4th of July Weekend without the fireworks!

Our first weekend here was full of wonderful experiences, but no fireworks! It doesn't get dark here until almost 10 p.m. and we had two very tired girls.  Chris had Friday off so we biked to Old Montreal. It was incredible busy- lots and lots of people! There was a Poutine Festival, so we got to try two different types of this traditional Quebecquian (is that a word) fast food. It was delicious! We got to use our two new french words, bonjour and merci. We smiled and nodded a lot, although most people will ask you if you prefer English or French. The people in Montreal seem to be very polite and happy.
There were lots of street entertainers and they did their shows in both languages. This is a very dual language city. There was one of the entertainers that  did the whole show in French. He called on Bella to help him and he asked her in French what her name was and she answered!!! I was surprised, although I know little kids have a better chance of learning another language than adults. He then asked her in french to blow and she just looked at him, so he said it in English and she blew, then he said it in Spanish!! and she blew again, so he exclaimed: "wow, she speaks three languages!!!" ja ja ja ja, I wish!! maybe at then end of this adventure!

On Saturday we biked 15 miles (round trip) to one of the big parks, (Parc Jean Drapeau). There was a Latino Festival going on so the shows were in Spanish/English/French. It was pretty awesome, although I realized people really prefer to speak French. We did one Latino Dance lesson and even though the guy started his presentation in the three languages, he switched to French after just a couple of minutes and never went back to translating, so we had to use our language learners' strategy, observe what the others are doing and copy it.  We did the same during the concert, the guys singing were only speaking in French and I did understand when he asked if there were any latinos in the audience, so I raised my hand, I only got it because of the word "latino" in the sentence and then I "observed what the others were doing and copied" It is really a wonderful strategy. Also, language learners tend to make meaning of what they read or hear by using the familiar words and the cognates. 

So, do you still use that strategy when trying to make meaning? I certainly had not noticed, but now that I think about it, I do use it all the time when I read or listen in English.