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When your child speaks a language you don’t

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Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#21

Post by j_s »

Spearchucker wrote: post #8

I'm German, and speak that with my son. My son's mother is French, and she uses that with my son. She and I speak English when we converse. He goes to a bilingual French/English nursery school, which has mostly French expats' kids in it, and (happily) four kids that also speak German. We never really discussed this when my son was born - it just happened, because doing it any other way was alien enough to not enter o…

  > Being fluent in three languages never seemed like a big deal
So the joke goes: three languages = trilingual, two languages = bilingual, one language = American

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#22

Post by LeonRobrotsky »

ekidd wrote: post #11

My wife is a native French speaker, and she's always spoken French to the kids. Unlike the author of this story, I've never really felt like I was getting left behind. Before the kids were born, I spent a while studying an Assimil course (a fine course, from a French publisher, for people who like to learn mostly through osmosis with some notes). Afterwards, I plowed my way through 450 pages of a French non-fiction b…

> Given the right environment, the brain seems to adapt.

In high school, I had a German immigrant, fresh out of college as an instructor. The moment one stepped into that classroom to the moment one stepped out, nothing but German.

Hell, it didn't stop there. If you tried to talk to him at all, in or out of the classroom, he wouldn't acknowledge you unless you spoke to him in German, and he would only speak German to you.

Strangely enough, the German students were the only ones capable of holding conversation in a foreign language.

I graduated in 2008, haven't 'used' German in 7 years, but I still find myself thinking in German every once in a while.

Immersion (even for ~50min, 5 days a week) is easily the best way to learn. I don't know why anyone wastes their time with anything else.

EDIT: Hah, I just remembered how he never cared that we talked to each other during class about whatever, just that it was in German, not English.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#23

Post by solve »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #20
solve wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That babies can learn multiple languages with ease is a surprise to no one in the world. Only surprise is that education systems around the world continue to waste so many years of people's lives trying to teach them additional languages when they're teenagers, instead of having done the bulk of the work when they were babies, the way that nature's been doing it successfully for tens of thousands (or more) years.

What works for babies does not necessarily for adults. L1 and L2 acquisition are quite different.

I strongly disagree, and the education system approach is provably a massive failure in this regard. That's all I'll say for now.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#24

Post by LeonRobrotsky »

solve wrote: post #12
Spearchucker wrote: post #8

I'm German, and speak that with my son. My son's mother is French, and she uses that with my son. She and I speak English when we converse. He goes to a bilingual French/English nursery school, which has mostly French expats' kids in it, and (happily) four kids that also speak German. We never really discussed this when my son was born - it just happened, because doing it any other way was alien enough to not enter o…

That babies can learn multiple languages with ease is a surprise to no one in the world. Only surprise is that education systems around the world continue to waste so many years of people's lives trying to teach them additional languages when they're teenagers, instead of having done the bulk of the work when they were babies, the way that nature's been doing it successfully for tens of thousands (or more) years.

> teach them additional languages when they're teenagers, instead of having done the bulk of the work when they were babies

My (semi-related) reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9226046

My instructor chose to go full immersion, basically what children are subjected to. The other instructors took the grammar/vocab workbook route.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#25

Post by solve »

therobot24 wrote: post #17
Spearchucker wrote: post #8

I'm German, and speak that with my son. My son's mother is French, and she uses that with my son. She and I speak English when we converse. He goes to a bilingual French/English nursery school, which has mostly French expats' kids in it, and (happily) four kids that also speak German. We never really discussed this when my son was born - it just happened, because doing it any other way was alien enough to not enter o…

Unfortunately languages other than English are not pushed very hard in American (public) education. It's really quite sad compared to the rest of the world. My first exposure to another language in school was 8th grade, which was the choice of an elective Spanish or French class. To prevent having to take a class at the college level, the minimum requirement (if i remember correctly) was only 2 years of a foreign lan…

I spent 9 years of my teenage life trying to learn languages in US schools. It was a complete waste and I remember none of it. The approach was ineffective.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#26

Post by epaladin »

j_s wrote: post #21
Spearchucker wrote: post #8

I'm German, and speak that with my son. My son's mother is French, and she uses that with my son. She and I speak English when we converse. He goes to a bilingual French/English nursery school, which has mostly French expats' kids in it, and (happily) four kids that also speak German. We never really discussed this when my son was born - it just happened, because doing it any other way was alien enough to not enter o…

> Being fluent in three languages never seemed like a big deal So the joke goes: three languages = trilingual, two languages = bilingual, one language = American

I tested myself to see if I fit the stereotype by trying to explain this joke to a Japanese friend, in Japanese. After a collective effort which determined that there isn't a concise noun phrase in Japanese that's equivalent to "bilingual"/"trilingual" etc (anyone else know if that's actually the case?), I think the point was communicated, which I hope implies graduation to at least some limbo between "American" and "bilingual".

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#27

Post by DasIch »

LeonRobrotsky wrote: post #22
ekidd wrote: post #11

My wife is a native French speaker, and she's always spoken French to the kids. Unlike the author of this story, I've never really felt like I was getting left behind. Before the kids were born, I spent a while studying an Assimil course (a fine course, from a French publisher, for people who like to learn mostly through osmosis with some notes). Afterwards, I plowed my way through 450 pages of a French non-fiction b…

> Given the right environment, the brain seems to adapt. In high school, I had a German immigrant, fresh out of college as an instructor. The moment one stepped into that classroom to the moment one stepped out, nothing but German. Hell, it didn't stop there. If you tried to talk to him at all, in or out of the classroom, he wouldn't acknowledge you unless you spoke to him in German, and he would only speak German to…

Is that really that unusual? All foreign languages are taught this way in German schools.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#28

Post by LeonRobrotsky »

DasIch wrote: post #27
LeonRobrotsky wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the right environment, the brain seems to adapt. In high school, I had a German immigrant, fresh out of college as an instructor. The moment one stepped into that classroom to the moment one stepped out, nothing but German. Hell, it didn't stop there. If you tried to talk to him at all, in or out of the classroom, he wouldn't acknowledge you unless you spoke to him in German, and he would only speak German to…

Is that really that unusual? All foreign languages are taught this way in German schools.

> Is that really that unusual?

In the US, yes. Or, at the very least, at my high school.

The other classes had weekly vocab quizes and grammar tests, with English instruction, whereas we learned German... in German.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#29

Post by mrrrgn »

amyjess wrote: post #19

Reminds me a story a friend and former coworker told me. She's of Cambodian descent, and whenever she has to talk to her mom, her mom can only understand her English if she affects this incredibly thick Cambodian accent. I always found that interesting, having to put on a fake accent so people can understand you.

It's the same for me in French. I can understand Americans (who have a thick accent) much more easily than natives. I think it's because my brain can tune into the palette of sounds produced by Americans more readily. Some sounds that are very distinct to natives sound the same to me; it artificially inflates the number of homophones I have to deal with.

Re: When your child speaks a language you don’t

#30

Post by jobu »

DavidSJ wrote: post #2

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dr…

Thanks! Great poem, and in many ways I see it in my kids. On the flip side I sometimes feel like this as a parent: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3659 (minus the last two panels)
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