Teo the Linguist

Ahriel and Nicole's son Teo is growing up in Switzerland where they have several "national" languages depending on where you are - French here, German east of here, Italian south of here, and a language called Romanche (or something like that) in a small part of the country.

So Teo is having a plethora of language opportunities.  At home he speaks Spanish to Nicole and to his nanny Marta (who's from Spain) and he speaks English to Ahriel.  At school (half a day, twice a week) he speaks French (as well as when they are out and around).  To Paula and me he speaks either Spanish (to Paula) or English to me.  He does an amazing job (my foreign language skills usually max out at around 100 words given enough time...).

It was funny last night when he was watching a video ("Wall-e") and said to Ahriel who was sitting next to him, "Malo!  Malo!" and then went with an English translation just in case Ahriel didn't catch his meaning, "Bad Man!"

Here's Teo and Marta...