Foreign Perspectives

If you’re moving to France with kids, you probably think that, naturally, they’ll grow up to be bilingual.

Think again. If your kids are broadly between 7 and 17 when you get here, then their current level of English is the highest that it will ever be. Surely not? Well, think about it: if you move to an area without wall to wall brits, then their friends are going to be French and once they start going out with their friends around 10-ish then it will be their French that gets better and better, not their English. If you send them to a French school, it will be the French names for countries that they learn in geography, the French names for chemicals in chemistry, etc.

In fact, it’s worse than that might appear to be. We have friends who arrived here about 5 years ago and are now finding that it’s starting to become difficult to speak to their ten year old daughter. The two sisters always chat to each other in French and so begins their loss of English. I’ve seen what happens in such cases years down the line in that we met Christopher who was similarily born in France to English parents but whilst able to speak French fluently, wasn’t fluent in English and we found it almost impossible to communicate with him in English as it had so many gaps in it. In fact, he had more key gaps in his English than many a foreigner learning English has. All the little phrases that tie things together are specifically taught to foreigners, but he never learnt those.

So what can you do? Well, where Christopher’s parents lost out was that they didn’t make a point of developing his English language abilities. When he was born there was no satellite TV, no Amazon, few British shops, and no discount airlines. These days, you can create a little bit of “home” in the midst of France by letting your kids watch the TV as though they were still in the UK (one of the worst things you can do is to let them watch French TV). As indeed should you for otherwise you’ll find yourself becoming more and more of a foreigner when you return “home” or talk to friends & relatives that you left behind. You need to buy the English childrens’ story books and teach them the nursery rhymes that they won’t learn in a French school. Take them back “home” on holiday too. It’s not just English that you need to teach them but British culture too.

But go further than that: as they begin school, use the Wednesday afternoons to bring their English reading and writing up to speed when they’re young. Later on, you’ll need to consider a bilingual or international school or perhaps boarding school in the UK.

Yes, it sounds like a lot of hard work. It is. But unless you want to lose the ability to communicate with your kids, it’s work that you need to do.