Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Learning another languages comes with a cost
Second languages don't come for free, even (especially!) for kids. Maybe people will say that kids just absorb another language if they're immersed in it...and they do, mostly. But it has an effect on their previous language.
I've been meaning to write this up for a while. But I got a push just now because as I was putting my five year old Peter to bed, he was telling me about a movie that he watched in his Wednesday program. I asked him to tell me what the movie was called in English. Peter said "King" and then didn't know the rest. He struggled to translate it for a while, repeating the title in French, and then finally I understood what he was saying. It was called "Le roi et l'oiseau". That means "The King and the Bird".
Wait a minute - he forgot the English word for bird? Yikes, that's a little scary. He's known that since he was a baby. How could he forget it?
Pretty easily, apparently. I've noticed over the past few months that there are other basic words he's forgotten in English (for instance, pan). I haven't noticed it as much in Kenny, perhaps because he reads a lot in English (thanks to the Kindle!). But with our five year old Peter, English skills slip away much more easily.
I remember when I was Peter's age or younger, our family moved back to Austria, where my parents were from, for about half a year. I went to public school there (actually it was probably a Catholic school...my teachers was a nun). When we came back to the US and I went into first grade, I went to the speech therapist for a while because I could no longer pronounce the 'th' sound, which is not used in German. I had developed a German accent that quickly!
Also recently Peter was trying to chose between two things, and instead of doing the standard English, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", he did the childrens equivalent in French.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Madrid
During the kids October holidays, we got a cheap flight (yay Easyjet!) to Madrid. I had lived in Spain many years ago, during a semester abroad in Seville, and my Spanish is still fairly good. I feel a LOT more comfortable with Spanish than French, I realized that recently when I chatted for a while with the parent of another kid in Peter's class from Columbia. I can pretty much say whatever I want in Spanish, but in French I'm often digging for words.
Anyway. Madrid. We stayed in the center of Madrid, at the hotel Medium Cortez. It was nothing special, the breakfast buffet in particular was not that great (very inefficient layout) PLUS it cost 10 Euro. We only went there twice. Too bad because if you ask the kids what the like about traveling, a nice breakfast buffet would be very high on the list. But it was central, everything in easy walking distance (or would have been, had Peter been a more enthusiastic walker).
Instead of the breakfast buffet one day we went to a little cafe nearby. I asked for hot chocolate, and was asked if we wanted colo cao or "chocolate". Chocolate seemed more appropriate, but it turns out that was more like melted chocolate - extremely thick and rich. Colo cao is what we actually should have gotten, it's basically hot milk with the chocolate powder you mix in. I guess I never had the real "Chocolate" in Seville.
The first day we went to El Retiro park, kind of like the Central Park of Madrid. The main attraction was rowing in the little lake, the kids had a good time playing around with the oars.
Later on that evening we went to the Prado museum. We went after 6 PM, when it's free. A good thing too, because the kids not too interested in all the paintings and we zoomed through, in spite of all my efforts to make it fun. They did give out a cool map to the museum, which had all the most famous paintings and which room they were located in. And they really had some very famous paintings, lots that I recognize from school.
This grocery store reminded me of the grocery stores in Seville that I used to patronize when I studied there. I lived with three Spanish roommates in an apartment, and at that time, and in that part of town, there were no actual grocery stores. There were little dry good market close by, and then there was a big covered market with all kinds of little stalls (fruit, fish, etc.) and that was it. My share of the weekly groceries (all meals), was about 10 dollars. Here in Geneva, that would pay for about half a cheap restaurant meal.
The level of English spoken in even the touristy part of Madrid, like the Royal Palace and the Prado is very low to nonexistent. Good thing I speak Spanish. English is much less commonly used than in other parts of Europe. For instance, in Amsterdam, you could almost stop any person on the street, ask them directions, and they would cheerfully answer in decent English, plus tell you to have a wonderful visit. Loved Amsterdam.
