When OPOL Does Not Work - Exposure, Glamour Factor and Resources

When OPOL does not work, it can be difficult to find the reasons. Many people put it down to lack of exposure to the minority language, oftentimes citing a minimum requirement of 30% to 40% of exposure.

Annabelle from The Piri Piri Lexicon is a linguist. Here she takes apart the "myth" that children need at least 30% exposure to a language in order to acquire it.

Not being a linguist myself, I can only speak of our own experience. We are a quadrilingual family (see our family language diagram):

Mother - Algerian Arabic

Father - German

Mother & Father - French

Majority language outside the home - English

Our two older children (8 and 5) are exposed to English for at least 8 hours a day, between school, friends, after-school activities, TV and books. Knowing that they are roughly awake for 13 hours a day, that leaves 5 hours for the three other languages. So:
English -> 60%
Arabic, French, German -> 40%

Our "method" is OPOMLAH (One Parent One Minority Language At Home). That does not accurately describe it either as we have three minority languages, being myself in charge of transmitting two of these.

According to the 30-40% rule, there would be no way for our children to speak anything but the majority language. In particular they would have no German at all, as they only see their father two hours a day, and that's when he is not away overnight for work (15%).

Let me tell you this is far from being the case. They do speak German, and in the case of the eight-year old, can read and write it. How come?

To start with there is the week-end, which we strive to always spend together, immersed in our three home languages. We travel once  a year to Germany, and get visitors a couple of times a year, for a weekend at a time. We have loads of books and DVDs.

The main advantage we have is: we do not speak English at home.

Both BabelDad and I speak English fluently. We do code-switch, but we only speak French between us, making English the majority language OUTSIDE the home.

The second very important factor is that German is supported by books and DVDs.

Everything has got a name in German. The girls may not know the words, but they can be sure their dad does and will share it.
This is contrary to Algerian Arabic (or Moroccan Arabic) which lacks resources. Books and programmes are in an altogether different language - classical arabic. Also, the Algerian word for car is tounoubil (automobile), a truck is camioune (camion) and a phone is tilifoune (téléphone). The classical Arabic words exist (sayyara, shahina and hatif). But I would never dream to use them in my daily conversations as it would simply be odd.

Moreover, speaking a second language is usually a positive thing, yet not all languages fall into the same tier.

In most western countries, French and German are glamorous. Arabic is not glamorous.

We are fortunate to be in England, where I can feel at ease speaking my language, most of the time. Not sure I would feel the same way in other countries.

In a bilingual family, where one of the home languages is the majority language, the 30%-40% rule makes sense to me. That means that ideally, the main carer should speak the minority language.

However, the facts that:

• the majority language is also a family language
• the minority language is not supported by written and visual resources

could have precipitated the demise of Arabic acquisition in Stephanie's family. If the minority language had been French, or Spanish, or German, then the outcome might have been different.

As Annabelle points out, it is hard for parents to quantify how much exposure their children get to various languages. Even when an approximation is possible, language absorption is subject to exposure, as well as the languages' social status and availability of supporting resources.

On Good Books and Difficult Translations

"We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury is on of my favourite books for the babelkids. (I might have mentioned it before.) All three of them like it and BK3 (now 2.5yo) wants to see and hear it pretty much every night currently.

We managed to get three versions of the book: English, French and German.

Now I fully get that translating is a difficult job. Especially for a book that comes with a rythm and all.

(Btw: BK3 has seen this video a couple of times a lot and demands that I do the same routine.)

So how do the French and German version fare? Honestly: sub-par.

The French translation tries to stay close to the text. That works in a sense, because if you know the original, you can read from the French version in English, i.e. translate on the fly. I'm sorry, but the French just doesn't work.

The German version, though, is absolutely abysmal. The translation is trying to stay closer to the pattern, but it does so in a stupidly funny way that I think really doesn't do the book any justice. At all. As in: do NOT buy that.

Yes, I do understand that translating is difficult. Maybe for some really good books it just shouldn't be done at all.

Nochmal auf Deutsch, weil es wichtig ist: Die Deutsche Version ist wirklich schlecht. Lieber die Englische kaufen und ein paar Wörter lernen.

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!

Reading

In a funny coincidence, just when Fiona wrote an article about too much reading, BK1 started to read more seriously. We are seeing the exact same thing.

2 weeks ago, she was a normal 5-year-old, playing with her sister, running around a lot, dressing up, the works. And then something happened. She picked up some book and decided to read it on her own. I have no idea which one it was that started the interest.

When we went to do a bit of shopping on Sunday, she took her book and read it in the car even though she was feeling slightly sick. She then carried it around with her when we split up and while the Babelmum shopped, BK1 was sitting on the floor reading at H&M and other shops.

She is half-way into "Pippi Longstocking" currently, and she spends pretty much every second she has with her book.

I certainly remember phases like that, but a lot later in my life! I have this recollection in my head of one day when I wanted to "just read a bit before sleep" and then my father walked in to wake me up for school and I was still at it. I must have been about 15 years old, maybe older.

Also, unlike her I read German books only until I was 18 years old. And BK1 is already reading English, French and German.

Mind boggling, really.

Incy Wincy

The girls discovered the proper Arabic word for spider in a board book I offered them at Christmas. They love this book, both of them now (try to) sing the arabic alphabet. They now know the arabic words for frog, chick, rabbit, spider and cockerel.

The thing is, apart from the most familiar animals such as dog, cat, cow and sheep, I mostly use the French words for animals. So until now a chick has always been poussin and a spider has always been araignée. Now a chick is also "sous" and a spider is "ankaboot". I am chuffed that they embraced so readily these new words.

Now I should give myself a kick in the backside and start teaching BK1 some basics for reading and writing Arabic.

Oh, and the girl's favourite nursery rhyme at the moment is:
Incy Wincy Ankaboot climbed up the water spout ... BabelDad and I find their rendition absolutely hilarious!