Slim Novel 13 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
31. New Life in Winnipeg
Early autumn and Ali is living several miles west of Winnipeg, in a 1-story wood house with black sloping roof and around the house are growing red, ripe tomatoes and watermelon that are round on the ground and green, and corn plants with shiny tassels. Also, many-color chrysanthemums and sunflowers. From an outer gate a flat-rock slim path leads through garden to house door.
After arriving, Ali contacted Father Tim, who runs what he calls A Free Catholic Church, which he explains means "We don't follow advice from the Vatican." Ali lived at the church during her 8 months remaining pregnancy and had the baby by Caesarean section in hospital after a hard 24 hour+ labor. She named the infant Guy (Spoken, hard-Gee) after her uncle who had mentored her at Cambridge where he taught psychology at Harvard.
Soon after, she moved into the house, which belongs to the Cree Indian tribe many of whom live nearby, and she got Nikah, a youngest daughter of a poor Cree family, to live-in and help. And she met Eadie at the church. Eadie is of Huguenot origin, a great grand-daughter of an original French voyageur but very poor and grammar school education, speaking only French.
In finding these housemates Ali has a plan. From her uncle and studies in psychology, she knows that children between ages 3 and 10 have what psychologists call a plasticity of brain, meaning the young brain forms new connections easily and thus has a nearly unlimited capacity to learn new things, especially languages in contrast to older children or adults whose brains have a fixed limited capacity. This language learning is occasionally noticed by chance in young children but almost always ignored; and only rarely do parents try to foster the ability. But Ali's Uncle Guy witnessed a case where a child became perfect in 3 languages by introducing them before age 10. And Ali admires the idea. In such a program, she guesses, it is important to have one language the child will think in and its parent is fluent in. Ali herself is perfect in English and near perfect in French, but English is her thinking language. She decides English should be basic for child Guy - not only because it is basic for her but because, given the world since 1946, English will be the main language. With that in mind, she uses only English with her growing child. But she wants him to be fluent in French because it is the language of Culture and also it is more difficult for an English speaker to learn French well than a Germanic or even another Latin language. So Eadie, starting after Guy is 3, is instructed to speak French with him; meanwhile, Eadie's son Pierre, who is growing up French-speaking, becomes Guy's playmate.
Then there is Nikah. Like many poor Cree Indians in rural Canada, she spoke English secondarily so it is easy for her to follow Ali's instruction to start speaking Cree to Guy at age 4. The reason Ali delays till 4 is her worry that an attempt to introduce both French and Cree as alternate languages together may result in a confusing pidgin of both. So first she introduces pure French through Eadie & Pierre and then, after a year consolidating the grammar and syntax, separated from English in the child's brain, she introduces the Cree and makes its introduction practical and effective by, during that 5th year of Guy's life, putting him in Nikah's care at home and having Nikah take him along on weekends when she goes to live with her Cree family.
On this autumn day, Ali directs Guy to help at a Sunday lunch attended by Father Tim, who sits at head of table, with Eadie and Pierre around corner of table to Father's left, and Nikah on the side of table to Father's right.
"Guy! Please give everyone a glass of juice."
"Yes, Mama."
"And be sure to ask what juice each person prefers."
"Alright." To Father Tim, "What do you like Father?"
"Orange juice, me boy," says the Father, who is big and very informal, and who speaks with an Irish brogue.
To Eadie and Pierre, Guy asks in French which juice each one wants and Pierre says tomate and Eadie, pomme.
And Nikah who understood Ali's English but knows she must speak Cree to Guy, says "Oskatask", which Guy knows in Cree to mean Carrot.
Thus the Sunday lunch progresses and Ali feels gratified that her program is succeeding. Father Tim, an educator is impressed but he knows it is not wise to make it obvious that Guy is the object of a linguistic experiment.
Ali will not be satisfied just by what she has accomplished in her 5-year-old's alternate languages. Once he is in school she intends him to learn to read and write French and by high school to be good in the literary style. And she will make sure he does not forget his Cree. Multilinguality may easily be lost if not fostered. And the advantages of the added languages justify the small effort. Just knowing to speak Cree fluently will put Guy in a rare class and make him valuable as an adult in Winnipeg. And French fluency gives advantage writing English and other fields of knowledge plus making him a highly cultured person.
32. Schooling
Even before her child was born, Ali thought about schooling. Father Tim runs a school for the local Cree Indians. Ali does not mind Guy learning reading, writing and 'rithmetic in a small rural school but she worries about her child's impressionable young mind being influenced by Father Tim. She asks him about what his Free Catholics actually believe other than just not following the Vatican and also about teaching the kids in school. He answers: "We be Christians of our historic church that goes back to St. Peter. We believe all are children of one God and we follow the teachings of Jesus as put forth in the gospels. And that is all. We do not speculate on how many angels fit on the head of a pin, nor do we get involved in the mythology of the Old Testament. We believe in science."
"How about us Atheists?" Ali asks. What do you think of us?"
"It does not concern me, dear lady. As long as the person is kind and caring to fellow creatures and to the plants and inanimate life."
"Do you teach any of your beliefs in school."
"We avoid teaching children any beliefs. We teach them to be kind, caring and responsible."
From that conversation, Ali is satisfied Father Tim is someone she will trust with her child.
To read next now, click 13.(33-36) Life in Winnipeg
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