We have been in Montreal for four weeks now and it has been really awesome. The thing that I love the most is the fact that almost everybody seems to be bilingual or sometimes trilingual! I am really impressed with the people I encounter everyday, they talked to me in French for a bit, then I have to say Ingles s'il vous plait? and they immediately switch to English. These are some of the things I have been thinking about over this past four weeks.
1. Children really do learn another language faster than adults. If they are exposed to people who constantly speaks to them in another language, they will eventually speak that new language. I have seem how my daughters, especially the oldest, repeat and repeat and repeat new phrases that they hear, they also use the new words with other people. The more you practice, the better it gets, like anything you want your brain to learn.
2. I think the reason why people here speaks both English and French fluently is because they practice both of them simultaneously. This is a bilingual city, they have the opportunity to practice both languages in any situation they are in, although they favor French over English. Do I provide my students with plenty of opportunities to practice their two languages simultaneously?
3. It has been easier for me to understand written French than spoken, although, I am able to understand some words here and there in a conversation, the listening and speaking part is not coming easy for me, but if you write it, I can probably get the gist of what you are saying. This made me think how important it is for me to provide visual aids to my students when explaining a new task, always give them sentence prompts, etc. so they can read it as I say it.
4. We went to the library for story time, we knew it was going to be in French. The other moms assumed I spoke French, and since I just nodded and smiled they continued to speak to me and my children in French. It was not their fault, it was mine for not saying anything. How many times had this happened to some of my students' parents when they attend a meeting? and sometimes it is not their fault, sometimes people just assume or expect everybody to speak English or Spanish, depending which language the meeting is in. I can totally understand what they would just nod and smile, it is easier, less embarrasing, sometimes we just want to fit in.
5. While the librarian was reading the story my mind started to wonder after two minutes. I honestly could not understand a thing she was saying, she was not showing the pictures, the book was not very exciting, my girls started to look through other books also cause they were loss. When she asked questions my and my daughters' faces looked puzzled. Only the kids who had understood will raised their hands and answered. This experience really made me think about the times I read to my students a book with no pictures and expect them to turn and talk about it. I think I really need to make it more interactive, create my own pictures, a story map as we read, etc. So they are not loss as we were during story time.
Well, this is what I have been thinking about
