Introducing the family

How did this little Franco-American family come about? Well, I was literally swept off my feet by my husband when we were the only unregistered singles that showed up for swing dance lessons. There was a huge crowd of people who had just shown up unexpectedly on the first day of class and the teachers herded us into another room to try to figure out a way to cope. They asked all the singles to raise their hands and we were the only two, so they put us together as partners. We clicked from the beginning, and now we're married and living in France with our bilingual toddler.

My husband is the outgoing one and picks up languages quickly. He lived in the US for 6 years, and during that time we established English as the language we communicate in. After we moved, we tried to switch to French but invariably kept switching back to English. As long as we're concentrating we can manage in French, but English is what comes most naturally. It makes sense to me to keep it as our home language since his English is still much better than my French, and it does provide more opportunities for our daughter to hear English spoken in the home.

I'm definitely more introverted than he is, but I've always loved foreign languages and been fascinated with the idea of living in another country as long as I can remember. I studied French for 4 years in college but after living in Japan, it was practically nonexistent when I met him. I really struggled to put a sentence together at first, and I won't mention what a disaster it was when I first met his family. While my French has definitely improved, there are still times when I have to really concentrate to express myself and there are plenty of nuances that are lost. Reading comprehension has always been my strongest point and listening comprehension has obviously skyrocketed, but there's always room for improvement.

Some of the key factors in deciding to relocate to France were related to bilingualism. We felt that with my background in teaching ESOL to kids, we were more obviously more likely to succeed if we lived in France and I could stay home with the kids for the first few years to get them settled in English. I already had all the resources, and it just made more sense. And heaven knows I needed to boost my French and it wasn't going to happen in the US.

So that's us in a nutshell! In the next post I'll introduce our daughter, Stinkerbella.