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Teaching Swedish to a seven year old | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5328 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 10 04 May 2011 at 6:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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--SKIP TO THE BOTTOM PARAGRAPH IF YOU ONLY WANT TO HELP WITH THE METHOD--
So, my sister (7 years tomorrow) walks up to me and says "David, I want to learn a language with you!" Not knowing exactly what to do, I gave her a list of "easy" languages so her English doesn't suffer, assuming she sticks to the language. I listed Spanish, Swedish (because of the cognates, literal grammar and the pronunciation is not a big deal for her at all), Italian, and French (I warned her it was harder than the rest though.). For some reason she chose Swedish. I believe it was because I was learning it already, which was good for both of us, so I enthusiastically brought her to the computer where all my books are and we started. So far, however, it's been pretty disorganized. I've been teaching her some vocabulary and very basic sentence construction (thankfully it's similar to English) and giving her amusing sentences to make. I must add, she is having a LOT of fun doing this. She likes spending time with me, we have a good brother/sister relationship, so I am not sure if she doesn't have much of an interest in the language, or if I am helping her become more interested in the language. I also like the idea that she will benefit so much from learning a language. It also helps me with my Swedish studies because everything I teach her, I have to learn myself and make absolute certain that it's correct. Another worry I have is that her peers at school might discourage her, making fun of the language and it's melodic pronunciation/stereotypes/spelling of certain words/etc. which would be quite unfortunate. Do you think the amount of enjoyment she gets from the hour a day I spend with her is enough to keep her interested if her peers start to pressure her away from the language? Also, most importantly, if you don't answer or read any of the above questions, I would just like a decent teaching method/tips to teach her so I can make sure I do it right. I have no idea her reasons for learning the language whether they be intellectual (she's a pretty smart 7 year old) or relating to the attention I give her, so you will have to go on the assumption that she is learning simply to learn. Any tips/methods/replies are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! Edited by Akao on 04 May 2011 at 7:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6651 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 10 04 May 2011 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Read to her, Sweden has a very famous children writer - Astrid Lindgren - whom has been translated several
times into several languages. Maybe you could read the same story, first in Swedish, then in English, and then in Swedish again? Children pick up stuff easier than adults. Also, Astrid Lindgren did read her own stories and you could probably find them on tape. Her voice is very charming of an old lady. If she do like, say, Pippi Longstockings they were all made into movies and later on a (really bad) cartoon. Tove Jansson, though in Findland, wrote many stories about the Moomin and those are appriciated even by adults. They were made into a cartoon tv series too, and that one is absolutely charming. There is books, cartoons and movies about Moomin : ). Pronounciaton whise Moomin comes with the Finnish way of speaking Swedish though which has kept some archais features the Swedish Swedish lost say 200 years ago (long vowels sounds different) but I think that is to be no problem. Words and grammar are the same! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4956 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish | Message 3 of 10 04 May 2011 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Am I the only one who remembers a stop-motion puppet or clay animation series of the Moomins, probably from the 80s? It had - in my child's mind at least - a poetry and tension the Japanese cartoon series completely lacks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6651 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 4 of 10 04 May 2011 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
I was born −89 so I did not see it on TV. I think it was made in Slovakia or Poland… I’ve heard it was beatiful, though, I don’t know wheather it was dubbed into Swedish and it would defedently be harder to get hold on. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5557 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 10 05 May 2011 at 10:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have them on DVD - they were made in Poland. The DVD has the complete series in German and English. Check this site out http://www.fuzzyfeltmoomins.co.uk/
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5328 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 6 of 10 06 May 2011 at 5:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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Actually she's more into the tutoring style and not really cartoons and such. My main
goal is to keep it real simple to start out so I don't discourage her but get a lot of vocabulary in and a minimal amount of grammar so she can make some sentences. Then we make ridiculous stories that wind up with her laughing for 30 seconds at a time haha :) Any better way to do that or more efficient structure overall? EDIT: I also get a lot of cognates in there, but I leave out the false friends for now. Edited by Akao on 06 May 2011 at 5:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5463 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch | Message 7 of 10 06 May 2011 at 5:57am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't have much to say regarding method except 'keep it fun and make sure it doesn't feel like a chore'. Fun and engrossing materials like books, tv or music can go a long way too. I just wanted to address what you said about 'easy languages so her English doesn't suffer'. This is a seven year old living in the United States. I find it hard to even fathom a scenario where her English would 'suffer' in any way. Learning a different language will at the worst not affect her English at all and at best improve her 'linguistic awareness' and actually help her conscious understanding of some of the features of English. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5328 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 8 of 10 06 May 2011 at 5:59am | IP Logged | |||||
I understand your point, but with American kids they way they are now, they speak English very poorly and I teach her English grammar along with this second language. I just don't want her to get languages confused, even if easily fixed. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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