Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 3009 of 3737 14 July 2013 at 2:33pm | IP Logged |
PaulLambeth wrote:
Amerykanka wrote:
When you try to teach your 5-year-old sister, who is still learning to read in English, how to read in Polish.
(Several years have gone by since this experiment, but you still remember the day you tried to teach her the
pronunciation of "c", "ć/ci", and "cz". She didn't quite catch on to it, although she did have a lot of fun
trying.)
When your family thinks it's perfectly normal to hear you talk all about the books you are reading in three
different languages (your native language + two others).
When your 8-year-old sister goes around saying she wants to learn Swedish just because you showed her
some Rosetta Stone demos a few months ago. (Can language nerdery run in the family? It would be
awesome if it could!) |
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Of course it can! A few years ago I was dabbling a little in Finnish, and when walking with my 9-year-old cousin, I found a Finnish vocabulary list in my pocket and showed it to her. Then she asked me how to say 'oak tree' in Finnish. I had no clue. I still don't. |
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tammi
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 3010 of 3737 14 July 2013 at 3:40pm | IP Logged |
When you do your best to transform your little sister into a future language nerd. You help with vocab lists for her English classes, you read simple fairytales in English with her (and buy you some with audio as a present), you ask her to hold your book while you need free hands for something (and it is by chance in French), you promise to teach her a language of her choice as a prize for something etc.
P.S.It looks like it's working.
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MarlonX19 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4166 days ago 40 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French
| Message 3011 of 3737 15 July 2013 at 7:01am | IP Logged |
Cavesa wrote:
When you do your best to transform your little sister into a future language nerd. You help with vocab lists for her English classes, you read simple fairytales in English with her (and buy you some with audio as a present), you ask her to hold your book while you need free hands for something (and it is by chance in French), you promise to teach her a language of her choice as a prize for something etc.
P.S.It looks like it's working. |
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You're so lucky. My sister is 5 years old currently, I have never lived with her since her birthday and sometimes I imagine how would she be if I had lived with her. I would probably teach her English. She would probably be able to commucicate very well in English by now. By the way, I think next year I'll finally live with her, do you think it's too late for me to try to teach her English?
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 3012 of 3737 15 July 2013 at 7:43am | IP Logged |
Well, fortunately I don't live with my family anymore :-) We were getting on each others' nerves a lot. And our relations have been much better since my moving out.
Of course it won't be late. People start learning a foreign language at fifty, so five or six really doesn't make a difference. It might even be better as I think children learn much more once they can comfortably read at least their own language and when they have better trained focus.
But don't hold to unrealistic expectations like "she will speak well very soon because children learn fast." I think the first most important lesson to give to any child in this area is that learning another language is normal and it is fun. Second is getting them used to other sounds and pronunciation. Third comes comprehension because without it, noone can learn to speak and write. Really, I think making her experience success, progress and fun with the new skills, that is the best thing in the long run.
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lewevanhoop Newbie United States Joined 5014 days ago 13 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Afrikaans, Modern Hebrew
| Message 3013 of 3737 15 July 2013 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
MarlonX19 wrote:
Cavesa wrote:
When you do your best to transform your little sister into a future language nerd. You help with vocab lists for her English classes, you read simple fairytales in English with her (and buy you some with audio as a present), you ask her to hold your book while you need free hands for something (and it is by chance in French), you promise to teach her a language of her choice as a prize for something etc.
P.S.It looks like it's working. |
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You're so lucky. My sister is 5 years old currently, I have never lived with her since her birthday and sometimes I imagine how would she be if I had lived with her. I would probably teach her English. She would probably be able to commucicate very well in English by now. By the way, I think next year I'll finally live with her, do you think it's too late for me to try to teach her English? |
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Definitely not, any time up to about the age of 11 or 12 that part of the brain responsible for the easy acquisition of languages is still active.
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MarlonX19 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4166 days ago 40 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French
| Message 3014 of 3737 16 July 2013 at 1:57am | IP Logged |
Thanks guys... I'm really gonna teach her English then.
... and you know you're a language nerd when you're worried about teaching your 5 year old sister a foreign language while the other guys don't even care wether their little sisters know or doesnt know the native language....
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espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5052 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani
| Message 3015 of 3737 17 July 2013 at 2:55am | IP Logged |
when you turn on your phone, and get startled by this thing staring at you (but then you remember that you
began downloading the Duolingo app...)
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beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian
| Message 3016 of 3737 17 July 2013 at 12:10pm | IP Logged |
True story....
You are an 12-year-old boy on holiday in North Africa who is browsing a comic stand. The dialogue all seems
to be in French but you've started that language at school and might just be able to understand the odd
sentence.
Then you spot the Arabic versions and purchase one of them because the script looks cool.
Edited by beano on 17 July 2013 at 12:10pm
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