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Parenting

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Original poster

Dutch / English bilingual demanding French language option on DVDs. OK?

10 replies

HettyAmaretti · 13/02/2011 13:20

DD is 3.2. Most of her Dutch DVDs have Dutch / French options. Well last week I wasn't paying attention and put the French version on instead of the Dutch and buggered off upstairs to change the beds.

When I came back down 15 or 20 minutes later, I found Spot chattering away in French and a perfectly happy DD

Dutch is the societal language here, DPs language too, so no lack of input. Her Dutch is good, better than her English.

DD now keeps demanding to have the French option. Is there any harm in it? Neither DP or I speak French to any standard.

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Original poster

HettyAmaretti · 13/02/2011 13:22

Sorry for the garbled thread title!

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SnapFrakkleAndPop · 13/02/2011 13:26

Why not? She's probably fascinated by yet another language and if her Dutch won't suffer there's no reason not to. She might even pick up a bit of French!

Original poster

HettyAmaretti · 13/02/2011 14:22

Mmmm. I wondered if it would undermine her languages somehow.

She's certainly fascinated and she does seem to have picked up a wee bit already.

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SnapFrakkleAndPop · 13/02/2011 14:38

I don't think, if her Dutch is well established and she's getting a lot of input, that it would do any harm to watch half an hour of a DVD in French every so often :)

If it were eating into English exposure, which seems to be the minority language, then I'd probably be a bit more sceptical because every little helps but replacing a bit of well-established Dutch with French, which she's only really acquiring in a passive way isn't going to undermine anything.

Original poster

HettyAmaretti · 13/02/2011 15:03

She gets a reasonable about of English exposure, TBH more would be better. DP works away monday to friday so theoretically it's English only 5 days a week.

But then there's 2 mornings at (dutch speaking) preschool, some TV/DVD time and any dutch friends she plays with. Oh, and she insists on speaking Dutch to DS (20 months) and to me most of the time too

Yes, English is very much the much the minority language. I'm much more bothered about it affecting her English than her Dutch.

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Original poster

HettyAmaretti · 14/02/2011 10:27

Any other opinions? Am I just being PFB to even consider worrying about this?

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exexpat · 14/02/2011 10:38

IME she'll get bored of it fairly soon and want to go back to one of the soundtracks she actually understands. I seem to remember both DS and DD going through a phase of wanting to play DVDs with the French/Spanish/Cantonese soundtrack - usually ones they had watched loads of times before so they didn't actually need to hear it again in a language they understood (they were growing up with two languages at the time, but had friends who spoke a lot more). It certainly didn't seem to do them any harm, but the phase didn't last very long.

Original poster

HettyAmaretti · 14/02/2011 10:42

Oh, that's reassuring. Thanks.

It's actually quite a new DVD but I suppose it's the novelty. I shall relax and stop worrying

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exexpat · 14/02/2011 19:43

And if you're worried that she's going to make a long-term habit, next time you get a new dvd you can tell her that it only has Dutch/English. I'm presuming that at 3 she can't read the DVD menu screens yet?

Dutchie77 · 06/04/2011 18:43

Hi Hetty! So do you and DP talk Dutch as the main language? I don't think you have to worry about it.

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