In my past life, before kids, and before my husband and I said good bye to our fellow countrymen and moved overseas, I used to be a teacher.

I’ll let you in on a little secret that all teachers know.  Most parents think that their kid is the smartest child to walk the earth.  All teachers, at some point have sat at a parent-teacher conference, internally rolling their eyes as a set of parents declare their child a prodigy.

Now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you something else.

My kid is the smartest kid alive!  Seriously.  It’s my professional opinion.

I will explain.

Growing up in Canada, it’s mandatory to take French in school.  It was okay when I was young, but got progressively more painful over the years; as did my adolescent attitude.

As a  teenager I actually uttered the words, “When am I ever going to need this?”

I want to reach into my past, grab my 16 year old self by the shoulders, shake some sense into her and shout in her face, “TRUST ME GIRL, YOU’RE GONNA NEED THIS!”

Over the past four years while living in France I can’t even begin to imagine how many hours I’ve spent in French classes, not to mention the classes I took before even leaving Canada.  My French is now functional, but it’s not always pretty.

My daughter however is a natural.  A genius if I do say so myself.  She has a clear advantage over me, having been born in France, but I’m still blown away daily.

She’s 2.5 years old and her first language is French.  She dreams in French, she falls down and gets hurt in French, she has tantrums in French.  It’s all very sweet.

Now here comes the amazing part.  She can switch to English easier than I can change channels on the remote control.  If she hears someone speaking in English, she will speak to them in English.  If she hears someone speaking French, she will speak to them in French.

For my husband, and anyone else that has been raised bilingual, this is completely normal.  But for those of you who, like me, struggle with every fiber of your being while trying to learn a second language; it’s pretty much the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen!

I want to pack her up and put her in my purse to bring to parties.  It’s such a great conversation piece, such an amazing party trick!

Of course it’s only a matter of time before she starts correcting my French grammar in public; then it may no longer be so cute.  But until then, I will be the uber-proud anglophone Mom, gushing, “Look what my kid can do!”