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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5612 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 17 of 36 01 April 2010 at 4:30am | IP Logged | ||
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It will be tough, but I'd like my kids to be trilingual with English, French and Arabic.
My first priority is for them to have an excellent command of English for academic reasons. Arabic would be second for cultural reasons. And I hope French can be squeezed in there somehow. No pressure on them though! =) I'd have to come up with a reasonable system to achieve this. 2 persons have 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 18 of 36 01 April 2010 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Parents want to communicate with their children in the best way possible, so that they
can do the best job they can as parents. Which is why, imho, it's unrealistic to expect that we will speak to our kids in a language other than our mother tongue, except when the person has an inferiority complex towards their native language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 LauraM Pro Member United States Joined 5352 days ago 77 posts - 97 votes Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 19 of 36 01 April 2010 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
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That may be a bit judgmental to say someone should speak only in their mother tongue to their child and if not,
they have a complex towards their native language...HUH???? Or are you just kidding? I mean...seriously? They shouldn't teach them any other language? Wow! I have to admit, I've never heard such a thing.... 2 persons have 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 20 of 36 01 April 2010 at 5:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I never said you shouldn't -- I said it's unrealistic, as in highly unlikely to actually
happen. But if you can teach your child a second language which is also your second language, then all the power to you. As for the complex, I was referring to people I know who actually chose not to teach their children their native language, and who instead aligned with the spouse's language. The kids are monolingual. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5506 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 36 01 April 2010 at 6:20am | IP Logged | ||
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My parents both speak multiple languages, and initially they had hoped to raise me
multilingual. In the end, it didn't really work out. We were felled mostly by our respective neuroses re: language inferiority, cultural identity, etc, but another huge factor was that my parents were not always able to provide sufficient practice and/or consistent input. As a result, I forgot much of what I used to know. For example, I have whole diaries written in French, a language my father is easily fluent in, but I no longer understand ANY of that. I also found myself confusing languages a lot and I still occasionally let slip non-English words into daily conversation by unhappy accident. I also have an inconsistent accent - I would say that I sound pretty normal for my hometown about 98% of the time but there are certain words and phrases that I picked up from one parent or the other, one language or the other, and that does interfere sometimes with making myself understood. But now I'm getting off topic. I have a friend who grew up trilingual but her situation was pretty unique. Her father was a native speaker of English and her mother was a native speaker of Chinese. Unfortunately, the father did not speak much Chinese and the mother did not speak much English, so the parents actually had to communicate in Japanese. I think French was involved at some point (paternal grandparent), but she's only passable in that language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LauraM Pro Member United States Joined 5352 days ago 77 posts - 97 votes Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 36 01 April 2010 at 7:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Arkkusu, I think I understand what you are saying now. Although I imagine there may be many different reasons a
parent might not speak their native tongue to their children and not necessarily a complex. I do believe that if a parent is fluent in any language, it is wise to expose their children to that language, be it thier native language or a foreign language. One of my best friends is from Brazil, her husband from Sweden, yet they are raising their two daughters in America. By 4 years old each child was fluent in all three languages (Portuguese, English, Swedish). By 6, they don't confuse ANY of the languages...it is what prompted me to throw caution to the wind and use any German I can remember with my children. I think/thought it AMAZING!!!! And wonderful!!! I have forgotten lots of the language and my processing is painfully slow with adult conversation, but I think once I begin a course of study, it will come back quickly...I am happy to have been exposed when I was younger. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6042 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 23 of 36 01 April 2010 at 9:03am | IP Logged | ||
Teaching a child more than two languages at the same time before the age of five is wrong. It's unethical because the child doesn't have a choice. I grew up with two languages. I am grateful but sometimes I wish I wasn't bilingual. I hate mixing the two languages and having a slight accent. Plus the two languages are always fighting in my head for dominance. They aren't equal. For example I prefer counting in one, talking about my home life in the other. It's very frustrating sometimes.
How can you be so sure? Do you speak fluent Portuguese, English and Swedish? Edited by John Smith on 01 April 2010 at 9:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 24 of 36 01 April 2010 at 10:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Unethical to teach a young child multiple languages? ...
If they are taught properly (same people always speaking the same language to the child, for example the father one language, the mother another, and a third at daycare/school) then the child will have no problems. I was at an international school for years and know many children who grew up multilingual. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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