French class and why teaching babies multiple languages is beneficial

For the past couple of months, I have been taking a french class at the Language Exchange. The Language Exchange is right in the Old Port of Portland, ME and has classes for many different languages. They have small class sizes, are reasonably priced (especially compared to the nearby universities), and have very qualified and experienced teachers. My favorite thing about my french class is that the entire class is taught in french. If we have questions, or don't understand something then we find ways to communicate through gestures and drawings. Being completely immersed in a language like that really helps you to learn it, and I have been enjoying my class immensely.

My background in French consists of three years of french in high school and one semester of french in college. I had always wanted to learn french because my family has a french background. I picked up on it really quickly in high school and was disappointed that I couldn't take it for all four years (there was only two of us signed up for the course so they wouldn't offer it). In college, I was really looking forward to taking lots of french courses and really enjoyed the one that I took at Connecticut College. That class was also taught entirely in french and we spent a lot of time practicing having conversations and analyzing french novels and poetry. Unfortunately, biology majors have a very demanding course load, and each semester after that was jam packed with science requirements (biology majors not only have to take biology courses, I also had to take a lot of physics, math, and chemistry courses). So I didn't get to take lots of french like I wanted to. When Robbie and I lived in England for a year, we were able to take a trip to Paris together. I thought I would remember a lot from all the classes I took, but when we got there and I heard people talking I was overwhelmed. I could figure things out on maps, signs, and menus by reading french, but it took me some time before I was brave enough to try to converse with people in french. Eventually I got to the point where I would order food and ask people questions in french, which was a lot of fun for me. It made me really miss learning the language though.

Robbie in front of Notre Dame

Me in front of l'arc de triomphe

Me in front of one of Monet's original waterlily painting in Musee de l'Orangerie

Robbie and I in front of the Eiffel Tower after going to the top

Now that Robbie and I are having a baby, I really want to get him a good head start at learning more than one language. Since I know some french and that is my heritage (Robbie also has some French-Canadian blood), and since Robbie doesn't know any language besides English, we decided that we will try to teach him French. I am not nearly close to being fluent however, so I knew I needed to start practicing and boost up my confidence if I was going to feel comfortable even attempting to speak french to my baby. So that's why I started taking a french class at the language exchange. I have my final class next Monday, and though I still have lots and lots to learn, I feel much more confident in my pronunciation skills, I have a great book to use as a resource to continue my studies, and I have had lots of advice on how to continue to immerse myself in the french language so I can eventually become fluent. One of the neat things about taking this french class towards the end of my pregnancy is that Mattimeo is also being exposed to hearing lots of french. At this point of his development, he can hear from inside my womb and recognize different songs and speech patterns. Once he is born, I plan on reading French books to him and attempt to use french when I talk to him. Fortunately, his vocabulary is even more limited than mine so it won't matter that I can't speak in depth about any one topic. Also, I am hoping to start teaching Robbie some french. Not only will this help me to learn and practice, it will expose Mattimeo to more french as well.

Teaching babies more than one language is a really great thing. I asked Robbie to come up with a short list of reasons why, since he has been reading a lot of baby development books lately. Here are some of the reasons why teaching a baby to be bilingual is beneficial to them:

• In her book Raising Bilingual Children (Mars Publishing, 2003), Carey Myles says "Bilingualism has been linked to a variety of positive cognitive benefits, including early reading, improved problem-solving skills, and higher scores on the SATs, including the math section." Myles also claims that bilingual children have been shown to demonstrate "better listening perception" and that they "recognize earlier than monolingual children do that language is symbolic… and…are more skilled at interpreting and manipulating grammar to communicate clearly."

• The baby's brain is actually "primed" to learn language. Babies are born with billions of brain cells, including millions that will control language. During the first years of life, the brain cells connect with other cells to form complex pathways. When babies hear their native language spoken, the language connections become stronger.

• Most of the brain's language connections are well-established by about age 10. After age 10, learning a new language is harder because your brain is "wired" for the language you learned first.

• Newborn babies are equipped to hear the sounds of many different languages, not just the language their parents speak. Three-month-olds can distinguish several hundred sounds, many more than are present in any native language. But as the baby hears people speak a certain language, the brain strengthens connections for that language. The connections for other languages become weaker and may eventually wither. When we try to learn a foreign language as adults, we must fit the new sounds into the language connections already in our brain, but we can't learn the new sounds of the language like we could in childhood.