

Lorsque j’avais six ans j’ai vu, une fois, une magnifique image, dans un livre sur la Forêt Vierge qui s’appelait “Histoires Vécues”. Ça représentait un serpent boa qui avalait un fauve. Voilà la copie du dessin.

On disait dans le livre: “Les serpents boas avalent leur proie tout entière, sans la mâcher. Ensuite ils ne peuvent plus bouger et ils dorment pendant les six mois de leur digestion”.

J’ai alors beaucoup réfléchi sur les aventures de la jungle et, à mon tour, j’ai réussi, avec un crayon de couleur, à tracer mon premier dessin. Mon dessin numéro 1. Il était comme ça:

J’ai montré mon chef d’œuvre aux grandes personnes et je leur ai demandé si mon dessin leur faisait peur.

Elles m’ont répondu: “Pourquoi un chapeau ferait-il peur?”

Mon dessin ne représentait pas un chapeau. Il représentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant. J’ai alors dessiné l’intérieur du serpent boa, afin que les grandes personnes puissent comprendre. Elles ont toujours besoin d’explications. Mon dessin numéro 2 était comme ça:

Les grandes personnes m’ont conseillé de laisser de côté les dessins de serpents boas ouverts ou fermés, et de m’intéresser plutôt à la géographie, à l’histoire, au calcul et à la grammaire. C’est ainsi que j’ai abandonné, à l’âge de six ans, une magnifique carrière de peintre. J’avais été découragé par l’insuccès de mon dessin numéro 1 et de mon dessin numéro 2. Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c’est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours leur donner des explications.

The Little Prince: Part One (in English)

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.”

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

The grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

New Celebrity Little Pim Families

I recently received thank you notes from Sarah Wynter (Windfall, 24, Damages) and Brad Paisley (country singer- American Saturday Night, Play), husband of actress Kimberly Williams (Father of the Bride, According to Jim), for Birthday Gift Bags containing Little Pim Deluxe Gift Sets given to their tots through Jewels & Pinstripes. I'm so touched! Don't you LOVE Huck's artwork? Too cute!

Celebrity Baby Blog joined in on the fun by giving one Birthday Bag away to their readers.

One Birthday Gift Bag was auctioned to support the Annika K. Strain Foundation, a non-profit that benefits pediatric cancer patients.

I'm so glad that we were able to participate and hope the new Little Pim families are having beaucoup de fun with their Gift Sets.

Little Pim at Home

Language learning doesn't begin and end for me at the office. I grew up bilingual in French and English and am passionate about passing on le français to my two children- Emmett and Adrian. Here's a cute video I shot last week of them counting in French while playing in the kitchen one morning... Seeing them move effortlessly from French to English - even my little two year old - is the best confirmation that starting young makes a difference!

Little Pim and Julia Pimsleur Levine in the Media

Little Pim was just featured by two terrific media outlets this month: New York Metro Parents and Parent Guide. New York Metro Parents is an award-winning magazine in New York City that parents turn to for guidance on education, health, activities, and parenting tips. They interviewed me in an article entitled Language is a Family Affair.

Note: Clicking the image will open a new window to a larger version of the article (you may have to click on it again to make it full size).

Parent Guide is the oldest and largest local parenting publication in the country. They serve 18 counties, throughout New York, Long Island, Westchester, Rockland and New Jersey, with ten different regional editions. They featured Little Pim in their "Don't Miss" section.