A very young Fiona entertaining herself with a book.
I've been intrigued by the babies that have recently entered my life: Fiona, Eloise and Isla - my three granddaughters. All show signs of doing a lot of thinking long before they are able to share those thoughts with others.
When Fiona was still a little baby, scooting about the house on her little bum, Fiona could communicate, she could make me aware of her desire to go outside.
One day the little girl dragged my heavy, winter coat to where I was working on my computer. She left the coat at my feet, scooted from the room and returned almost immediately with my boots, then my gloves and finally my camera bag. I bundled her up against the cold and off I went with little child held tightly in my arms. I almost never used a stroller -- too impersonal.
When I saw this Ted Talk video I immediately wanted to share it. It isn't overly long. Enjoy.
The headline read: "When The Kids Take Over." According to the article in The London Free Press, aging baby boomers will soon lose control of the housing market as their children, the echo boomers or generation Y, become the local real estate market movers and shakers.
This is undoubtedly true. The echo generation is a big one, almost as big as the baby boom. At 9.1 million, it falls just half a million short of equaling the baby boom. Some of those echo "kids" are already 41 years old, so it is no surprise they are buying homes and raising families.
Still, it will be awhile before the old timers are no longer a major market force. According to Stats Canada, "over three quarters of Canadian households own their homes by the age of 65." It is important to remember that the youngest boomers are only 49 today. Many face years of monthly mortgage payments before taking full title to their home.
Despite all the stories about aging empty-nesters moving to retirement communities, the truth is older folk love their family homes. As baby boomers reach 65, these seniors are not going to immediately start contemplating the sale of their fully-paid-for-homes. Mortgage free homes are often inexpensive places to live and so it should come as no surprise that home ownership among seniors doesn't begin declining in any meaningful way until after age 75. There are nine years remaining before the first wave of baby boomers hits that 75 year mark and even then many will hold onto their homes.
I doubt Sean Quigley, executive director of Emerging Leaders, is correct when he says echo boomers
are not as likely to buy suburban homes as their parents. Echo boomers will prefer to live in a downtown neighbourhood according to Quigley. I lived in a neighbourhood almost downtown when I was in my twenties and thirties. My home was by Labatt Park, but that didn't stop me from buying a home in Byron when I needed a place suitable for my aging mother and my growing family. A fifteen minute commute was not a deal breaker.
Still, I wish he was right, it would lessen urban sprawl, but I'm sure he is wrong. I can see little to gain by living in the core. Downtown London, like so many downtowns in cities right around the globe, is broken. Millions have been spent in an attempt to fix the core but at this time the money has only succeeded in applying some expensive band-aids to the crippled neighbourhood.
Unlike the downtown, damaged by the passing years and all the accompanying changes, the suburbs were built damaged. If we are going to have a better city, fixing the downtown while ignoring the suburbs is not a complete answer.
I'm lucky. My Byron home is well situated. I can walk to stores and restaurants and parks. If I decide to drive, I can go to the grocery store and be home within five minutes as long as there is no long line-up at the check-out.
Suburbia in London is not the same as suburbia in Toronto or other major cities. By many definitions of suburbia, my Byron home is in the city and not in the suburbs at all.
A young boy from next door shovels my walk.
I agree with The Free Press that echo boomers are buying homes in the core and in Old South, but echo boomers are also buying homes in Byron and the other so-called suburbs. Already, I believe, almost 40 percent of the homes on my court are owned by young couples who are the sons and daughters of baby boomers. These "kids", as the paper calls them, have chosen to raise their families outside the core.
And for me, this is a good thing. The neighbourhood teens shovel the snow from my walk in the winter, rake the leaves and crab apples from my lawn in the fall and cut my grass in the spring and summer. Young people give my neighbourhood a sense of life, of continuity.
And those echo boomer children are making staying in the family home just that much easier for my wife and me.
The yellow window-pane check shirt is a bit brighter than I'm showing.
I keep my clothes for a long time -- a very long time. For instance, I'm still wearing a cotton shirt purchased from Beaver Canoe more than a decade ago. It simply refuses to die. I'm on the edge of tossing a similar Royal Robbins cotton shirt. Like the Beaver Canoe shirt, it isn't frayed but it has a stain. My wife is soaking it in OxyClean. We'll see how that works. And I have an Eddie Bauer plaid shirt that in my opinion is as good today as when new.
Still, my supply of shirts is getting thin. It is time to go on a buying spree. I wandered the malls, I hit the box stores, I came up almost empty. The style of stuff I buy does not seem to be found in the London stores.
I turned to L.L.Bean -- the American retailer specializing in mail-order. My wife bought a few things from them in the past and that put us on their mailing list. We get catalogs and we get offers. A few weeks back we got a great offer. It promised 20 percent off everything ordered.
