Foreign Perspectives

The vast majority of people don’t seem to consider what will happen to their childrens’ English when they move to France. They seem to just assume that they’ll grow up bilingual without any effort. After all, they’ll learn English at home and French at school.

That’s not what actually happens though.

In practice, children end up speaking the English of about an 8 or 9 year old if they’ve moved here prior to that age. For those older (and this includes adults!), their English basically stops at the level it was when they moved to France.

Surely I can’t include adults in that statement? Well, yes. Think about it. If you’d moved here even 10 years ago, chances are you’d not know the English words for Internet, e-mail, Child Tax Credit, etc. So, yes, your English stops developing too.

Don’t forget the education that children here won’t get. If they move over between 11 and 18 then they won’t learn the English versions of all those words that they’d have picked up during their GCSE and A-levels. In fact, if they went to age 16 here and tried to move back to do A-levels, they would have a very restricted range of subjects that they’d be able to do. History? No chance: they’d be taught that Nelson was the enemy for instance. Geography: would they know that the Etats-Unis was America? English: no chance, naturally, as they’d have been taught English as a foreign language. In fact, apart from French, it’s doubtful if they would be able to do A-levels.

The effect is much more noticeable in younger children. Try talking to someone who was born here to English parents. Unless their parents have done something about it, chances are that you’d find it very difficult to speak to them. Such children are rarely fluent in English.

What can you do about it though?

Up to age 11 it’s fairly easy. Just get the likes of the Ladybird books and read to them and let them watch UK TV. That should keep them fairly much up with the English that they’d have spoken if they’d have remained in the UK.

Beyond that, it’s much harder. I suspect you’d need to send them to a bilingual school (note: international schools are quite different).

Anyway, something to think about. Most people don’t get as far as thinking about it so you’re way ahead already.