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Language learning parents? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6783 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 36 30 March 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
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If I'm having these thoughts now I'm sure some of you must have had them too by now :)
I bet that after having some success with language learning, there are those of us who would be rather skeptical of the way languages are taught in school (especially "foreign languages" where nothing much is expected or accomplished). If I were the parent to myself starting French at age 13 I would definitely say "don't waste your time with that, I can help you learn it much faster". Hey, if you know how to learn efficiently and you don't speak the language that the kid is learning you could even learn it with him (or a little ahead of him). What are your thoughts? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 36 30 March 2010 at 11:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't want to learn from anyone without a significantly stronger command of the language than myself, because we would both learn and reinforce each other's mistakes.
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| dragonfly Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 6479 days ago 204 posts - 233 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, Mandarin | Message 3 of 36 30 March 2010 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a parent, and though my kids are small, I'm considering the possibilities. I'm planning to teach my children English (compulsory) and some other language(s) (if I manage to get them interested) myself. If they want it, I'm ready to begin learning a new language with them. I don't want them to learn English at school, as I know it is going to be a waste of time. I'm sure it's impossible to pick up anything in a group of 20 each of which has a different level of knowledge. I'll look for a school where there are options of German or French (the class is always much smaller in this case), and I'll always be there to help. We'll see what will come out of it.
Though, teaching your own children is not always an easy task. As with studying on your own it takes some willpower, because there's always a reason to put it off.. And teaching chilren and adults differ in many ways, you have to have some insight in the way they acquire and process information, and it demands effort on the parent's part. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 36 30 March 2010 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a parent. We have a Japanese teacher that comes to our house and my two kids are also learning Japanese with her.
Besides the "oh, it'd be nice to teach my kids Japanese", there is also reality to consider: my kids are not in the least interested in learning any Japanese from their dad. How uncool. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 36 30 March 2010 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Whenever I have kids (distant future) I plan on raising them bilingually with English and Spanish (and possible throwing a third in eventually). That way they could take Spanish in school and it'd be a breeze (in addition to the other advantages of knowing Spanish in the US). Hopefully I won't live in a place where foreign language classes are compulsory in school, if my kids want to learn I'll teach them how to learn correctly.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 36 30 March 2010 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
You can't "throw in" another language later on -- kids really need to learn their languages simultaneously so that all are more-or-less equally strong. If not, they'll fall back on their strongest language... unless there's an outside motivating factor, like friends who speak the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 7 of 36 30 March 2010 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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You definitely need to set realistic goals here. A lot of children grow up in bilingual
settings and end up favouring one language over the other, or even abandoning it. Trying to teach your kids 3 languages is a noble endeavour, but in real life, it's really hard to do. Not to mention that even if you succeeded, the child could very well forget the language in the years to come. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5609 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 36 30 March 2010 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm this is an interesting topic because there is one language I am not yet good at - Maori - which I feel is important to raise my (hypothetical) kids with. (In addition to the two native languages we would have in our family)
Being a kiwi, Maori a part of our culture that I don't want to lose! And obviously to give that to the next generation is awesome. The advocates of languages such as Maori and Gaelic sure seem to think that you can raise your child speaking the language, even if you don't. It seems to me that you need a lot of outside resources though - the biggest one being maybe a school or group of children who speak that language. To truly activate it as an everyday language in which they can express themselves naturally somehow they need to pick up the slang and such as well, which at least in Maori unfortunately isn't really contained in many books or movies. But anyway, if they do become interested in languages I of course would be there to help! The main thing is really to make it as fun as possible! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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