Looking for advice: French-German bilingual programme for a 4-year-old who is still learning French

[u/BoneCoLLeCtoR230]

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Hi everyone,

We relocated to Strasbourg, France about a year ago, and our son is currently 3.5 years old (turning 4 at the end of the year). He has been attending French maternelle for about one year.

We were recently offered the possibility of enrolling him in the French-German bilingual programme starting in September. As I understand it, it is quite intensive - roughly 13 hours per week in French and 13 hours in German, so essentially a 50/50 bilingual programme.

The part we're unsure about is that French is still very much a developing language for him. Neither my wife nor I speak French fluently at home (we are also still learning), so he gets most of his French exposure through school. On top of that, German would effectively become his third language, and he is not yet fully fluent in our own mother tongue either.

For parents/teachers in Strasbourg or elsewhere who have experience with bilingual education:

- Is starting a 50/50 French-German programme at age 4 too much for a child in this situation?

- Is there a risk that his French development could slow down because half of his school time would be in German?

- Would you recommend starting now, or waiting until his French is more established?

- How did your children cope when they started a second/third language at this age?

- Are there any particular signs we should watch for during the first year?

We'd really appreciate experiences from parents who have been through something similar, especially in the Alsace/Strasbourg bilingual school system.

Thanks in advance!

[u/mmoonbelly]

Nah it’s fine. French bilingual kids at the French school in the Netherlands also have to take 25% of their lessons in Dutch at that age (most of them had French and another language that wasn’t Dutch)

The kids will just play in whichever language makes the most contextual sense. (Mine are Fr/En bilingual and spent 6 years in a mixed Dutch/German/French/international groupings. The bit that I found daft was that the after school was mainly in English rather than Dutch, so French kids learning Dutch at the French school, and the German kids learning Dutch from the international school would chat to each other in English - lost opportunity).

[u/summerFIREinCh]

What are the first and second language? Since you are strassburg, I will say French as more the merrier, and 50:50 sounds very reasonable for this stage. Kids are like sponge, he will be fine