Raising a natively multilingual child (Polyglots) Language Learning Forum

Raising a natively multilingual child
Tags: Native Language \| Children \| Multilingual
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Language Learning Forum : Polyglots

19 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6010 days ago
4399 posts - 7687 votes

Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

Message 17 of 19

27 August 2011 at 1:44pm | IP Logged

patuco wrote:

Bob's mum is a well-educated Egyptian diplomat who was posted to Japan, since she is very fluent in Japanese. His dad is a Russian businessman who met his mum whilst doing business in Japan. As Bob's paternal grandparents are of Georgian descent, Bob's dad also speaks Georgian. They married and settled in Japan and are bringing up Bob in their three native languages, namely Arabic, Russian and Georgian. However, as their only common language is English, they ensured that Bob was fully exposed to this also.

Bob's first problem is that his he's not going to know which language to speak to his Dad, so will probably end up only speaking Russian or Georgian, but not both, although he will understand both.

Quote:

When Bob was still quite young, his favourite aunt on his mother's side left Egypt and settled in the south of France, close to the Spanish border, with her German-speaking Dutch husband. Being very close to her sister, Bob's mum insisted that Bob visit her during the school holidays. Naturally, Bob's innate language abilities enabled him to pick up French, Spanish, Catalan, Dutch and German quite easily after spending a great deal of time with his aunt, uncle and cousins.

Again, Bob's going to need context for the various languages, and more time for each one than he's being given. That's not just 5 new languages, it's two new language families (English isn't truly "Germanic" anymore).
1 person has voted this message useful

Zwlth
Super Polyglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5225 days ago
154 posts - 320 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek

Message 18 of 19

27 August 2011 at 11:45pm | IP Logged

You don't need to invent a "Bob," just go to a region of the world like South Africa and you'll find plenty of them. However, they "only" know 5, 6, or maybe 7 languages, not 12, and they are by means fluent in all of them. I believe the best documented experiment of producing a real-life "Bob" has got to be Charles Berlitz, and with all the support in the world (his father, already a language tycoon, ordered that every relative and servant in the household speak to him in a specific different language), he "only" got 8 - but they were all fluent. So, there is no way that "Bob" would get these 12 languages well, if at all, in this casual fashion.
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rivere123
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4829 days ago
129 posts - 182 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 19 of 19

04 September 2011 at 5:51pm | IP Logged

I've heard in the news about a month ago of a Floridan family speaking to their child in Spanish, French, Polish, and another language, I'd like to say a Germanic one, but I'm not sure how that would work out, I do believe you can learn muliple children as a baby.

Here in Louisiana, I have neighbors, family, and friends galore that spoke French before English but are fluent in both (and another group has learned French after English). While Cajun French and French are totally different languages, I'm willing to say that two languages as a child is manageable, and as you have the chance to learn two languages, as you said "for free," I think it's a good idea, especially since it increases your skills in English to know a close language, and vice versa.

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