I saw this sign on many bus stops, marketing a Chinese language course. Pretty screwy, to be marketing Chinese when English is so desperately needed!
One day we took a high-speed train to Toledo. It was nice, but with one big negative - loads of heavy traffic speeding through tiny windy streets in the old town! It was very challenging trying to keep the kids safe. In retrospect and after having done more research, we should have gone to Segovia. There, the inner city is pedestrian-only, I'm sure I would have loved it!
We didn't find any good Spanish restaurants that we liked. After a few mediocre experiences, I looked up an Indian restaurant online, and we went there our last two nights. The owner was actually Bangladeshi, had been in Madrid 10 years and was just applying for a residency card which would let him work anywhere in Europe. We talked about the economic situation a bit - he said Spanish people were very lazy, always wanted to go in discos. Our taxi driver to the airport was from Iraq. He didn't speak English well, but talked a lot about the economic situation anyway (during our stay there news reports showed that the unemployment rate had gone up from 24 to 25%). Basically, "very, very bad" - that's what he kept saying all the time.
Anyway. Madrid. We stayed in the center of Madrid, at the hotel Medium Cortez. It was nothing special, the breakfast buffet in particular was not that great (very inefficient layout) PLUS it cost 10 Euro. We only went there twice. Too bad because if you ask the kids what the like about traveling, a nice breakfast buffet would be very high on the list. But it was central, everything in easy walking distance (or would have been, had Peter been a more enthusiastic walker).
Instead of the breakfast buffet one day we went to a little cafe nearby. I asked for hot chocolate, and was asked if we wanted colo cao or "chocolate". Chocolate seemed more appropriate, but it turns out that was more like melted chocolate - extremely thick and rich. Colo cao is what we actually should have gotten, it's basically hot milk with the chocolate powder you mix in. I guess I never had the real "Chocolate" in Seville.
The first day we went to El Retiro park, kind of like the Central Park of Madrid. The main attraction was rowing in the little lake, the kids had a good time playing around with the oars.
Later on that evening we went to the Prado museum. We went after 6 PM, when it's free. A good thing too, because the kids not too interested in all the paintings and we zoomed through, in spite of all my efforts to make it fun. They did give out a cool map to the museum, which had all the most famous paintings and which room they were located in. And they really had some very famous paintings, lots that I recognize from school.
This grocery store reminded me of the grocery stores in Seville that I used to patronize when I studied there. I lived with three Spanish roommates in an apartment, and at that time, and in that part of town, there were no actual grocery stores. There were little dry good market close by, and then there was a big covered market with all kinds of little stalls (fruit, fish, etc.) and that was it. My share of the weekly groceries (all meals), was about 10 dollars. Here in Geneva, that would pay for about half a cheap restaurant meal.
The level of English spoken in even the touristy part of Madrid, like the Royal Palace and the Prado is very low to nonexistent. Good thing I speak Spanish. English is much less commonly used than in other parts of Europe. For instance, in Amsterdam, you could almost stop any person on the street, ask them directions, and they would cheerfully answer in decent English, plus tell you to have a wonderful visit. Loved Amsterdam.
I saw this sign on many bus stops, marketing a Chinese language course. Pretty screwy, to be marketing Chinese when English is so desperately needed!
One day we took a high-speed train to Toledo. It was nice, but with one big negative - loads of heavy traffic speeding through tiny windy streets in the old town! It was very challenging trying to keep the kids safe. In retrospect and after having done more research, we should have gone to Segovia. There, the inner city is pedestrian-only, I'm sure I would have loved it!
We didn't find any good Spanish restaurants that we liked. After a few mediocre experiences, I looked up an Indian restaurant online, and we went there our last two nights. The owner was actually Bangladeshi, had been in Madrid 10 years and was just applying for a residency card which would let him work anywhere in Europe. We talked about the economic situation a bit - he said Spanish people were very lazy, always wanted to go in discos. Our taxi driver to the airport was from Iraq. He didn't speak English well, but talked a lot about the economic situation anyway (during our stay there news reports showed that the unemployment rate had gone up from 24 to 25%). Basically, "very, very bad" - that's what he kept saying all the time.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Random thoughts on living in Switzerland
I had all kinds of notes about topics I wanted to blog about that weren't necessarily worthy of a full post. So, here they are!
