I was in Karlsruhe, a city in western Germany near the French border, today. On the tram to the train station on my way out, a group of little schoolkids got on with their three or four teachers/chaperones. One of them spoke to them in German and the other in French, though both (as far as I could tell) were saying the same thing (“Come closer, let the woman get off the tram”).
It occurred to me that ideally, every school should be at least bilingual. Why repeat the command twice in German when you can (resources provided) have someone say the same thing in French? After all, at such an age, it is so easy to pick up two languages. Why spend the whole day speaking one language when you can just split it in half, and kids will come out of the experience knowing two languages?