I went online. I quickly found six suitable shirts. Nice. I ordered a yellow shirt with a small, window-pane check, three shirts in solid colours -- white, forest green and light blue -- an Oxford cloth shirt with soft blue stripes and a bright red shirt in a cotton twill.
The prices were amazing. Despite some of the shirts being on sale, the catalog discount code was still honoured. The discounts more than paid the duty. And shipping was free . . . as was the guilt.
I prefer buying locally. I used to buy from a small store downtown called Muskox. It's gone. Eatons? Also gone. Eddie Bauer is an American chain but there were two stores in London: One downtown and another in the large mall in the north end of the city. Both stores are now gone.
It is a new world. As a boy I bought from a clothing store just a couple of blocks from my home. A locally owned store named Robert Holmes, as I recall. It carried beautiful stuff with most items made in Canada -- like shirts from Forsyth. The John Forsyth Shirt Company was born in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1903. The company was sold in the '70s and after some more changes of ownership it closed for good earlier this year.
The same story is attached to almost every brand of shirt, sweater or pants that I bought as a boy. If the brand is available at all, the clothing is now made in Bangladesh, China, Pakistan or elsewhere, as long as elsewhere is not in Canada.
I bought my newest shirts from a store in Maine. I got some for less than $30. Some are wrinkle resistant. They are all 100 percent cotton. I feel bad about leaving Canada to buy my clothes but L.L.Bean seems to be a good company. If I can't buy from Robert Holmes, I'll make do buying from L.L.Bean.
One caveat: If you do decide to order from L.L.Bean, don't order a size larger in order to take shrinkage into account. Nothing my wife and I have ordered from L.L.Bean has ever shrunk. The material is good quality and the descriptions in the catalog are dead-on.
I placed my order Sunday night and the shirts were delivered to my London, Ontario, home late Wednesday afternoon. I immediately tried them on. All fit perfectly as expected. I guess those Peruvians make good shirts. That's right, some L.L.Bean shirts are made in Peru --- in South America -- that's a long way from Waterloo, Ontario.
This Wednesday evening the London public has been invited to a meeting at the Convention Centre: Our Move Forward - Downtown Master Plan Community Consultation. I have mixed feelings about the approach being taken. With ReThink London still on the go, may I be so bold as to suggest that it is time for Londoners to rethink our historical districts and the preservation that such districts demand.
For an interesting take on the North American longing for lost heritage, read Ada Louise Huxtable's The Unreal America: Architecture and Illusion. When I read the posted piece, the first chapter of Huxtable's book, the talk of Colonial Williamsburg brought to mind Lower Town in Old Quebec City. I am old enough to recall when many of the present "heritage" structures were not there. Many of these buildings were not restored but recreated. Much of the area's 18th century ambiance so loved by tourists is faux.
At this point I had planned on blogging about the importance of thinking about cities in their entirety, of the advantage gained by respecting all city neighbourhoods and not just those designated heritage districts. I will get to that blog in time. But I have been sidetracked by a growing interest in the late Ada Louise Huxtable. The woman was amazing and her writing well worth our time.
Another heritage building was lost in downtown London. The usual folk are mourning the loss. I wish the city planners and the heritage lovers would get with the game -- and the game is not simply saving all the remaining old buildings
The following is a scene from Old Quebec. The top view is a photo from early in the last century. Note the tall hotel on the left. It was relatively new at the time. Older images do not show the large hotel but they do show some of the structure, the bottom two floors, before they were incorporated into the expanded structure.
The lower photo is from Google StreetViews. Note how the upper floors of the old hotel were removed and the streetscape "returned", I use the word loosely, to its proper heritage appearance.
Recently Facebook pulled a dating ad featuring the picture of a young Canadian girl who had killed herself after suffering more than a year of online bullying. The online publication of her picture by an online dating site was in all likelihood illegal. Such a use of this young woman's image is prohibited by both Canadian and American copyright laws.
I spent my life working as a staff photographer for a daily newspaper. I was not a lawyer. My understanding of copyright law as it applies to photographs was gained not at work but at art school. The newspapers were run by "word people" whose interests leaned more toward the scalping of images than protecting them. The art school was run by artists, folk whose creative world was financed by the arts. The image-scalping editors at newspapers were the artists' sworn enemies.
At art school in Detroit I was taught all works of art come into this world protected by a copyright angel. An artist does not have to do another thing. Create it and it is yours. Period. Seems simple but as I said I am not a lawyer. Once lawyers enter the picture, the picture grows murky.
