Comments on First Paris Then Rome: This stinks! in English, French and Italian

Brava!! That is great! I am so happy to hear this....

2008-02-01T13:45:00.000+01:00

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!

Caroline - yep, I'm pregnant (and married - we jus...

2008-01-29T14:11:00.000+01:00

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.

Kataroma, does this mean you are pregnant? Congra...

2008-01-29T09:42:00.000+01:00

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.

Glad to hear that the trilingual thing seems to be...

2008-01-29T01:46:00.000+01:00

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.)

Ilaria, interesting distinction between "naughty" ...

2008-01-28T16:21:00.000+01:00

Ilaria, interesting distinction between "naughty" and "mean". In French, the word "méchant" can mean either naughty or mean.

Caroline: What a truly great start in life you are...

2008-01-28T10:52:00.000+01:00

Caroline: What a truly great start in life you are giving her! Lucky, lucky girl.
Anna.

1. Puzza! (I had to look this up in the dictionary...

2008-01-27T16:36:00.000+01:00

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' :)

Sounds wonderful. What a great experience to watch...

2008-01-27T13:13:00.000+01:00

Sounds wonderful. What a great experience to watch a child learn language - all three of them!

wow brava......that is so great that she is absorb...

2008-01-26T20:32:00.000+01:00

wow brava......that is so great that she is absorbing three languages.

i wish my brain were a sponge still!!!!

That is fantastic! Aren't kids amazing?:)

2008-01-26T17:52:00.000+01:00

That is fantastic! Aren't kids amazing?

:)