This stinks! in English, French and Italian
Back in May, I posted that I was worried that the Bambina would never really succeed in speaking English, French and Italian. Three languages just seemed like it was too much for her to absorb.
Well, now she goes to a French preschool (whereas back then she was attending an Italian nido) AND we have a French au pair. As could be expected, her French has picked right up and she is speaking it almost as well as English (English is still dominant, though, and I would like to keep it that way;-)) So I can definitely confirm that the Bambina is bilingual.
But the real surprise is that she is also speaking lots of Italian now. Well, three-year old Italian anyway. She won't speak it much with me but I hear her with other children (all the children in her French preschool class are Italian, for starters) and she is definitely speaking Italian with them. She doesn't really distinguish much between questa and questo or il mio and la mia but she gets her point across!
She does save some choice phrases for her parents, such as:
Puzza! (I had to look this up in the dictionary. It seems to mean "this stinks".)
Butta questa, non mi piace! (meaning "throw this away, I don't like it!" or something to that effect, although I wonder whether she should not be saying "Butta questa via).
Tu sei cattiva! (meaning "You are naughty!", usually directed at me).
I guess I won't hold my breath while I wait for her to tell me in Italian that I am her wonderful, beautiful, smart mommy. :-)
10 comments:
That is fantastic! Aren't kids amazing?
:)
wow brava......that is so great that she is absorbing three languages.
i wish my brain were a sponge still!!!!
Sounds wonderful. What a great experience to watch a child learn language - all three of them!
1. Puzza! (I had to look this up in the dictionary. It seems to mean "this stinks".): Yes, as in 'smelling', not as in the slang "sucking/not being good" You'd usually say "che puzza!" or something puzza.
1. Butta questa, non mi piace! (meaning "throw this away, I don't like it!" or something to that effect, although I wonder whether she should not be saying "Butta questa via).
If you used 'via', you'd say "butta via questa" ... but you'd usually have a dir obj pronoun like "Buttala/o/e/i via..." "Questa" you'd use more if you are making a distinction between a couple of things.
Tu sei cattiva! (meaning "You are naughty!", usually directed at me). More like 'mean' than 'naughty' :)
Caroline: What a truly great start in life you are giving her! Lucky, lucky girl.
Anna.
Ilaria, interesting distinction between "naughty" and "mean". In French, the word "méchant" can mean either naughty or mean.
Glad to hear that the trilingual thing seems to be working out afterall. After much hand wringing we've decided to raise our unborn child as trilingual as possible. Lots of people have told us it will never work (and I'm sure it won't 100%) The kid would automatically be bilingual English-Italian (I'm a native speaker of English and we live in Italy) but I seem to have managed to persuade my husband to speak Dutch with the kid as well. He didn't want to originally as it would be "too hard" (since we normally speak English at home.)
Kataroma, does this mean you are pregnant? Congratulations! I know a family with similar dynamics in France: Dutch father, American mother, French surroundings and school. The child does speak Dutch albeit less well than French or English and the parents put a huge effort into it. The father speaks only Dutch to the child, they make a point of see the Dutch relatives every two months or so and the child gets a lot of books and DVDs in Dutch.
Caroline - yep, I'm pregnant (and married - we just tied the knot in Australia). It seems to be something in the water with us female expats! :)
Nice to hear that the trilingual with Dutch father thing can work out. I'm not sure if we're really prepared to put all the hard work into having the kid learn Dutch though. My partner only really sees his relatives (sister comes here or we go there) once every 4 months or so at the most and he's not sure if he can keep up the "only Dutch with the kid" thing. But we'll see.
Brava!! That is great! I am so happy to hear this. We hope our children will speak these languages, as well. Our plan is to speak English at home all of the time and let them speak Italian outside of the home. We were worried about the French. I don't speak French well, but P is fluent, but still....
Wow - three years old!! You got yourself a smart un!
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