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10 year old moving countries. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| Adina Newbie Austria Joined 4932 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 1 of 11 17 November 2010 at 12:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I need opinions on the following problem:
We might move to Spain next year and I am not sure if this would benefit my children, especially my eldest who is 10( 11 next year). My son is trilingual, he speaks Romanian, German and English. He was born in an English speaking country and for 7 years his dominant language was English even if we spoke only Romanian with him at home. After 3 years of living in Austria he is fluent in German and Romanian but his English is now less than perfect, it seems he has forgotten a lot, even if he watches movies and reads in English , he does not have many opportunities to practice it. Giving that he is trilingual and he did seem to learn German quite easily since he was nearly 8, would he benefit from moving and learning in Spain in a Spanish public school? Will he be able to become a near-native Spanish speaker and will he be able to continue his further education in either Spanish or English if he chooses? Would this move jeopardise his future because he is too old to assimilate another language at a near-native speaker level? I am very confused and willing to change something, even stop this move to Spain if necessary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5443 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes  Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 11 17 November 2010 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Adina, I am definitely not of the camp of anyone being too old, and have met people who started learning a language as an adult, but still reaching a stage of having no accent and being as good as a native.
So 11 is definitely not too old! His Romanian will come in handy and give him an edge, so that it isn't all complete noise to start with, thanks to grammatical and vocabulary similarities. The only thing is that Spaniards tend to speak fast (faster than Latin Americans for example), so private tutoring alongside any schooling would help a lot. If anything, adding Spanish to his repertoire will ensure his future with an international language. From a language perspective I see nothing wrong with the move - all issues that might resolve are social and if he would be comfortable with another change. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6280 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 4 of 11 18 November 2010 at 11:08am | IP Logged | ||
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As Benny said, it's not too late to *learn* Spanish, however past the age of 6-7 children
don't intuitively pick up languages anymore, they don't get any more native languages. See about enrolling him in basic classes; the rest might come when he makes new friends. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5144 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 11 18 November 2010 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Go for it! In the short term it may have a negative impact on his other languages, but in the long term he will benefit greatly from it. If you stay there long enough, he will be able to speak it like a native.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ichiro Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6019 days ago 111 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Malay | Message 6 of 11 19 November 2010 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't have much to add on the topic in general, but I _know_ the above isn't true, I have friends who came to the UK and US at the ages of 8 and 12 respectively, knowing no English, and it is now their native language. The one who came to the UK at age 8 speaks it with a bit of an accent, though. She came from Russia and now sounds a bit Australian. *********************************************** That said, I think you do have to be cautious. Could I ask what your son's native language(s) is at the moment, and how it will be sustained in Spain? From the sound of your post, his English is excellent but it has fallen away from native-quality. My guess is that if you move to Spain, your son will indeed be able to pick up Spanish, and will be able to sustain or advance his skills in English, as it will undoubtedly be taught. I don't think that adding Spanish per se will harm his already enviable mix. But I suspect his German will go the way of his English now, and it will be up to you to sustain his Romanian. If you do not pay strong attention to that, there is a danger that he will end up with four languages spoken to admirable fluency, but none of them truly native-quality. Anecdotally, I have heard of this happening with other children. I think, if you take precautions, it will be OK; if not, this is a possibility. Just my opinion. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6662 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 7 of 11 19 November 2010 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I will offer you no advice because I'm not qualified.
I have three cousins from two separate families who moved around when they were young. The youngest one was 8 I think, the oldest 12. Both families moved to a refugee camp in Austria at first. family 1: a couple of months in Austria, then straight to Switzerland. The youngest one doesn't remember learning Swiss German, she acquired it by playing with other kids. German was the language of instruction at school but she said that it never seemed to be a problem, other kids were in a similar situation. Her older brother, who was around 12 then told me that at first it was difficult but with a help of one of his school teachers he learned German in several months. Fast forward 20 years, they are now native speakers of both Swiss German and German. They continued speaking Polish with their parents. They speak Polish with no accent, but their vocabulary is limited due to the fact that they didn't go to school here for too long. It is still certainly an asset which helped them with their job and in private lives. The siblings usually talk in Polish because they feel that it's part of their identity, unless they are in a hurry or the subject matter is complicated. Perhaps it is worth noting that they are now polyglots, having learned 2 more languages later in classes and through traveling. family 2: after a year in Austria they moved to a French speaking part of Canada. They stayed there for 3 years. The girl was around 11 then and she told me she learned French well enough to read books for kids her age. At a pretty ripe age of 14 she moved to an English speaking part. She is native-like for the most part. Her accent is impeccable, I don't think she is lacking in any area. She forgot her French, and her Polish is not as strong as her cousins' because she was never interested in preserving it - she embraced English. I met a Bosnian kid in the US who moved to the US when he was 10 and now at the age of 20 he has no problems due to his English. He is an University student. He does have a foreign lilt, though. I don't know what's happening in their heads, perhaps they wrap their thoughts in words differently than kids who acquired their languages earlier, but they function just like native speakers. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6759 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 11 20 November 2010 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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To add to the anecdotes, I have a friend who moved to the US from Vietnam at age 13 (knowing only the words 'please' and 'chair'(!)). He struggled through high school, but is now a native-level English speaker, albeit with a slight accent.
I think your son's emotional reaction to the move is also worthy of serious consideration. After all, leaving all his friends behind and going somewhere where he doesn't understand the language and culture is a huge deal for a kid. If he's feeling anxious about it, is loosing a sense of control and stability in his life, or has decided he hates it before even going there, this might affect his ability to adapt and make friends. But on the other hand, if he's already used to moving countries and takes it in stride, or better yet is excited about it, then you have nothing to worry about. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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