Mulitlingual Phrase of the Day - Part I

Lilia made us laugh today during tea when she said:

"Ich got meine robe getachet"

("I stained my dress")

That's only three languages ("Ich" and "meine" are German for "I" and "my", "got" is obviously English, and "robe" and "tacher" are French for "dress" and "stained") but still very funny, and the French "tacher" is nicely and correctly (!) conjugated the German way.

You've got to love it.

What is my mother tongue(s)?

The girls and I are back from our trip: one week in France and 4 weeks in Algeria.
Our Algerian stay has had a notable impact on BK's Arabic and French grammars. She can now make distinct sentence constructions in either language, without mixing the two.

In French, she is confused with auxiliaries être and avoir. She would say "Tu suis fatiguée" instead of "tu es fatiguée".
Her colloquial Arabic is good though, because she can mix as much French as she wishes and that is all right. She has a better use of prepositions (with, under, over ...) and verb tenses. Most of the time, she is using the right verb endings for 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons.

I sometimes wish I had not mixed the two languages, or at least spoke only one to her (probably Arabic). I realise I do not have the choice though.

Colloquial Algerian Arabic is my mother tongue. It contains many Algerianised French words. Examples: tounoubil (a) = automobile (f), tabla (a) = table (f), krazit (a) = j'ai écrasé (f), journan (a) = journal (f) ... In addition to the modified French words, lots of intact French words can also be used interchangeably with the Arabic ones, especially technical terms such as moteur, ordinateur...

Also, much as I don't like to admit it, French is probably also my mother tongue. Both languages are part of who I am. And naturally, I am transmitting this somewhat complex aspect of my personality to my children. I am just hoping it does not confuse them. BK has been doing pretty well until now.

Use Skype to boost language skills

Lilia used to have language skills that changed with the season: in late summer, after 4 weeks in Algeria, her Arabic would be really good, but because I normally wouldn't come, her German would go down. Around Christmas, after a visit to Hamburg, her German would be great but Arabic would slowly fade.

We have now found the solution to this and it is called skype.

Lilia is now talking with her grandparents at least once a day, and while she was staying in Algeria, I spoke with her twice a day. She can now perfect one language while sustaining the other.

It doesn't have to be skype, of course. Any VOIP solution will do. The point is: being able to communicate across the world for free enables her to practice all her languages wherever she is.

You've got to love the Internet.