- People commute on bikes a LOT more here than in the US, even in relatively bike-friendly Seattle. You frequently see men in suits on bikes, and just the other day I saw a women in some very high heels, on a bicycle going to work. And you'll also see them commuting to work on scooters as well. People use scooters most often if they're taking public transport, and then have a little ways to go to get from their stop to their workplace. That's what one of the HR reps in my office does. It's much easier to bring a scooter on a train rather than a bike. Also - you see very few people wearing bike helmets.
- Women in Geneva only got the right to vote in 1960! I just found this out last weekend, at the tree-climbing contest at Parc La Grange next to our apartment. They had a section of log from an old tree, and had marked significant local dates on the growth rings . And behold - in 1960 women got the right to vote in Geneva. Before coming here I had mentally placed Switzerland in with the Scandinavian countries in terms of their attitude towards women. But nope.
- Geneva has tons of graffiti, but I had read somewhere online that Zurich had solved the problem by immediately painting over the graffiti, and taking away the motivation to tag. Not so! On our trip to Zurich, we saw as much graffiti as in Geneva. In some spots I can see why they don't paint over it immediately (because the graffiti was on stonework, which would requite sandblasting). But there was lots of graffiti that could have been easily painted over.
- People commute on bikes a LOT more here than in the US, even in relatively bike-friendly Seattle. You frequently see men in suits on bikes, and just the other day I saw a women in some very high heels, on a bicycle going to work. And you'll also see them commuting to work on scooters as well. People use scooters most often if they're taking public transport, and then have a little ways to go to get from their stop to their workplace. That's what one of the HR reps in my office does. It's much easier to bring a scooter on a train rather than a bike. Also - you see very few people wearing bike helmets.
- Women in Geneva only got the right to vote in 1960! I just found this out last weekend, at the tree-climbing contest at Parc La Grange next to our apartment. They had a section of log from an old tree, and had marked significant local dates on the growth rings . And behold - in 1960 women got the right to vote in Geneva. Before coming here I had mentally placed Switzerland in with the Scandinavian countries in terms of their attitude towards women. But nope.
- Geneva has tons of graffiti, but I had read somewhere online that Zurich had solved the problem by immediately painting over the graffiti, and taking away the motivation to tag. Not so! On our trip to Zurich, we saw as much graffiti as in Geneva. In some spots I can see why they don't paint over it immediately (because the graffiti was on stonework, which would requite sandblasting). But there was lots of graffiti that could have been easily painted over.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Bye-bye summer
School begins again for Kenny and Peter this coming Monday. We're trying to gradually ratchet down their currently very late bedtimes. My theory is that the most effective way of doing this is just to wake them up earlier in the morning (possible), instead of trying to force them to sleep when they're not tired (impossible).
The beginning of the school year, or rentrée in French, is much more relaxed here. No letters from the school at all, no school supply lists, nothing, which makes me think I've missed something. But after talking to a few other parents, that's the way it is, though you may get a letter from the teacher the first few weeks of school asking you to buy a few things. But there's no monster back-to-school sales, no massive lists, nothing like that. In Peter's class last year, he needed some thin-soled slippers, kind of like ballet slippers, which they wear in a gym/dance type class, and also an art smock, and some tissues. That was it. For Kenny's class, there was nothing, though I'm inclined to think that was because the teacher was not as engaged. He's getting a new teacher this year, and I'm happy that Peter is staying with the same teacher, whom we've been very happy with. Last year she was very involved, arranged a parent potluck, and even sent Peter a personalized letter during the summer thanking him for the stuffed animal Peter gave her the last day of school.
