Hear the Northerners!

We are at the breakfast table, going through BK1's spelling list.
BK1 brings a weekly list of 10 words to learn. The teacher then tests the children on how well they can spell their words.

I personally think this exercise has limited benefit, to say the least. Reading and writing are the most valuable tools to familiarise oneself with word patterns and rhythms, thus leading to good knowledge of how words are spelt.
But we play along.

This week, the list consists of words with "ea". Babeldad is saying the words, and BK1 is spelling them.
BabelDad:  "Unheard"
BK1, correcting him: "Unheard!"
BK2, corroborating: "Unheard!!"

Listen to them say it, and guess who is from oop North :)

Family Language Diagram - November 2012

Our family language diagram has changed, mainly because BK3 is now clearly speaking.

BK1 is still speaking all her 4 languages. English is definitely her mother tongue and I don't expect that to change unless we move to a different country at some point. She is pretty flexible and switches between her languages effortlessly. Her German is ok and understandable, but she hasn't seen the German part of the family for some time so she's rusty. Our Christmas trip will likely change that to some extent.

BK2 also speaks all her 4 languages, and English is even more clearly her mother tongue. She defaults to English, though, which BK1 does not do that much. Her level of German is almost on a par with BK1, not quite.

BK3 turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. She is clearly speaking with us, and she is definitely making a difference between languages. She uses different words for things depending on whether she speaks with me or the Babelwife. I reckon she has understood that we speak differently. I am not sure what she thinks of BK1 & BK2 and their way of speaking.

BK3 also has a tendency to use English when she's playing with BK1 or BK2, just like BK2 did when she started to speak. And the first time I heard her use a proper sentence it was in English ("put that down!" to one of her sisters).

So there we are, all going fine.

Am I Muslim?

This post has been sitting in the drafts folder for over a month. I often find it tricky to discuss religion, ethnicity and cultural norms.
Here it is now, released in the wild.

Yesterday, the girls' school celebrated Eid. All children were to come in their Eid clothes or special clothes. The girls made Eid cards at school, and designed henna patterns.
How open-minded is that? I think it was a really cool idea. It was lovely for the girls to see their special feast recognised and celebrated outside our home.

The school itself is pretty ethnically-diverse, with possibly a fifth of its pupils descending from an ethnic minority. I wonder, do my daughters fall into this statistic? No simple answer to this question...

At the dinner table, the following conversation ensued - (BabelDad was still out at work):
BK2: "Zareen and Aliyah are muslim. I am not muslim."
BK1, emphatically: "Yes you are!"
BK2: "No, I am not Muslim, like Olivia"
BK1: "Yes you are!"
BK2: "No, I am not"
Me: "Why do you think you are not Muslim?"
BK2: "Because Muslims pray (joins her hands up), and go to the mosque"
Me, mulling this over: "Some Muslims do and some don't. I don't. Papy (my dad) prays and goes to the mosque."
BK1: "See, you are Muslim"
BK2: "Ok, I am Muslim"

BK1 and BK2 undoubtedly notice the differences between our family and those of the Muslim kids in their school. Most of their Muslim little friends are of pakistani origin.
I personally do not feel closer to the Pakistani culture than I do to the British one. Weirdly, I have to admit I probably relate more easily to the latter. After all, I've been living in Europe for the last fourteen years, twelve of which I've been sharing with a European bloke.

Wow! This multilingual/multicultural family affair brings up quite a lot of questions and (self-)questionings...

Food Terminology

If you are new to the UK, be prepared to be confused at mealtimes. Lunch, dinner, tea, supper, luncheon, which one is when?

Algeria and France

In Algeria, the main three meals are called qahwa (coffee, whether you drink it or not), ftour (for midday meal, which also designates the evening meal to break Ramadan fast!), 'acha (the evening meal, similar to the word desingating the evening prayer).

In France, they are petit déjeuner, déjeuner and dîner.

In both Algeria and France, the midday meal is the most substantial one. When I lived in France, we used to have a two-hour midday break, encompassing a two or three course meal at a restaurant, plus coffee once back at work.
The customary Friday couscous in Algeria is infallibly served at midday, just before the Friday prayer.

Germany

When I first visited BabelDad's family in Germany, I literally starved during the day. I had to sneak out for a pretend walk in the fresh air at 2pm, only to ravenously gulp down a Döner Kebab. The main meal of the day in Germany, you guessed it, is the evening one. I made up for the lack of sustenance during the day by eating huge amounts of bread and cheese at frühstück, and loads of cake in the afternoon.

Northern England

In the UK, mealtimes can get a bit confusing. Be careful when you make an appointment with a plumber at dinner time, or tea time. If you are from a southern background like mine, you would naturally think dinner time is about 8pm and tea time about 4pm. Well, you would be surprised by the plumber turning up unexpectedly at noon or 6pm instead. Dinner in these necks of the wood is the midday meal. Tea is the evening meal, which in the UK is quite early at 5.30pm to 6pm.

So what's supper? Apparently, it is another evening meal, a couple of hours later than tea, for posh people (...), or for parents who have put their children to bed and now can enjoy a child-free meal. Note: we do have family meals in our house, at 6pm, but boy do I understand those parents who forego tea with children for a quiet supper!

And if you are wondering what the English call the drink tea time, there isn't a name, because you can enjoy a cuppa any time of the day. Off to have mine in my £10 porcelain mug. Because drinking tea for me has become one of the most frequent and enjoyable activities of the day.

BombFire night

Every Autumn, the English celebrate Bonfire night, or as my four-year old girl appropriately calls it, BombFire night.
Fireworks can be seen and heard all over, from the end of October, culminating in huge bonfires and firework displays on the 5th of November: Guy Fawkes Night.

Incidentally, our third daughter was born on the 5th of November. So for the last two years, we have been celebrating her birthday with fireworks in the garden. How cool is this?

I choose to believe that the whole of England celebrates my daughter's birthday, rather than an obscure failed coup some 400 years ago!

So happy birthday to my bonfire child!

Multilingual Toddler

BK1 woke up crying at 4 am, complaining of an earache. It turns out her nose was so congested that it hurt her ear!
While I was tending to BK1 in the room she shares with BK2, I heard BK3 in our bedroom leaving her own bed and climbing into ours.
BabelDad: "Meine Süße"
BK3: "Du schlaf. Mama."

BK3 was 2 yesterday. She is officially a multilingual toddler :)

Paris

We spent our half term holidays in Paris, with my sister. her husband, her two children and my visiting parents. We had a great time with my family.

Ages ago, I lived in Paris for 8 months. I fled what I considered its dreary weather for sunny south of France.
Eight years and a half later in the North of England, and I now think Parisian weather is lovely...

Our week in Paris offered the girls a double immersion in Arabic and French. BK1 is increasingly confident while reading French books.
We also stocked up on French resources. I went to a brocante, and got loads of books and dvd's in French for a mere 40 euros.

I am glad we managed to fulfill BK1's wish to climb the Eiffel Tower. Paris, on a windy and sunny day, fabulous!