LITTLE PIM BLOG
The Little Prince: Growing Roots
Chapter 18 of The Little Prince is as rich with meaning as chapters one and three. My blog series featuring the iconic French children's book has allowed me to explore the text with new eyes. The passage below describes a melancholy exchange between the Little Prince and a flower. The Little Prince, always full of questions, wants to know where all the people are. The flower's answer is simple: "The wind blows them away. They have no roots...".
In 2007 the U.S. census reported that the average American will move 11.7 times in their lifetime. To most a passport full of colorful stamps is a most coveted possession. My children have both visited France with me and I look forward to more trips in the future.
Would the flower in The Little Prince look down on us? I think not. The roots that come to mind when the flower speaks are those of personal conviction. One's truth. What are your values? What do you stand for? What truths do you hold dear? Those are our roots.
Thomas Kempis, a medival monk, once said, "Wherever you go, you will always bear yourself about with you, and so you will always find yourself." Travel the world, learn languages, eat exotic foods but remember to do deeply rooted in who you are.
Le Petit Prince: Chapter 18 (en Français)
Le petit prince traversa le désert et ne rencontra qu'une fleur. Une fleur à trois pétales, une fleur de rien du tout...
"Bonjour," dit le petit prince.
"Bonjour" dit la fleur.
"Où sont les hommes ?" demanda poliment le petit prince.
La fleur, un jour, avait vu passer une caravane:
"Les hommes ? Il en existe, je crois, six ou sept. Je les ai aperçus il y a des années. Mais on ne sait jamais où les trouver. Le vent les promène. Ils manquent de racines, ça les gêne beaucoup."
"Adieu, fit le petit prince."
"Adieu, dit la fleur."
The Little Prince: Chapter 18 (in English)
The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower. It was a flower with three petals, a flower of no account at all.
"Good morning," said the little prince.
"Good morning," said the flower.
"Where are the men?" the little prince asked, politely.
The flower had once seen a caravan passing.
"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult."
"Goodbye," said the little prince.
"Goodbye," said the flower.
L'âne a diné: Watching My Son Learn French
Yesterday Emmett read his first sentence in French. It was “l’âne a diné.” Ok so “the donkey ate dinner” may not mean much to you, but it was a huge moment for me. I was proud and excited that he’s reading in a second language and reminded how important is to keep the teaching fun (he picked that sentence to read because it was silly!). This was part of Emmett’s French homework, which we do together every Sunday night before he has French class after school on Mondays.
If you have followed my blog, you know that it hasn’t always been easy to keep Emmett’s interest in French. I created Little Pim for him when he was a baby and we had a few good years of learning the words in the DVDs, naming animals and numbers, referring to apples as “les pommes” and singing French songs. Then around age four, Emmett, like so many kids of parents who speak a second language to them, started seriously objecting when I spoke French (as in, “don’t speak French!! “ and covering his ears) and it’s been pretty much an uphill battle ever since (he’s now six). So that I could let Emmett continue what struck me as an otherwise healthy separation/differentiation from his mom (rejecting what he saw as “my language”) but not letting his French slide, I brought in a wonderful kids’ French tutor (he loves her! saved!) and the French continued, despite occasional assertions that he’d rather play more soccer, see his friends or do just about anything else (I was unphased…Tiger Mom, move over).
In case you have a child who is not always 100% grateful for the foreign language gift you are giving them, you may share my moment of relief when I heard “l’âne a diné.” It was like suddenly years of reading him French books, playing French DVDs and insisting he continue French, just paid off. He can read in French! He has a good accent! He was actually pretty pleased with himself. This sentence means Emmett is just small steps away from accessing the French language, culture, films, music and so many other delights I wanted him to be able to experience as a dual speaker. So if your children are in one of the phases of “I don’t want to learn French/Spanish/Chinese/German…”, don’t give up! Your donkey will come.
This summer we are going to France as a family. I can’t wait to hear Emmett read the signs at the airport. Then, on to Proust.
Learning French & Spanish: Our Trilingual Adventure with SpanglishBaby
Roxana of SpanglishBaby.com has posted her second Video Blog (Vlog) about language learning with Little Pim. If you’re new to this Vlog series, Roxana is using Little Pim to introduce French to her daughter Vanessa, four years old, who is already bilingual in Spanish and English. Roxana has been doing Skype interviews with me to get tips on making it fun for her daughter to learn French and learning about resources for her to use as a parent who is not fluent in the language her daughter is learning. This week she talks about some of the hurdles she is facing in trying to incorporate French into their daily routine. It's not as easy as she thought it would be! At the end of the video Roxana’s daughter and I sign a French song together so be sure to watch the whole video. Vanessa est adorable!
Read the blog here: http://www.spanglishbaby.com/2010/10/our-trilingual-adventures-with-little-pim-media/
Contest: How Do You Say "Halloween"?
Halloween is right around the corner & we're in a spooky mood! How about you? What will you be dressing up as this year? We'd love to see what your little ones in their Halloween costumes.
For this week's contest, either post a photo of your child in a Halloween costume (from this year or previous years) on our Facebook wall or email it to info@littlepim.com.
One person will win either Spanish Bop or French Bop! Both CDs feature three original songs by the popular children's band, Milkshake.
Below are a few Spanish and French Halloween vocabulary words to get you in the spirit of the season!