My in-laws just left a few days ago after their visit. We really enjoyed having them here, did a lot of day trips in the area, and the boys miss them tremendously. I think our favorite trip with them was to the Signal de Bougy, a huge park area up in the hills west of Nyon with playgrounds, animals, views, picnic areas, and also an adventure rope park where the kids were roped into harnesses and were able to clamber through the trees, and then descend again via ziplines. They loved it, and next time I'm going to be up there in the trees with them!
The beginning of the school year, or rentrée in French, is much more relaxed here. No letters from the school at all, no school supply lists, nothing, which makes me think I've missed something. But after talking to a few other parents, that's the way it is, though you may get a letter from the teacher the first few weeks of school asking you to buy a few things. But there's no monster back-to-school sales, no massive lists, nothing like that. In Peter's class last year, he needed some thin-soled slippers, kind of like ballet slippers, which they wear in a gym/dance type class, and also an art smock, and some tissues. That was it. For Kenny's class, there was nothing, though I'm inclined to think that was because the teacher was not as engaged. He's getting a new teacher this year, and I'm happy that Peter is staying with the same teacher, whom we've been very happy with. Last year she was very involved, arranged a parent potluck, and even sent Peter a personalized letter during the summer thanking him for the stuffed animal Peter gave her the last day of school.
My in-laws just left a few days ago after their visit. We really enjoyed having them here, did a lot of day trips in the area, and the boys miss them tremendously. I think our favorite trip with them was to the Signal de Bougy, a huge park area up in the hills west of Nyon with playgrounds, animals, views, picnic areas, and also an adventure rope park where the kids were roped into harnesses and were able to clamber through the trees, and then descend again via ziplines. They loved it, and next time I'm going to be up there in the trees with them!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
A weekend in Gruyeres
We're just back from our trip to Gruyeres. We spent the night at a very forgettable small hotel - that's what you get when you book on Saturday morning for Saturday night, in the high season! It was a mini apartment, the previous tenant's garbage had not been removed, and for the free breakfast, there was sugar free cocoa (and this is not artificially sweetened cocoa, this is just - no sugar, just chocolate powder), with no sugar on the side - just little Splenda pills. Plus flies everywhere, but that seems to be par for the course at restaurants here. For what you pay, you'd be getting gourmet meals in the US, but here you're waving flies away all the time, and nobody blinks an eye (okay, except when the flies come buzzing around your eyes). Maybe it's because of all the cows around.
 |
| Peter, looking through one of the windows at the Gruyeres castle |
Enough complaining, it was actually a nice trip. We went to the chocolate factory, the cheese factory, the town of Gryuere and Gruyere Castle, played at a few playgrounds, did a hike through a gorge, saw a lot of cows...what else...Eric had horse meat yesterday. It was a little tough and a touch gamey, but otherwise very like beef. Cheaper, too! We were both wondering if they actually raise the horses for slaughter. Gruyere is an amazing area in terms of scenery, just beautiful and very much what you think of when you think of the Swiss alps...except not quite as high, since these are the "pre alps", instead of the actual alps. Gruyere was completely touristy, absolutely nobody there but foreign tourists and the people working in the shops. But in the gorge hike, we may have been the only foreigners, all the cars I saw seemed to have local license plates. People were very friendly - 100% of the hikers walking by greeted us.
The tour at the Cailler chocolate factory was unique. It was completely high-tech and there were no tour guides! There were some people who took our money, shepherded us to the beginning of into the main area, and told us what was going to happen, but the main part of the tour was completely automated, and a little like a Disney ride. In each room they explained a little bit of the history of chocolate, but in a very jazzy, "light and sound show" way, complete with moving props, dry ice vapor, etc. And the doors opened into the next room when the spiel in the previous room was over. And they can, of course, switch between languages - our tour was in English, but I saw on the guide's touch screen that he had all kinds of options, including French, German, and Spanish. Very fancy. Just imagine, even the profession of tour guide can be (at least partially) automated!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The kids are enjoying summer camp
As of this Monday, Peter and Kenny are going to a summer camp run by the local community center, or Maison de Quartier. They'll be going there the next 3 weeks. It's convenient, I can walk them there in about 10 minutes, and from the community center they take a bus to the camp in Jussy, about 20 minutes away. They were a little apprehensive about going there, especially Kenny. But now they both say they love it, and can't wait to go in the morning.
