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Multilingual Europeans | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7183 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 17 of 40 12 August 2006 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You'll be surprised how many languages kids can handle. I had a friend from Brazil living in China and his 8 year old was already speaking good English and Portuguese as well as pretty good Mandarin. I think his son picked up his English just from his dad speaking it to him (but not all the time!).
Lady Skywalker, I would think it best for you to speak Spanish and your husband Dutch, or even if his English is good then English as they'll learn Dutch at school. They'll be fluent in 3 languages in no time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| RogueRook Diglot Senior Member Germany N/A Joined 6834 days ago 174 posts - 177 votes 6 sounds Speaks: German*, English Studies: Hungarian, Turkish | Message 18 of 40 12 August 2006 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In Germany the vast majority of people, also the younger ones, can certainly not claim any degree of fluency in a foreign language, let alone two.
Many of my fellow engineering students frown when the professor recommends an english book. These always sit neatly on their shelves- I never have to wait to borrow them. The first time they saw me reading an english novel during breaks I received puzzled, quizzical looks - it's a rare sight. In the military we once had a friendship meeting with US troops and as the party had progressed I was surprised to discover that I was the only German left in the American group - the Germans all were a couple of paces off among themselves. I ascribe this to the language barrier. I think the only real polyglot nations in Europe are the Scandinavian countries and the Dutch. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6704 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 19 of 40 12 August 2006 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Seriously. My girlfriend comes from Indonesia, but is of Chinese descent. Her parents speak two different dialects, so she grew up with four or five different languages in her house -- Indonesian, Hakka, Chaozhou, Mandarin and Sundanese (the local Indonesian dialect). Mandarin is the maybe -- I know her parents can speak it, but she says they usually use their dialects to speak with her, and even then her Chaozhou is better than her Hakka. In addition to these, she studied English in school, and just 'picked up' Taiwanese (because it is similar to Chaozhou). Needless to say, I'm hopelessly jealous of her. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 40 13 August 2006 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm glad you mentioned this since I was under the impression that just about everyone in Germany could speak English. Following on from delectric's and Raincrowlee's points, I remember that just about all the Malaysian students at my university could speak at least three languages (Malay, Mandarin and English) and most could also speak two more (a Malaysian dialect and another Chinese language). Edited by patuco on 13 August 2006 at 4:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 40 13 August 2006 at 5:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It may depend on where in Germany you are (I assume you meet higher skill in areas where people are more likely to meet English speakers). However, I was really surprised to find out that people from say 15 to 35 years of age didn't speak English that well. I came to wonder when people start learning English, and at what level. I'm aware of that films are usually dubbed into German which I believe is the strongest reason why people don't speak good English - they never hear it! ;)
Time for coffee. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6788 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 22 of 40 13 August 2006 at 5:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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How to raise children trilingually or even... to a
"higher" level? I think it's difficult even for parents mastering both Chinese (written and spoken as a whole, let's pick Mandarin alone) and English. The most important is how you ENCOURAGE them to do that. In my view, people living in Europe are lucky. They can meet people speaking different languages more easily... they also understand language materials more easily. I just don't quite understand the tricks behind those materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 40 13 August 2006 at 6:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Depends on where you live in Europe and whether you travel or not.
I don't think that Europeans have some kind of superhuman abilities to instantly understand other languages. Probably it's due to exposure from childhood, but only in certain countries. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6788 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 24 of 40 13 August 2006 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Actually... I mean the approach used. This is quite subjective :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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