|
 |
Language learning through generations? | ||
Tags: Family | Foreign Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5145 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 8 06 November 2011 at 11:17am | IP Logged |
|
To what extent and how has your family actively encouraged you to learn languages or even taught you languages, and for those of you who have children, to what extent do you encourage and or teach them?
(I warn you – this is a long post even by my standards, skip right to where you can answer the question if you are easily bored). Personally I am probably a rather extreme case in that my parents taught and encouraged me since I was little, and I do anything I can to do the same with my children. My father who taught English, German and French at a high school helped me with all three languages. The one who really sealed my destiny however was my mother, who taught me English from age 9, who stopped me from reading my favorite books in Scandinavian languages from age 10, who sent me to live alone in a Spanish family for 6 months at the age of 11 and to France for a year at the age of 14. She even offered me to go to England and Germany for a year, put I said no, because I couldn’t bear to be away from home any longer. I sometimes regret that, because it would have been lovely to be absolutely fluent in both German and English, but when you are 15 that is not so easy to see. She was fluent in German herself, and made me do high school in just one year instead of three, to make sure that I would get German . She then encouraged me to study languages at the University, and helped me apply for scholarships for France, Spain, Italy and Poland, all of which I got. To pass on the love of languages to my children I got a Spanish speaking au pair for my eldest daughter, and tried (but failed) to speak only Spanish to her from birth, I took them both to Belgium when they were 2 and 6 and put them in a French speaking school for 4 months, I fill the house with DVDs and music in French and Spanish and I have sent my oldest daughter to Spain for three consecutive years in the summer, and I am trying to convince my youngest to go to Spain for 6 months. She is hesitant, and she is only 12, so I do not want to push her, just give her the opportunity. I have however started to demand that they learn 100 words in the language in any country we go to, so last year they had to learn 100 words in Spanish, French and Russian. I also try to expose them to foreign languages as much as possible by putting them in an international environment. Last night we spent an evening with Spanish speaking friends, where half of the conversation was in Spanish, two years ago I took them to visit German friends for a week, were we spoke German most of the time, and they have been twice with Russian speaking friends in Ukraine. I also try to add the little things, by making them count with me in a foreign language whenever we play badminton. Since we are so bad at it, it tended to be an endless repetition of one, two three, but as we got better, we extended it to thirty-something. We started in French, since they remembered that from Belgium, then we continued on Spanish, and the last times we did it in Russian – where I admittedly had to count alone from 15 upwards. Last night my daughter suggested we see a French film, La Reine Margot, and I said we couldn’t because it was all in French, no subtitles, not even in French. Se surprised me by saying that that was o.k. I started to translate for her, but after a couple of minutes I realized that it was too tiring, and she was fine with that. Whenever she caught a word she asked me if she had understood correctly. I am so happy that she is open for that. Yesterday I went through some of my parents’ papers. They both passed away this year, and there is a lot to sort through. Among my father’s papers I found newspaper articles from 1957 where he fought like a lion to make them teach English in the local school. He was heading a high school in the North of Norway at the time, and he saw that when the pupils didn’t start with English until then, they were wasting a lot of time. People up there thought he was a mad liberal for wanting that, but of course now more than 50 years later it is a given that children start with English from age 5. It made me feel very close to him to see that he was so passionate about languages even before I was born. Between my mother’s papers I found a book that she had made for my kids, where she had cut out pictures from magazines of everyday objects, and then written the words in huge letters, so that I could read it for them, and they could learn English and learn to read at the same time. So even when she was bedridden and full of cancer she did not stop wanting to help them learn languages. That must be considered real dedication. So what is your story? Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 06 November 2011 at 11:22am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5050 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 8 06 November 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged |
|
I rather envy your linguistic history, although I can't imagine not having lived with my parents all the time when I
was a child. My family has no real interest in other languages or, until recently, travel. Any relative who's been out of the US was shipped overseas during a war! When I first started to travel, instead of excitement, my family worried. When I went to Greece for a 2 week vacation about 10 years ago, my grandmother's response was, "I'll pray for you!" as if I was heading off to a war-torn country. They don't discourage my love of language , just see it as something a little strange. My brother-in-law likes that I can properly pronounce the names of French playwrights for a theater course that he teaches. As for my own child, who's 8 now, I started speaking French to her when she was a baby. Some of her first words & phrases were in French and her vocabulary for common things (food, animals, numbers, family members, colors, things that she plays or does) is still quite good. She makes simple sentences & sometimes whispers to me in French when she doesn't want anyone to know what we're saying! I've read simple stories to her at night & sometimes she reads them back to me. She knows what the words should sound like and isn't thrown with all those "..aient" on verbs! This summer, before our trip to France, I bought her "Hooked on French," a variation of the popular "Hooked on Phonics" that teaches children to read. She knew its content already. While in France, she managed to communicate with my friend's 9 year old, who had limited English skills. Her friendship with him really made her want to learn more French for our next visit. Just this morning, I was on line looking at a language summer camp for parents & kids, a week long language immersion/cultural experience in the language of your choice! Some parents may be planning a Disney vacation, but this one tops my list! French AND hiking or Spanish AND canoeing. Don't know if we'll get to do it ... She also has Spanish at her elementary school & I sometimes speak a little Spanish to her. She seems me watching foreign films & sometimes identifies some words, which thrills me. I hope she associates languages with adventure, travel, good times spent with friends ... she certainly doesn't see it as something strange. I want to encourage her, but not force it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4670 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 3 of 8 06 November 2011 at 6:00pm | IP Logged |
|
I wish I had such parents.
