Clever girl
This morning, I drove Our Mia and her dad to Drem Station for a morning at the festival. On the way there, she asked Dom, ‘Why is Grandpa driving on that side of the car?’
I was doubly pleased. I reckon that’s pretty bright for someone who’s only just turned four. Also, because she asked the question in Catalan, and I understood it!
Categories: General
Quintin Jardine's blog 
Who is a proud grandfather, then? It’s good to see she is learning languages early, but don’t let Castilian be overlooked. No matter what the principals of separatism may be, that is spoken somewhat more widely.
Just finished the latest Skinner novel and then read the comment about your granddaughter Mia! Couldn’t put the damned book down, half asleep at work today, up half the night finishing it. Every time a new Skinner novel comes out, I dread that it’s going to be the last, I know it has to end sometime, but please not yet, keep them coming!!
That’s my plan. The rest is up to the fellow in the white nightgown, to quote Donald Fagen.
The principals of separatism are Artur Mas on the side and Mariano Rajoy on the other. Catalan is the normal language of education, and of public business, but Castellano is unavoidable, not least because the Catalan library is still relatively small.
Small children are natural linguists in a way that we who were brought up on an island just don’t understand. Mia speaks Catalan, in a fine Empordan accent, I’m told by her Avi Carles, but she understands English. If she’s asked in English to do something, it doesn’t have to be explained. If she’s compelled to speak it, table etiquette, etc., she will.
There was no slur intended. I believe that languages are by far one of the best gifts you can give a child. I grew up bi-lingual and have blessed that fact many times. Even now in my late 60s I am not finding it too hard to learn Spanish, having had an English/French background together with seven years of Latin at school. (I confess I found German hard going, and the alphabet I Greek confounded me). The more, the merrier.