Cali, our youngest, alternated between an all French school in Ontario and a Spanish school in Guatemala. Her first classes in English started a couple of years before high school. When she was a toddler, I kept reminding myself to teach her to read in English. But life was busy and I never did. She learned anyway. I was warned by many an educator that her English proficiency would suffer because of this focus on other languages. My hope that things would work out was always followed by an expensive trip to Chapters, the Canadian Barnes and Noble, for English books.
In middle school we were surprised when Cali received the Valedictorian award in the French only program of the school. This surprised us because the other kids came from French National or Haitian families in which they spoke French at home to some degree or another. Not gonna lie. When Cali went up to get her award, I looked over to the mom who frequently made condescending comments to me in her heavy French accent like, “It is a pity no one in your ‘ome can ‘elp Cali with her ‘omework,” and gave ‘er a ‘uge thumbs up.
This year was her first year in high school, and she received the top Freshman award in both English and in French. Guess we didn’t mess up so badly after all. There’s a load off.
