The problem with dialect.

[ajnabieh]

My son, as a student in the public school system in Ontario, receives daily lessons in French (20 minutes a day in kindergarten, which will become 40 minutes a day from first through sixth grade). French is one of his favorite parts of the day, and he'll frequently say "do you know how to say [word] in French? It's [mot]!" or, say, start counting objects in French. I think this is brilliant, obviously; Ottawa's bilingualism is one of the things I love best about it.

The other day, he said to me, "Mommy, do you know how to say 'see you tomorrow' in French? It's ademay!"

It took a second for me to work out what he said, but I replied cheerfuly, "Yes, it is, à demain! Did you learn that in French class?"

"Mommy, no," he said. "It's ah-deh-may."*

Because he's learning Canadian French, and my French (which people tell me sounds very good) is French French, so he corrects me because I don't sound right.

Which, from his point of view, I don't.

This is going to be a very long process of linguistic acculuration, I think...


*I cannot for the life of me figure out how to render these two words differently so as to communicate the difference. I think the French vowel is quite short and nasalized, while the Canadian final vowel is equally nasal but much rounder and longer? French ah-deh-ma' vs Canadian ah-deh-may-ng? Why can I not properly remember IPA?)

Comments

[jae]

Just wait until he starts correcting your English (because he's speaking Canadian English by that point and you're not yet) *g*.

-J

[ajnabieh]

I'm waiting for the first 'eh.' ;)

[kass]

This is adorable. :-)

[ajnabieh]

He also came home one day responding to the question "How was school today" with "Comme ci, comme ça." <3

[liseuse]

Awwww! This is great!

(I have problems with French where the French I learned in school is very French French and then the French I commonly speak is really dialect heavy French from the region my dad lives in and the French I am best at reading is C16/17. It all gets muddled and I sound ridiculous to native French speakers.)

[ajnabieh]

TOO MANY FRENCH. ;)

[quabazaa]

Haha that's adorable :) I think the Canadian French accent is really cute too, so I can just imagine how sweet this is.