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How you learned your native language | ||
Tags: Native Language | Children | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6259 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes  Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 9 of 17 30 March 2010 at 1:01am | IP Logged | ||
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One of the most important things you learn as a child is the ability to ask about meanings. When did you learn how to ask "What does X mean?" I don't think we heard it from our parents. I can't imagine that I was saying something incomprehensible then my parents asked me "What does it mean?", or that they told me "If you want to know the meaning of a word, just say: What does that word mean"! Really, I want to remember when did I learn that and how! *** Back to the topic... I was very quiet as a child until the age of 4. But I used to read a lot of books since I was 3 and I acquired most of my native language vocabulary from written sources (that's why some people look at me strangely when I talk with them because of the words I use.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5981 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 10 of 17 30 March 2010 at 1:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't really remember it being so hard to learn my native language, but I do recall having to remember not to add
an L on the end words with "aw" like "draw" and "saw." A lot of children, though have a hard time in English learning the "th" sound, so "three" comes out "free" or even "fee." Another story that a friend of mine told me who was born and raised in the United States but has Cuban parents said that rolling the Spanish R was very difficult for him, so his mother made him say, "Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril, qué rápido corren los carros llevando azúcar del ferrocarril." ("R and r cigar, r and r barrel, oh how fast the cars go taking sugar on the railroad.") 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rabochnok Diglot Newbie Colombia Joined 5610 days ago 37 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Turkish, Persian | Message 11 of 17 30 March 2010 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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When I was little (and in the US), I couldn't make the "th" sounds, so I was sent to speech
therapy for a few years. I came out still unable to produce those sounds. I think I've got the hang of it now, but I keep on th-fronting because it's a part of who I am when speaking English. 'Sides, on the rare occasions I speak with non-native English speakers here they seemingly have no problem understanding me anyway. I also say words like "blast/s" (yeah, both singular and plural) as "blass" etc. Edited by Rabochnok on 30 March 2010 at 2:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 12 of 17 30 March 2010 at 4:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I was technically bilingual in both English and German at the age of 3 or 4, and I always remember that I thought
there was an extra word for "to know" in English like there was in German. Since the word know started with a k, I assumed that it was "kennen", and I correpsonded "to know" with that meaning, and I kept tyring to use wissen for it's particular usage. I kept getting question marks on all my writing exercises in kindergarten and first grade because I kept using wissen (and for some reason the word work didn't stick with me in English so I kept using arbeiten). I also used German spellings for certain cognates because I had learned how to spell them in German first (for example here/hier). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| abr Groupie Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5480 days ago 40 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English, Spanish | Message 13 of 17 02 April 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Pronunciation of R was my problem too as long as some other sounds. I even attended logopedic room for about half of a year. But the worst part was my inability to decipher song's lyrics - whole lines just merged together. I remember my mom was very surprised about that. It lasted i believe till age of 7 approximately. And strangely enough, i found myself in the same situation again about a year ago, watching one old movie. I rewound it several times without success. And got the words only by looking for lyrics on the web. The irony is i was watching this film specially for it's soundtrack.
And following the topic. I am wondering do chinese or any other children whose native language is tonal, mix up tones at early stages? Edited by abr on 02 April 2010 at 2:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sunny Groupie United States Joined 6248 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Welsh, French | Message 14 of 17 03 April 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't recall having any particular difficulty when young. However I recently came across something interesting.
As I was an avid reader when young, I apparently learned most of my advanced vocabulary from books, not from actually hearing the words, so occasionally I mispronounce words. And I am 44 years old. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5922 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 15 of 17 04 April 2010 at 6:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I used to pronounce "mischievous" like "miss-CHEE-vee-uhs" (can't do IPA now). It
happened because I misread the word as "Mischievious" and so I always thought that was the word. :P I never learned to roll the 'r' properly. Even today, my trilled r sounds forced and I can't do the sound at all in Spanish, doing some sort of fricative instead. It sounds odd to me, but nobody else notices it. I went to a speech therapist once and she said there was no problem with my Spanish. My parents made me do that stupid 'erre con erre cigarro' thing which never helped me at all. :/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 16 of 17 04 April 2010 at 8:10am | IP Logged | ||
Let me speak about Chinese here. Yes, young children (at the age of 3-5) tends to mix up the tones. They also tend to say things in a flat way, ie without the usage of any tones. By the age of 4, most children are able to distinguish the 4(or 5 if you consider the unstressed tone as the five one) tones. It is from then, that they slowly correct their speech and to be able to pronounnce the different tones. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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