If it comes to my parents, they enrolled me to the English course in class "0" (a class before the basic school) and later, to the group classes of English (they were payable, but held place in my basic scoool) What's more, they convinced my teacher to begin a year before than they usually do, in age 7, to not to lose the contact with the language (looking back and knowing my parents, this decision seems to be astonishing). Unfortunately later (except some small encouragement to learn) they haven't paid much attention. It's sad, but the leg of my mother's family is generally awful at languages as same as don't believe they can really learn it. Example: there was a time when I was kinda interested in Esperanto. My mother told me that she learned it (or rather: was taught) when she was young. So I told her to start learning it with me. After few days of excuse she told, that she's too old to learn anything. The proud exception is my cousin, who's quite good in German and she even worked in German call center. On the other hand, my father's leg was quite well educated in languages (unfortunately not my father), but the problem is that for some unpleasant reasons I don't have a contact with them... EDIT: There is one small thing I'd like to add. My mother's cousin have learned almost perfect Italian in few years while living in Italy. But when she enrolled to English course she gave it up because, a quote "English is a very difficult language!". Yeah, Italian with its (his?) irregular verbs is easier :D It shows that, I think so, me and my family have some hidden abilities, but unfortunately connected with enormous amount of disbelief in own possibilities. Edited by prz_ on 06 November 2011 at 6:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5037 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 4 of 8 07 November 2011 at 3:08am | IP Logged |
|
No 'real' story yet... I really hope some day* I get a wife like you or your mother :)
My family always encouraged me and my brother to learn as much as possible (not that they needed to, but I'm immensely glad now -and the older I get, the happier I am they did- :) However, the local public school system was pretty good before it was hopelessly broken, so they were never very active in the languages field (which is why they let me make the mistake of NOT studying French), except when my father enrolled me and my mother along with him in a German course that I was the only one of the three to complete. Other than that, I'm in doubt if when he and some coworkers went to Ireland and London in official mission they took me with them as an interpreter to help me keep my interest or to keep their budget low :) Interestingly enough, my father and I have started to translate a French novel earlier today, which will keep us occupied for some time. *And when (if) I do, sure my children will have no choice about NOT learning languages like I had ;) Edited by mrwarper on 07 November 2011 at 3:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4862 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 5 of 8 07 November 2011 at 5:05am | IP Logged |
|
I recently found a card my parents gave me for my 5th birthday, in which they wished me to become proficient in all sorts of things, including Italian. I'm sure it was my mother who told my father to add that bit because she really enjoyed her travels in Italy around the time of my birth. That was never realized, but my mother did teach me a few Italian swear words years later. I used the one that begins with the letter "F" during class in 8th grade, thinking it would go unnoticed, but I still got in trouble because my teacher had a boyfriend from Montenegro who supposedly spoke Italian.
When I was about to turn 7 and it was time for me to enter school, my parents chose l’école spéciale de français N° ___ instead of a school with a strong emphasis on English, because the former was within a walking distance from our home. I started to learn French, but that did not go very far: my parents knew only English, so I was on my own. My parents wanted to send me to a boarding school in Spain after I finished first grade. But my grandmother, who has raised me since birth, said that she would die in that case. That, along with my own tears and entreaties, allowed me to complete another year of school in Moscow. Soon after I ended up in America, so I guess I can thank my parents for my English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kaibri Triglot Newbie China Joined 4624 days ago 12 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, German, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Portuguese | Message 6 of 8 07 November 2011 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
|
No one in my family (even my extended family) speaks another language. My grandmother, who passed away
when I was a teenager, was a native speaker of a German dialect but had apparently forgotten it by the time I came into the world. When I was 8 years old my parents suggested a few summer camps I might like to go to, including one for German immersion. German camp was my choice and I have been excited about language learning ever since! Although my parents think it's pretty cool that I speak other languages (my mom is one of those people who believes it takes a special talent that she lacks) I wouldn't say they actively encouraged it any more than they actively encouraged any other interest of mine. We did briefly live in China when I was 4 yrs old, and although none of us learned the language, the experience majorly shaped my interest in other cultures and languages. When I have kids, I will make sure they learn foreign languages. How I go about this depends on the circumstances, like if their father is also a native English speaker and what country we live in at the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5658 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 8 07 November 2011 at 6:24am | IP Logged |
|
What did my parents do to support my language learning in my childhood and youth?
I lived with my family for two years in the United States when I was 7-8 years old and I had to go to the American school there. At school when I was 14 and I had a half year of learning exprerience with French as a school language they payed for me a school exchange with our twin city in the Provence in France. So I could stay there for two weeks in a family speaking only French and half a year later my parents where hosts to the daughter of that French family. When I was a bit older but still a pupil at school my parents financed me an English language course in Southern Britain staying with an English host family there. I could do this kind of language vacation twice one year after the other. And one time we had a Flemish Belgian girl as a guest in our family for three days who had a sports competition in our city. She was a teenager of about my age - I was very surprised the she didn't want to speak any French with us. So first off all she had to explain to me and my parents what her native language was. In fact she spoke German in our family. So these are my youth experiences with my family supporting my language learning at school. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 07 November 2011 at 7:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5693 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 8 of 8 07 November 2011 at 3:05pm | IP Logged |
|
My mother speaks English and even has a "translator certificate". She also speaks French, which she learned at her school, the Sacré-Coeur de Marie.
My father has a poor knowledge of the English grammar (even from my low standard point of view) but has a huge vocabulary and sucessfully employed his English while working for two major american based companies. Three of my grandparents could speak English and had also a very good level in French. My paternal grandmother lived in Paris for some years and was fluent in French. My paternal grandfather had also some knowledge of German, and I keep a few of his German study notes. Though some of them had also studied Latin, Ancient Greek, Japanese and Russian, it may be said that they all have learned languages mostly for practical reasons. Anyway, it makes language learning a respectable affair in our family. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