Every day we need to put together their kit, which includes the obvious (sun hat, towel, bathing suit), but also a plastic plate, cup, spoon, and fork for lunch. Lunch is provided, but they need to bring the dishes, and also wash the dishes by themselves. So far the lunch has been spaghetti with bread and salad, ham with rice and green beans, and today shrimp kebab with rice. And dessert has been fruit salad, cookies (but only if you can find a piece of trash to pick up), and today ice cream, in the cups that they drink water from, so they needed to finish all their water. They definitely avoid all disposables.
So far I've been quite happy with the staff. They're all very friendly, engaging with the kids, and patient with my broken French. Today one of them explained to me that Peter started crying for some reason while they were off on a little hike in the woods, and they absolutely couldn't figure out what the problem was. She was speaking to me a little too quickly, so I had to ask her to slow down, but mostly I understand things. I finally got from Peter what the problem was, hours later, after bribing him with the promise of a lollipop. It turns out that during their hike in the woods, an insect had been flying around his eyes, and he tried to brush it away and either accidentally brushed it into his eye or touched his eye with his finger.
We saw some of the staff at the park next to our apartment, they were all puffing away with cigarettes. But smoking is just so much more common here that it's not seen as the big negative it would in the US. As long as they don't puff directly onto the kids, I'm fine.
Kenny really has been enjoying some of the games that they play involving tagging, and multiple teams. Today they played a game with two teams, where each player could be either a troll, a leprechaun, or some other character he couldn't translate. It involved a lot of running, bases, tagging people out and rescuing them again, which he really likes, so he was happy. He's still not talking at all, but they say that it's apparent he understands everything. I was also told that this morning, before Peter's incident with the insect in the eye, he had started talking quite a bit. So hopefully Kenny will start too.
Kenny told me that Peter is always being told by other kids, especially the older girls, how cute he is. He doesn't seem jealous, just amused. In any case, Kenny doesn't aspire to be cute, he wants to be cool.
Wednesdays is the field trip day. This week, they went on a field trip to a really huge pool in Lausanne, with tons of slides, and also the Museum of the Hand.
EDIT:
Today was the last day of summer camp. After pick-up, I went to get Kenny for dinner and found him sobbing on his bed. It turns out he was just so sad about summer camp ending! He talked about how much fun he had there, how nice all the counselors were, how fun the games were, how much fun it was to build the cabins (they let the kids build some cabins in the woods). And today, when they had a parade to the park with a paper mache dragon, he got to walk in front of the dragon, holding an orange cardboard flame.
I guess he did start talking to people, even though at one point he wasn't talking much, because he said that many of the counselors told him how well he spoke French.
Well, I'm glad it turned out so well. And the kids are both going to the Wednesday program (there's no school on Wednesday, so you have to figure out some other kind of childcare arrangement), which is also at the Maison de Quartier. I think they'll really enjoy it.
One more note - when I pick the kids up on Fridays, the counselors were all sitting around drinking beers. This doesn't bother me, but it's something that would really not happen in the US. Or only furtively.
Every day we need to put together their kit, which includes the obvious (sun hat, towel, bathing suit), but also a plastic plate, cup, spoon, and fork for lunch. Lunch is provided, but they need to bring the dishes, and also wash the dishes by themselves. So far the lunch has been spaghetti with bread and salad, ham with rice and green beans, and today shrimp kebab with rice. And dessert has been fruit salad, cookies (but only if you can find a piece of trash to pick up), and today ice cream, in the cups that they drink water from, so they needed to finish all their water. They definitely avoid all disposables.
