It has been a few months now since I started to research the best ways to approach bilingualism in an infant; in the context of learning two languages at the same time, or maybe one after the other. I was hoping to try and work out which method would be the most effective. This particular question still seems to be a matter of opinion between psycholinguists so I did not find my definitive answer. I have however, decided which route we will take. I say 'I' have decided as if it were only my decision, which it isn't of course; it is 'our' decision. Daws has simply left me to do the thinking around language learning for the baby as it is I who studied languages and linguistics and it is I who will be speaking the non-mother tongue with him or her.

All this research has more than re emphasised the desire I had of speaking and living two languages around the baby when he or she arrives. It is more than a desire really as the child will be schooled and will live in France but will have most of their family ties with non French speaking Anglophones back in the UK. In order to function in these two different areas of life he or she will need to speak and write two languages or will lose something of one or both of the cultures.

If I am honest I did have a 'leaning' towards English becoming the main language for the baby for obvious reasons. It is spoken by one quarter of the world's population after all. This is because I had always been of the opinion that everyone has only one mother tongue, i.e., the language they are the strongest in and then can have fluency in other languages but maybe at a different level.

I am currently reading a fascinating book 'Raising a Bilingual Child' (Zurer Pearson) and it has opened my mind to the possibilities and the incredible capabilities and capacities of an infant's brain. It describes a method of a child becoming bilingual with an equal influence of two languages at the same time. That is, speaking and knowing them both equally, or having two mother tongues. It is all dependant on at what point the languages are introduced and the amount of focus given to the languages being experienced. This is the route we have decided to take. I will only speak French and Daws will only speak English to the baby. We will speak English between ourselves so the baby will see that I can switch between the two as he or she will too, one day. When he or she starts school and thus has much more natural French language input in their life, I will revert to mainly speaking English at home in order to keep up the immersion in the English language. That is the basic idea.

Daws has taken a week off work this week and we (well, he) have managed to empty 'la remise' of all the rubbish that had accumulated while renovating the rest of the house. I counted 15 trips to 'la déchetterie' and then gave up counting...... The room now looks so bigger without the clutter!! It is now in a fit condition to ask for some quotes for the renovation of the roof and walls so that it can then become the lounge/study area. The kitchen is practically finished now but it just doesn't feel like a kitchen as we have the sofa and the TV in there and don't have the room yet to put up the big country pine table and benches that we have bought.

The whole house is pulling together now, bit by bit. The electrics have been fitted to the shower today (we have to wait until 9pm tonight for the water heater to have done its job!!) and we have hot water upstairs and down. Strangely I am still filling the kettle up for hot water – it really does take some getting used to mod cons again.