too long away from minority language?

[sismith42]

Another thread has gotten me a bit worried about my upcoming visit home :-(

I'm American, DH is French, we live in Scotland, and are doing OPOL mostly. I'll speak a bit of French to our DD and he'll sing the odd English song or read an occasional English book We speak English between ourselves because I don't speak French well enough for him to cope, and the childminder speaks English mostly. Obviously.

In Jan, DD and I are visiting home for 2 weeks, and I didn't even THINK about the impact this my have on her French! (DH can't come, due to a combination of not enough money and not enough annual leave :( ) She already has a strong preference for English (most of her babble is in English with the odd French word or phrase thrown in, and she'll reply to DH in English)... does anyone have any advice or suggestions for how to make sure her French stays current? or maybe this question really belongs in AIBU

Go to France next.

I really wouldn't worry about the longterm effect of two weeks. I used to spend 6 weeks every summer away from dh and any other English speakers and when we got back the childminder used to comment on how their English had come on. Which was weird because we hadn't spoken a word of English for the duration. But their minds had expanded with all the new influences and that had a positive effect on their overall language skills.

Anyway, if you do experience a blip, just treat it as a blip and move on from there. Language learning, like any other stage of child development is not a smooth even curve; it moves in fits and starts.