Weekly Posts

Week of May 2 - 8, 2026

The first weekly post on my website. I started the project of helping my two children acquire French in March 2026. During March, I spoke exclusively in French with them every morning (from wake up to noon). The problem with this was that my 9-year-old couldn't get much French from me because she was at school during this time. During this month, I used a lot of gestures, facial expressions, images, pointing to objects to help them understand. And I talked slowly. Luckily, it worked. Maybe because kids are already bilingual (English & Chinese), they were very comfortable with this new "rule" in the house. They understand why I decided to do this with them and they coorperated pretty well. 

To ensure that my 9-year-old gets more exposure to French, I changed my method in April. During April, I spoke exclusively in French with my kids all day but every other day (The non-French days were in Chinese, which is my native language. The purpose was to maintain their Chinese level, which was already fluent) During this month, I didn't have to do a lot of gestures, pointing to objects, or visual cues. They just understood me with me speaking French at a normal speed. Comprehensible input really helped a lot here.

Now we're in May. Both kids can understand almost everything I say in French, respond to my commands in French without hesitating, and produce simple words and phrases in French. This month, I'm going to increase French days and reduce Chinese days. So, two French days, one Chinese day, and repeat. For vocabulary and phrases that kids are already familiar with, I don't give visual clues at all. But for new vocabulary and phrases, I plan to give visual cues to help them understand.

Basically, my method is immersion. During French days, I only speak French with them, period. I encourage them to talk to me in French too. If they say something to me in English, I recast it back to them in French. When two kids talk to each other and play in English, I do my best to jump in and describe their actions or recast some phrases in French (Sometimes, this redirects them to French). When they make mistakes in French (which is totally normal), I recast it back corectly in French.

I let my kids comsume authentic French resources that are made for Francophone children, such as a podcast of France Inter, French children's songs and their "music videos" on YouTube, French children's books from the local library (some originally in French while some are translated), French cartoons and animated films (all originally French / Francophone, nothing translated).

As I mentioned early, this month we will have two French days, one Chinese day, and repeat. I hope this remains fun and not mentally tiring for both kids. And one thing I admit is that, during French days, I do look up certain words and phrases on www.wordreference.com so I know how to say them in French. It's a wonderful online dictionnary that has helped me and my kids expand our French vocab. 

Can't wait to see how the new plan will go in the upcoming week! À la prochaine ! 

Week of May 9 - 15, 2026

This week has been 2 days in French and 1 day in Chinese and repeat. Kids have no problem switching languages. The only issue is that they keep speaking English to each other. Every time when they're together, it's hard to get their attention. When they talk to me, they immediately switch to French, which is good. But I'm afraid they're not getting enough French output. When they speak English to each other, I always try to jump in and comment / recast in French. But kids say they wanna play in English (during our French immersion days and other days too). Okay... I don't want to force them to play in French. So, I let them be. I admit, this has been one of the biggest challenges so far in this process. Plus, they play in English with their dad. So, English is very dominant in the house and everywhere else.

This week I have simplified my system: 1. Listen to Doudou podcast 2. Watch and look into the dialogue of the movie "Ernest et Célestine" 3. Read French children's books that I borrowed from the library. 

The simplified process helps me stablish a minimalist routine to provide French input to kids. Plus, I speak nothing but French with them during our immersion days. New goal is to get them speak French more when they only want to play in English.

I'll keep documenting and showing my work. À la prochaine ! 

Week of May 16 - 22, 2026

Coming soon...