|
 |
How Many Native Tongues are Possible? | ||
Tags: Native Speakers | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 14 21 August 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
That's why I mentioned the languages being close relatives; only the slang is to be expected to differ so greatly that all other topics needed to be learned anew. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4446 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 10 of 14 21 August 2013 at 5:31am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Kids being fluent on multiple languages varies in different households.
When I was growing up, there are parents here who thought their kids should fit in with the mainstream. The younger generation would grow up being spoken to in English and presumably have no knowledge of their mother tongue besides a few simple words like "hello, good morning, good bye" sort of thing. In 1 family the father is Austrian and the mother is Dutch. At home they spoke to each other in English. The kids never got into learning German until their high school years although both languages are close to English in the Germanic family. Now they are living and working in Europe and along the way they picked up other European languages including Italian & Spanish. Being fluent in the mother-tongue(s) other than the one used for daily interactions takes special effort from the parents and the individual. You can talk to your kid in Italian all you want but if he is going to answer back in English he can acquire enough listening skills to understand what is said but not enough to be in a conversation in a social setting. Some families think of kids learning a second of third language is important not only to expand their horizons but would lead to better job opportunities in the future. There are those who would enrol their kids to languages classes on weekends. Otherwise even without formal education, all it takes is 1 or both parents making an effort to talk in their native language(s) and expecting a response the same. I know a family where the father is Chinese and the mother is American. The Chinese half would be at family gatherings talking in Chinese mostly but at the same time trying to accommodate a few younger people who are more fluent in English. The kids are being brought up not knowing a single word in Chinese, not even the basic greetings. Both parents are working. The father spends so much time at the office every week that in his spare time the kids would be off to an amusement park or vacation somewhere. Learning the mother-tongue isn't in their schedule. On the other hand, it doesn't take much effort to immerse yourself in a language. From 1 week to the next you can be watching pre-recorded TV series, movies, cartoons in your mother-tongue and pick up words and phrases without being aware of it. Some people like to listen to pop songs by specific singers in their language. Some families subscribe to programs from their native country on satellite TV. The kids being exposed to their native language would be more fluent. Edited by shk00design on 21 August 2013 at 5:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Qaanaaq Newbie United States Joined 4126 days ago 14 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 14 23 August 2013 at 7:27am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Definitely true on the languages being related...Richard Francis Burton apparently learned French, Italian,
Neapolitan, and several other dialects of Italian, when he was younger. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4705 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 12 of 14 23 August 2013 at 8:22am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not sure the household language being English, at least in this example, was solely an effort to "mainstream" the children. More likely it was the household language because it was the parents' common language. Edited by Hekje on 23 August 2013 at 8:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 13 of 14 23 August 2013 at 9:52am | IP Logged | |||||
Does that mean the parents never spoke their language with the children, even when just one parent was present? I've never quite understood this business of refusing to pass your native tongue on to your kids, especially when the languages in question are strong European languages which are certainly not "useless" Edited by beano on 23 August 2013 at 9:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6086 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch | Message 14 of 14 25 August 2013 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
It all depends on what you define as a "native" language. I consider that I have 3 native languages, but the issue is more complicated than that. My parents are from different countries and when I was born their common language was Russian, so that is the first language that was spoken to me. So my "mother" tongue could be Russian, yet I don't consider it as my native language, since after my mother learned Slovak, she switched into speaking Slovak with me. I speak Russian with an accent, although if I was immersed in a native environment for a while, I could probably get it up to native level. I started school in Prague and so my best language was Czech for a long time (even after we moved to the US). When I was 10, we moved to the US and lived there for 5 years and so that's when I started speaking English. I managed to learn it to native level and so people would not be able to hear that I am not American. I had a very strong American accent.
However over time, I stopped using Czech and now have people comment that I have an accent when speaking. I also don't feel as comfortable speaking it anymore as I used to. Also I have been living in Europe now for a while and don't come into contact with Americans anymore, so I am afraid I am losing my American accent and adopting the non-native ways of speaking English, since I speak English mostly with non-native speakers now. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
