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Giving up your mother tongue... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4238 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 08 May 2014 at 4:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yesterday I was listening to a local Chinese radio station. The discussion started with a discussion on the local
Chinese joining the police force. In Canada we recognize English as an official language but at the same time there is a need for people of different ethnic groups to serve in their own communities. The 2 radio hosts went on to suggest communication in English is essential for joining the workforce. In order to become fluent, someone needs to switch to speaking English, socialize with other people in English for at least 3 years instead of spending more time within the Chinese community and talking mostly in Chinese. When it comes to the younger generation who recently arrive in Canada the radio hosts suggested kids should watch more English language programs and not to focus on the mother-tongue until their English become fluent. Many parents are afraid the kids might lose their mother-tongue in the process of acquiring English. Personally I disagree with the radio hosts when moving to a new country you have to let your mother-tongue slide to acquire the new local language. In the process of acquiring any language is mainly taking the right approach with proper time management. Any opinion on this topic? When someone moves to a new country, is it necessary to give up his/her mother-tongue to achieve fluency in a new language? Or can someone maintain his/her mother-tongue while learning the local language? Edited by shk00design on 08 May 2014 at 5:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3663 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 7 08 May 2014 at 6:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I don't have a personal experience. But I have an aunt and an uncle who moved to Australia in their 40s, with a couple of small kids. My cousins have an excellent English accent and speak perfect greek but with a foreign accent. My uncles speak perfect greek, and really good English with a greek cretan (!) accent.
And that was 40 years ago, I mean since they moved, so no lessons, internet, etc. I think it's possible to do both, as long as a kid is interested in knowing the heritage language and keeps pursuing it. A slight accent is no problem, I think. It's better than not speaking the language at all. My cousins are teaching their children as well, and they all speak greek even if they have only seen Greece on summer holidays. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5114 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 7 08 May 2014 at 6:59am | IP Logged | |||||
First of all, most adults simply won't be able to completely give up their mother tongue. They might reach a point at which they find it easier to communicate in the foreign language and hardly use their native language anymore, but they cannot simply give it up.
In my experience, most school age children can easily learn the local language and maintain their native language if their parents continue to speak their native language to them. Some dedicated mixed language parents even manage to bring up their children trilingually. Pretty much everything that the radio hosts suggested is nonsense, which is not surprising, because they simply didn't know what they were talking about. Edited by Doitsujin on 08 May 2014 at 7:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3893 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 4 of 7 08 May 2014 at 8:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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I wouldn't say that giving up your native language is the way to go, but if you want to achieve a native-like level almost everyone probably has to live their target language, and you can't live your target language if you let your native language (or other languages) take up a huge chunk of your day.
Why do I only read this forum a few times per week, in the mornings before my husband gets up? Because when my day officially starts English is relegated to a work-only language and Swedish is relegated to a family-only language. Since I work from home, and thus don't speak French to co-workers all day, it's the only way I, personally, can ensure that I get enough French (and Breton) in my life. It's nearly impossible to assimilate when you're leading your life in a different language/culture. That's speaking as an adult, of course. From what I've read, it would seem to me children, being put through obligatory schooling etc., almost always assimilate despite having a different home language/culture, and not teaching that from the start is detrimental to the home language, whereas teaching it from the start at most slows both languages (I think? I don't have children so I forget "less important" details like this) inconsiderably in the beginning, while being beneficial for both in the end. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6703 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 7 08 May 2014 at 9:41am | IP Logged | |||||
This reminds me of the old Help me to have a real "native language". As has been said, it's about "living" the new language rather than giving up the native language, and as for maintaining that one - I don't see any problems. It might get rusty, but no other language will be so strong that you forget it. (See my posts in the other thread). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4459 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 7 08 May 2014 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
[On est dans le subforum français, n'est-ce pas ? :-)] Pour autant que je m'en souvienne, au début les enfants bilingues ont un retard de deux ou trois ans en ce qui concerne le vocabulaire mais après assez peu de temps ils atteignent le même niveau que les enfants monolingues du même âge. (As far as I remember, at the start bilingual children show a delay of two to three years as far as vocabulary goes, but after a little time they attain the same level as monolingual children of the same age.) Edited by tastyonions on 08 May 2014 at 12:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4238 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 7 of 7 09 May 2014 at 4:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Don't forget, in N. America we have 2 large countries (Canada & the US) both with English as the official language
except for Quebec. China being a large country where people from every part of the country would be educated in Mandarin we have the same situation. People tend to think you need to focus on 1 language at a time or if you try to learn too many you would not achieve a high level of fluency. Unlike in Europe where you have many small countries close to each other, people don't consider learning and speaking more than 1 language at a time as important. The time you spend in 1 country doesn't guarantee your fluency. Being fluent depends on your social circle and how much time you spend with a language. I know 1 man who works in a Call Centre nearby. His main job is to contact customers by phone. Someone like him has been living in Canada for over 20 years with some post-secondary education. Once he asked me to edit a letter he typed to a local agency. I picked out at least 2 mistakes in every paragraph including the word "witness" that was intended as a verb he had it in the sentence as a noun. Another man who came to Canada from China at about the same age. He attended his senior years of high school in Canada. While he was studying at a local university. He joined a local Chinese church. Besides being fluent in his mother- tongue (Mandarin) and English (both at the native level), he also picked up Cantonese. When it comes to children who are recent immigrants learning & keeping up with their mother tongue: 在加国的华人社区有部分新移民不能用英语沟 通. 他们在中国人的圈子找到工作同时需要管家, 因此没有时间上英语课. 至于下一 代学习多种语言大多数中国人的想法是让孩子 学好一种话然后开始另一种话. "虎妈战歌"的美籍华女作家蔡美儿例外. 因为她不 会说普通话, 她要两个女儿在成 过程跟保姆学中文(母语). 因为 字有相当难度, 只有部分的本地年轻华人会写字虽然很多 可以跟父母和其他中国人说话. In the Chinese community in Canada there are some new immigrants who can't communicate in English. They find work within the Chinese circle and at the same time need to take are of their families, therefore they don't have no time to attend English classes. When it comes to the next generation learning multiple languages the majority of Chinese think they should let their kids learn 1 language well before starting another. The author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" is an exception. Because she can't speak Mandarin, she required her 2 daughters to learn Mandarin (their mother-tongue) with a Chinese nanny when they were growing up. Because writing Chinese is fairly difficult, only a small number of Chinese locals can write the characters although many can speak to their parents and other Chinese. On the other hand, I came across a young lady on YouTube of Chinese ancestry with parents from Taiwan who was enrolled in the Musipire music program in the US. Besides being an accomplished pianist, she also published a book of poetry in Chinese at a young age. Edited by shk00design on 09 May 2014 at 4:33am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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