Je m'appelle Barbie

Isabelle and Aidan like to watch Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (one of the few dvds we can play on our computer), almost on a daily basis. Both are quite expert at navigating the menus, playing the movie or just selected scenes. Sometimes they just play the songs (it's a musical). Sometimes there's subtitles, sometimes not. It is very cute to hear them sing along!

Yesterday Isabelle decided to explore the languages menu. First we had Barbie singing in Dutch. I sang along too (not that I speak Dutch, but as the children can't read the subtitles they didn't know that!). Then Barbie tried French. Today, she settled on German.

Each language has a slightly different take on Barbie. For example, one of the characters has a line in the English version that goes "I'll be [as] big as Charlemagne!". When speaking Dutch, he'll be as big as Caesar. I couldn't catch what was in the German version. Unsurprisingly, the French character also went with Charlemagne. The French title directly translates as "Heart of a Princess". And in the French version, Princess Anneliese's breakfast is served on a golden tray - it's a silver tray in English.

Yesterday at dinner Isabelle asked me if I spoke "all the languages". Strangely, I can understand why she would think this. She hears me speak Maori phrases at Playcentre, and sing in Mandarin. I (apparently) can sing in French, German and Dutch at home, and point out Arabic script to her on the computer. I disabused her of any such thoughts though!

Being in a monolingual household, the children don't really have much of a sense of adult fluency in other languages. What a gift a second language would be.