beeonline

Anne Fox on 43Things wishes she could teach her children French. I have done it and it was worth it.

French is not my mother tongue. As a matter of fact, not even my second language but my 4th. However, I decided to bring up and educate my children in French because my husband speaks it and because they would learn Portuguese (we live in Brazil) anyway.

I must say it was not easy at the beginning because my knowledge of written French was restricted to what I read in books and newspapers and my oral practice was with adult friends. I had no vocabulary for children who are growing up, asking questions about the nature of things and specific household objects.

I bought books with stories for children, which I read for them every night. I bought tapes and films, which we listened to and finally I sent them to the bilingual school where I presently work.

Today they speak 4 languages fluently: Portuguese, French, English and Spanish.

The more languages you learn when you are young, the easier it becomes to understand and learn others.

I’ve been working too hard. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Although I cannot complain about what I have been doing because I really enjoy it, I need some rest from my routine. Need some real action out there, take the world in a love embrace. Need to hit the open road, get seriously lost and travel for some time without a set destination, without a goal, either on a 4×4 tout terrain or a nice motorcycle. Maybe I should change my looks as well. Radical change. How do you fancy this style? Born to be wild :-)