Cute true story about language issues

I was getting bored with the beige colored background of my blog, so I decided to give my blog a little facelift! Also, the month of May is over...so I figured it was time to move on from the tulips (which I put on to represent my Dutch heritage, and our impending move to Gatineau-Ottawa!)

I have only a couple more days left of correcting, and then we leave for Gatineau! I can't wait to get settled into our new house. I'm looking forward to starting our new life over there. It's great to be in Montreal, I'm really enjoying it. Other than the cold, rainy weather we had last week, that is. It's great to spend some time with my brother, his wife and my two nieces! My little niece K is going for her yellow belt in karate on Saturday morning...I'm so excited for her! We're going to go and watch. I also got the chance to see a couple of my close friends (whom I hadn't seen in a long time! One of them had a baby in the meantime, and I finally got to see him!) It was really nice to get a chance to catch up. I'm looking forward to living closer by and being able to see them all more often. Still, although it's been great being in Montreal, I really miss Raph a lot! Being apart for so long is not easy on either of us! It's hard only seeing each other on weekends. Usually, we have so much to do, to organise and to prepare for both the move and for work that even during the weekends, we haven't really had any time to spend together the last few months. We talk on the phone two or three times a day, but it's just not the same. I can't wait for us to be together in our new house! He has three weeks of vacation this summer...I think that will be good for both us :0)

As for the adoption, not much news! I continue to reflect on the language issue... We were invited to a BBQ last Saturday by some old family friends of ours. Interestingly enough, this BBQ was held at our old house where we used to live when I was six or seven, in the neighbourhood where I grew up. Our friends bought the house from my parents many years ago. It was kind of strange being there with my brother. It brought back a lot of memories for both of us. We lived there for about three or four years. It was fun to see our old house...it hasn't changed all that much! Well, okay...my old bedroom is now a black dining room...but other than that, it hasn't changed much at all!

Raphael and I at the BBQ at my old house

Anyway, I digress...I do have a point! I'm getting to it! See, our family friend, D, asked me if I remembered how we first met. I told her no, I thought that she was a friend of my brother or my sister from high school. Apparently, the first person she met from my family was actually me! She was babysitting these two kids one afternoon, and all of a sudden, this little blond five year old girl just wanders in the front door and starts playing with the dolls and the toys! D went over to talk to this little girl, to explain to her that she can't just walk in like that, and to try to find out where she lives. However, the little girl was babbling in another language, so they couldn't understand each other! D was getting worried, so she walked outside with her to try and find her parents. Sure enough, a tall blond teenager was riding her bicycle down the street, looking for Amber! So, that's how she met my family...

It's interesting to me to hear this story...I'm actually a pretty quiet, shy, conservative, introverted person. This bold, fearless, adventurous, out-going little five year old that D describes doesn't resemble the adult me at all!! I kind of wish it did, though! Where did that Amber go? What happened along the way? This story reminds me that I actually didn't know any English or French when we first moved here. I was five years old, and spoke only Dutch. I managed to learn to speak French and English quite fluently, and I think that I will be able to pass this on to our child as well. Children are sponges and learn very quickly. I learned French in Kindergarten, by playing with the other kids. I learned English a couple of years later, and it was even easier for me to learn. Now it has become my dominant language. It's much more difficult to learn a language as a teenager, or as an adult!! Perhaps the younger we start teaching our child languages, the better. On the other hand, another school of thought states that if you teach too many languages at once, at too young an age, that person will likely never really fully master any one language. They'll be able to get by in three languages, without really mastering the intricacies of the grammar and the complex vocabulary of any one particular language. I know this to be true, I am living proof that there is something to be said about this theory! I still think we will try the bilingual approach, where Raph speaks in French with our child, and I in English. We'll see how it goes. And if we see that it doesn't work, we can always make adjustments as we go along! Nothing is set in stone :0)