In Luxembourg the first day of school is the 15th of September and, due to a big influence of the francophone culture over this small country, it is called “la rentrée”.
The beginning of the school year is a big deal in the French-speaking countries, much bigger than the end of the school year, to such an extent that it even deserves its own name “la rentrée”. What does “rentrée” mean? It comes from the verb “rentrer”, “to return” in English, so it simply means “a return”, “back to school” as they say in the English-speaking countries. However, when used with the additional “la”, like a tagline, there is no doubt whatsoever as to what kind of “rentrée” we are talking about.
“La rentrée” feels almost like a celebration of the beginning of the school year, from the parents’ perspective, for sure. They even take some time off from work, both of them if that’s the case, to accompany their children on the first day of school. They briefly chitchat with the teacher and other parents, and finally, they can feel relieved that someone else, a professional, will put their effort into civilizing their “petits zouzous”, “chouchous” et “petits coeurs”.
So how is “la rentrée” for me and my kids this year? It will be definitely experimental. My older son (6 years old) is starting the “real” school. What I mean by that is that he is going to start to learn things in an academic way (reading, writing, arithmetic), and it is going to be in German (cringe!). And yeeees I worry. Why? German is not the language we use in our family or even hear around us. On top of that, German applies only to the formal part (the content of the coursebooks), but all the talking in the classroom, the interactions, in general, will, actually, happen in Luxembourgish. I know, one could ask: Aren’t the two languages very close to each other? Yes, they are, and that is the reason why German was chosen as a medium of instruction in the Luxembourgish school. However, the differences are quite significant, it is not like Luxembourgish is a dialect of German. And, frankly speaking, it would be highly inappropriate to make such a statement, as Luxembourgish, besides French and German is also an official language in Luxembourg.
My younger one (3 years old) will go to “précoce”, which is a form of a kindergarten. Not only will he have to overcome the fear of separation (he has been with me at home for past 7 months! because of the Corona mess), but also manage somehow being hit by the “tornado” of the Lëtzebuergesch Sprooche.
Just to be clear, we are not an exception in Luxembourg, more and more people living here face the divide between the language(s) of their family and community and the language(s) of the schooling system. That is why the government considers investing in education in English as a reasonable compromise, relying on the fact that this could be the language that connects us all across different spheres of life.
Raising multilingual kids involves a lot of thinking, planning, and strategy-making about the language itself. The status of language changes, it shifts from being a tool in learning, something taken for granted, to a subject-matter of many discussions. It is no longer just about whether he or she gets the way the Pythagorean theorem works, but rather which language will be best suited for that, or if it happens that the language is an obstacle, and how to go about it and find the most optimal solution?
I just hope that the multilingual spirit my kids were born into will make it easier for them. After all, that’s our normal, switching between 2 or 3 languages on daily basis even in the middle of the same conversation. They don’t know anything else – “the simpler monolingual way”, so all we can do and should do, is to keep that engine rolling.
LANGOLUX 