First, let me say that I went to art school in the States but I'm Canadian. Copyright law in the U.S. may not be the same as in Canada. Let me say again, "I am not a lawyer." Still, I am sure there's a lot of overlap not only between Canadian and American law but around the world. I refer you to the Universal Copyright Convention to which both Canada and the United States are signatories.
For more info on U.S. law, I refer you to The United States Copyright Office. If you click the link you will learn, among other things, American law automatically protects a work from the moment of its creation. Of course, legal protection can be incredibly weak protection. Think of a bike. It is illegal to steal a bike but that does not stop the theft of hundreds of thousands of bikes annually across North America.
Stealing an image posted on the Web is far easier than stealing a bike. Often a copy of a picture can be simply "drag and dropped" from the Net onto an image pirate's desktop. The ease of this theft frightens a lot of people. They worry, and with some reason, that posted images of themselves and their family can be easily stolen and re-posted on the Web for a myriad of illegal purposes.
I checked more than a dozen of my posted images. Two are being used without my authorization: one a shot of locked out workers at Electromotive Diesel here in London, Ontario, and the other a shot of an abandoned factory in Detroit. I found no posted pictures of family members being reused.
I'm a little disappointed. In fact, I'm downright insulted. Heck, even the image-scrapping robots didn't think my images worth stealing.
What should we learn from the Facebook fiasco? Images can be stolen and those stolen images can get the thief in trouble. The dating service has been banned from Facebook.
What I found interesting in researching this topic is that software developers have created image-scrapping programs to prowl the Net looking for and copying images. While work on the Internet is publicly accessible, it cannot legally be treated as if it were in the public domain. It isn't. These bots are breaking the law.
I may start putting the 'C' in a circle, along with my name, under my posted pictures. (To type the copyright symbol hold down the Alt key while typing 0169 on the numeric keypad.)
For more info, check out Top Ten Common Copyright Myths. This was posted by the UK Copyright Service but thanks to the universal nature of copyright law, it is still worth a look. The U.S. Library of Congress also hosts a good site: Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright. And if you are Canadian and would like to read an upsetting take on what companies in the image-providing business are doing to enforce their copyright, then read Excess Copyright: Watching Getty Images Watching Canadians.
There are exciting developments in the field of education. One of these is the Open Learning Initiative. If you watched the video you know the goal of OLI is not to eliminate teachers, or to render classrooms obsolete, but to enrich out-of-classroom learning. Carnegie Mellon University, an OLI participant, states on their website:
Many college and universities around the world are using our (Carnegie Mellon) courses and
unique learning platform—and now you can too! You can access course
materials at no cost to you and work at your own pace. Our learning
platform gives you targeted feedback as you go, which helps you know if
you are mastering a topic or if you need more practice.
Here is a link to two elementary French language sites posted by CMU. I took a quick look and I've decided to set enough time aside to allow me to visit their OLI site everyday until I've completed their posted two section instruction.
An armadillo from Texas teaches French.
With my granddaughter now attending a French-speaking public school, I am back trying to learn French. This morning I returned to my favourite online site from some years back, Tex's French Grammar. The site has grown and matured over the years. Check it out.
The Carnegie Mellon and the Texas U offerings are two great introductions to up-to-date approaches to Internet instruction.
If you'd like to know more about OLI, check out The Open University website. The link will take you to some of the pages tagged French.
My goal is to be speaking French fluently by the time my granddaughter is finishing her year of kindergarten at her London, Ontario, French-speaking school.
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I've added one more site to my Internet list of sites offering French instruction. This one is an updated take on flash cards. It is a well thought out site at which one can hear French and thus develop an ear for the language. There are even tests to check your progress. Everything is interactive. Here is a link: Quizlet Language and Vocabulary. The flash cards that convinced me to climb on board were these: Ma ville natale.
Oh, some of these sites accept donations. If you find the info useful, please donate. Nothing in life is truly free. Don't be a slug.
My granddaughter is turning four today, and tomorrow she is starting school. It's a big event made even bigger by the fact that she has been accepted into a French public school. Fiona, a red headed little English speaking child, will soon be immersed in a sea of French.
I confess I was concerned for my granddaughter but at the same time I was elated her mother was giving her an opportunity that I never had. Oh, I took French in high school back in the '60s but I did not graduate bilingual. I doubt that many of my friends did either.
There was something wrong with the old approach to teaching language. The proof was in the failed results. Shortly after I left high school, the Canadian government introduced French immersion. If you can believe the government bumph, French immersion has been a huge success.
Recently it occurred to me that children seem to learn language differently than adults. Babies don't talk nor do we expect them to. What babies do is listen and respond. Babies grow into toddlers who wordlessly carry out complex tasks. When Fiona was only a bum-scooting baby, my wife asked the little girl, "Where are your red spoons, Fiona," the little toddler skooted over to the kitchen island, found her red spoons on the floor and brought them to grandma with nary a word.