So far I've been quite happy with the staff. They're all very friendly, engaging with the kids, and patient with my broken French. Today one of them explained to me that Peter started crying for some reason while they were off on a little hike in the woods, and they absolutely couldn't figure out what the problem was. She was speaking to me a little too quickly, so I had to ask her to slow down, but mostly I understand things. I finally got from Peter what the problem was, hours later, after bribing him with the promise of a lollipop. It turns out that during their hike in the woods, an insect had been flying around his eyes, and he tried to brush it away and either accidentally brushed it into his eye or touched his eye with his finger.
We saw some of the staff at the park next to our apartment, they were all puffing away with cigarettes. But smoking is just so much more common here that it's not seen as the big negative it would in the US. As long as they don't puff directly onto the kids, I'm fine.
Kenny really has been enjoying some of the games that they play involving tagging, and multiple teams. Today they played a game with two teams, where each player could be either a troll, a leprechaun, or some other character he couldn't translate. It involved a lot of running, bases, tagging people out and rescuing them again, which he really likes, so he was happy. He's still not talking at all, but they say that it's apparent he understands everything. I was also told that this morning, before Peter's incident with the insect in the eye, he had started talking quite a bit. So hopefully Kenny will start too.
Kenny told me that Peter is always being told by other kids, especially the older girls, how cute he is. He doesn't seem jealous, just amused. In any case, Kenny doesn't aspire to be cute, he wants to be cool.
Wednesdays is the field trip day. This week, they went on a field trip to a really huge pool in Lausanne, with tons of slides, and also the Museum of the Hand.
EDIT:
Today was the last day of summer camp. After pick-up, I went to get Kenny for dinner and found him sobbing on his bed. It turns out he was just so sad about summer camp ending! He talked about how much fun he had there, how nice all the counselors were, how fun the games were, how much fun it was to build the cabins (they let the kids build some cabins in the woods). And today, when they had a parade to the park with a paper mache dragon, he got to walk in front of the dragon, holding an orange cardboard flame.
I guess he did start talking to people, even though at one point he wasn't talking much, because he said that many of the counselors told him how well he spoke French.
Well, I'm glad it turned out so well. And the kids are both going to the Wednesday program (there's no school on Wednesday, so you have to figure out some other kind of childcare arrangement), which is also at the Maison de Quartier. I think they'll really enjoy it.
One more note - when I pick the kids up on Fridays, the counselors were all sitting around drinking beers. This doesn't bother me, but it's something that would really not happen in the US. Or only furtively.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
New flash - green hills in the Swiss Alps mean lots of rain
We're spending the week in a campground rental cabin close to Brienz, in the Berner Oberland area of Switzerland - pretty much the heart of the alps. All good and well, and I love the space efficiency of this cute little cabin.
But...dang! We've had some miserable weather. Today's been pretty much the worst, we've had solid rain pouring down for the past 5 hours or so. The rain right now is briskly drumming down on the roof here in our cabin.
We did have a reasonably good day yesterday, Kenny and I went on a hike on the KristalWeg in the Grimsel area. It's an old mule path, and is build up with some neat old bridges, and steps cut into steep stone paths. In one area there was a path - quite a wide one, probably about 8 feet or so, but on the other side was a very steep slope down to a churning river. I grabbed Kenny's hand and didn't let go until we got to an area where a misstep wouldn't have been fatal.
But...dang! We've had some miserable weather. Today's been pretty much the worst, we've had solid rain pouring down for the past 5 hours or so. The rain right now is briskly drumming down on the roof here in our cabin.
We did have a reasonably good day yesterday, Kenny and I went on a hike on the KristalWeg in the Grimsel area. It's an old mule path, and is build up with some neat old bridges, and steps cut into steep stone paths. In one area there was a path - quite a wide one, probably about 8 feet or so, but on the other side was a very steep slope down to a churning river. I grabbed Kenny's hand and didn't let go until we got to an area where a misstep wouldn't have been fatal.
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