Spanish
- una arana - spider
- aterrador - scary
- una bruja - witch
- una calabaza - pumpkin
- caramelos - candy
French
- un chat noir - black cat
- une chauve-souris - bat
- une citrouille - pumpkin
- une araignée - spider
- un balai - broom
- des bonbons - candy
*photo from coolhalloweencostumesforkids.net
Penny is a French speaking polar bear
One of my son Emmett's favorite stuffed animals is a polar bear puppet we named Penny the Polar Bear. Penny, as she likes to be called, is one of my favorites too because she speaks French. I often put her on and talk to Emmett in French in a high "Penny" voice. He always plays along and answers her. So this morning we had a conversation that went something like this "Bonjour Emmett! Comment ca va?" (hello Emmett! How are you?"). Emmett said "très bien" (very good). Then he whispered to me so Penny couldn't hear, "How do you say the sun is coming up?" I reminded him he knows how to say sun ("le soleil") and then I taught him "le soleil se lève." Emmett repeated this phrase back to Penny perfectly. Penny got so excited about the sun coming up that she did a little happy dance and gave him a kiss on the nose.
"Une Pomme" Means Apple
Emmett has certain words he always remembers in French that he loves to say. One of them is "une pomme." Whenever we find one he points it out and says excitedly "une pomme!" When he is having trouble remembering new words in French I point to an apple and say what is this in French? He always brightens right up. "Une pomme!" he says proudly. Or sometimes it’s more of a "duh mom, une pomme, of course!" This helps keep learning fun for Emmett, and it's also a key piece of the Pimsleur Method. My father's method included many instances of recall affirmation - he'd' teach you a complex phrase and right after ask if you know how to say "How are you?" Or something easy like that. "Of course I do," you think and answer with ease. That little surge of confidence enhances your ability to remember the more complex phrases being taught.
Find your own "une pomme" with your kids and remember that affirmation and repetition are key to a child's learning a new language. And keep it fun!
(Click on Little Pim above for our Word of the Day Coloring Pages, another way to make language learning fun and interactive!)
Angelina Jolie Uses Little Pim!
On Thanksgiving morning I woke up to an email from my mother-in-law that said "My friend Elaine just read in a gossip magazine that Angelina Jolie is using Little Pim!" Quoi? I confirmed with my husband that his family didn't have some quirky Thanksgiving tradition of fooling the kids... and since they don't... I did a Google search on Angelina, on Brangelina on everything to do with them and their kids, but no mention of Little Pim.
Fast forward to me at the news stand on Broadway, madly leafing through every gossip magazine available - under the scowling gaze of the seller. I found it! There in Us Weekly's "Heide and Spencer Elope" issue was a picture of Angelina Jolie holding Shiloh with the caption
"Angelina Jolie uses Little Pim to teach Shiloh Jolie-Pitt French."
And the Little Pim web address. C'est magnifique.
I have to admit I'm not an avid reader of gossip rags -- I didn't even know who Heide and Spencer were (and still sort of don't) -- but as an entrepreneur, having a celebrity like Angelina Jolie endorse Little Pim was quite a thrill. I have great admiration for her as a mother, a professional and someone dedicated to teaching her kids her mother's native tongue. For a moment, my mind drifted to visions of vacationing with Brangelina and their brood in the South of France. You know, now that I am their language advisor and all. Would they want to stay at the Negresco in Nice or the Eden in Cap d'Antibes? Would we vous-voi or tu-toi each other?
But mostly I am excited that moms getting manicures and haircuts across America could be reading about Little Pim right now.
Ms. Laurence's French Class
Yesterday I went to visit my new friend Ilana Laurence (aka "Ms. Laurence" to her elementary school students) at the Grace Church School where she teaches French. I was struck by how lucky the kids are who have her as a teacher - she is not only delightful and smart, she has also integrated new technologies into her classroom in a way that makes language learning easier, more fun, and more connected to the kids' lives. In addition to her blog where she posts songs and video clips (she films her students in class with her Flip), she uses a SmartBoard in her classroom, which is kind of like a big iPhone touch screen projected on the wall. This allows her to grab images off the Internet to illustrate words they are learning (the day i visited I saw a train station in Paris) and her students can come up to the screen and match the on screen words with the images by dragging them with their finger. I can tell you nothing that cool ever happened in my French class! First of all, I didn't even have French until seventh grade and my French teachers all seemed to be out of central casting and varied from cranky to mean. One threw chalk at us regularly. Though some of you were probably luckier, I suspect many of you had language teachers who were more like mine than like Ms. Laurence. I hope my sons will be able to learn from a Ms. Laurence one day, and I truly hope there are hundreds of other like her, a new generation of teachers making foreign language learning fun and relevant for today's global kids.
Alouette
Emmett loves to sing Alouette, the popular French nursery song. “Alouette, gentille alouette, alouette, je te plumerai…” (http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/alouette.htm ). It’s a great song for teaching parts of the body because you point to different parts of your face, head and body throughout the song. Now Emmett has been singing it to his little brother, Adrian, almost eight months old. Adrian just laughs and laughs! I beam and beam to see my little boy passing on our French traditions.
"I speak French and Korean."
Emmett is really proud that he speaks French. He will tell anyone who asks, “I speak French and my mom speaks French but my dad doesn’t.” Speaking French is probably the only thing our four year old can do that his dad can’t -- and he is milking it for all its Oedipal worth! Emmett also took a Tai Kwon Do martial arts class for a few months last year and they taught him to count in Korean. He still likes to do the push ups, yelling out the push up numbers in Korean. When people ask if he speaks French he says “Yes, and Korean!” Even though that is a bit of a stretch, I love that he is excited and proud about his language skills.
