Other languages

[curiouspk]

ok i decided to make this a poll
yeah my first poll

ok Why don't we start teaching other languages at a younger age?
as of right now unless you are taught by an outside source you don't start learning you 2nd language untill you are a sophmore ar junior in high school
while mexico and some other "3rd world" countries start when they are young
studies show that if you teach kids stuff (music, language, etc.) when they are young they are more likely to remember it as they go through life.
What's y'alls catch on this?

I teach spanish to elementary kids by the way.

[dolfan]

I'm glad you mentioned this. My wife and I have always said we'd teach Spanish to any child we had while young. We have a 16 month old girl. I know not one el-licko of Spanish. My wife minored in it in college.

Here's my question: Are there any GOOD systems, programs, techniques for teaching a language to your child when neither of you uses it, and when one of you is absolutely devoid of any knowledge of it??

[curiouspk]

ok this is what we have been teaching the elementary kids
we've been teaching them to say theings they already know
i.e. colors, months, seasons, etc.
since your child is so young you might want to teach her the spanish along side the english
and teach her to form sentences as she get older
and you'll find as you teach her that you will learn it too
ask your wife
its a whole lot easier thatn english

[James]

My grand-nephew started learning Spanish in kindergarten. He lives in Texas, where there is a large number of Mexican people. They learned their songs in both English and Spanish. Many of the schools, here, are bi-lingual. My grand-nephew is in one of those schools. I wish I'd learned more Spanish when I was younger. I learned a lot from a Puerto Rican. I have forgotten most of it, but, at least, I can order dinner. Dos Tacos, por favor.

[Mole_J]

I would think that if put a child around a language they will pick it up fairly easy. I could be by music or people speaking Spanish around them.

I trying to learn Spanish now. My problem I am not discplined enough to study it everyday. Just studying it maybe twice a week when I go to class, so it is a slow process.

There is a book by Barry Farber named How to Learn Any Language, however it is over 10 years old now. It is short about 150 pages. Here is more information on the book on Amazon

[RaceRunner]

Homeschoolers use these:

http://www.power-glide.com/

[Gerald Creasy]

I've taken three languages in school, fluent in none, half peck my way through a written thing sometimes.

But I think the reason other coutries teach other languages is because ENGLISh will become the dominant language of the world, before it's all said and done.

[TW]

Just a question.

"Could it be that most don't even master English?" i.e. Capitalization, punctuation, grammer, and spelling.


TW

[curiouspk]

let me poss a question to your question
what happens when kids do better in spanish than they do english?

it is from my experence that spanish is easier that english
it has a lot of patterns and very little exceptions
everyone i have talked to has said the same thing

[Pastor Gary]

But I think the reason other coutries teach other languages is because ENGLISh will become the dominant language of the world, before it's all said and done.

Here are some statistical facts:
• Currently English is the second most spoken language in the world;
• Is is predicted that by the year 2050 English will drop to 5th place, following…
#1 = Mandarin Chinese
#2 = Hindustani
#3 = Arabic, and
#4 = Spanish

English will still be a dominant language in commerce and diplomacy, but not in the number of speakers worldwide.

[TW]

curiouspk,

English is more difficult to learn than Spanish, or
French or most other western languages. This is because English is grammatically a Germanic language with a heavy lean toward Latin in it's vocabulary. To put it simply, it's a linguistic nightmare.

We can thank William, Duke of Normandy for that.


TW

[Gerald Creasy]

English will still be a dominant language in commerce....

And THAT is my point.