When I googled this observation, I learned I had stumbled upon a concept well-known in language-teaching circles: the "silent period" theory. Kids learn to process language before they develop the boldness to attempt speaking. I also stumbled upon lots of other stuff as well. Such as the following list of myths about bilingualism complied by François Grosjean of the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. (Grosjean is frequently referred to on the Web. He has devoted years to his study of language. He has an excellent blog. If you have the time, check it out.)
Myths
about bilingualism
Bilingualism is a
rare phenomenon. WRONG. It has been estimated that
more than half the world's population is bilingual, that is lives with
two or more languages.
Bilinguals acquire
their two or more languages in childhood. WRONG. One
can become bilingual in childhood, but also in adolescence and in
adulthood. . . . In general, people become bilingual because life requires the
use of two or more languages.
Bilinguals have
equal and perfect knowledge of their languages. WRONG. Bilinguals know their
languages to the level that they need them. (I've noted this when traveling. Taxi drivers or hotel staff may appear to be fluent in English but they actually speak what I call "taxi" or "hotel.")
Real bilinguals
have no accent in their different languages. WRONG.
Having an accent or not in a language does not make you more or less
bilingual.
Children
Bilingualism will
delay language acquisition in children. WRONG. This
is a myth that was popular back in the middle of the 20th Century.
Since then much research has shown that bilingual children are not
delayed in their language acquisition.
The language spoken
in the home will have a negative effect on the
acquisition of the school language, when the latter is different.
WRONG. In fact, the home language can be used as a linguistic base for
acquiring aspects of the other language. It also gives children a known
language to communicate in (with parents, caretakers, and, perhaps,
teachers) while acquiring the other.
If parents want
their children to grow up bilingual, they should use
the one person - one language approach. WRONG. There are
many ways of
making sure a child grows up bilingual: caretaker 1 speaks one language
and caretaker 2 speaks the other; one language is used in the home and
the other outside the home; the child acquires his/her second language
at school, etc. The critical factor is need. The child must come to
realize, most of the time unconsciously, that he/she needs two or more
languages in everyday life.
If the bilingual child realizes that
the minority language is not really needed, the child may question why keep up the weaker language learning. A
better approach is for all family members to use the weaker language at
home, if at all possible, so as to increase the child's exposure to it.
I now believe Fiona may be ready for school. I'm the one who isn't prepared. My head is filled with negative ideas and unhelpful myths.
I must get my head around the idea that supporting my granddaughter as she tackles a second language is important. I have to find ways of making French necessary in her everyday life and maybe in mine as well.
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Are you interested in learning French? If you are, here are links to French instruction found on the Web.
The first site is the RFI Mondoblog. I especially like the section: Journal en francais facile. One bit of advice, I have found Google Chrome better for downloading the audio files than Firefox.
Sadly, what had been another fine French language learning site has been severely cutback. Hosted by the British BBC their Learn French page is now filled with mothballed pages and dead end links. The Ma France interactive videos are still online but the BBC makes no promises to keep even these active in the future.
A truly fine site for learning French online is offered by the University of Texas out of Austin. Click on the link to Tex's French Grammar and enjoy. This is one cool site for grammar instruction. When last I checked, there was also a textbook available for use in conjunction with the online program. I ordered my copy from Chapters here in London, Ontario. I encourage you to make a donation. Tex has earned it.
The following is one of my favourite sites for French exposure online. I especially love the tests. Visit: Learn French at About.com.
For vocabulary, try wordPROF. This site was originally developed to accompany a vocabulary course sold on CD-ROM. The disk is no longer available but the site is still online for those wishing to improve their French vocabulary.
One of my big problems is pronunciation. This Australian educational site does not have the largest number of phrases but it is still good for getting a handle on how spoken French sounds.
Another site linked to French speaker audio is the Language Guide page. Just make sure you do not click on the ad for French instruction. It can be confusing but make an effort to stay on the main site and learn for free.
If you know some better sites, I'd love to hear from you.
Lastly, I have found that listening to French music is a fine way to train one's ear. Personally, I like the music of the Belgium singer Axelle Red who performs mostly in French but has been known to slip into English now and then.
The French lyrics and the English translations can be found online if you should find it necessary.
One great trick for introducing French into one's life is watching French television with the hidden captioning for the hearing impaired activated. This makes it much easier to follow the action while attuning one's ear to a new language.
Lastly, the Octonauts are very popular with little kids at the moment. French versions of many cartoons can be found on YouTube. I'm hoping I can interest Fiona in watching the French speaking underwater adventurers in action.
