Please help with my foreign language plan

[garddwr]

nm

[lewelma]

Do you speak Mandarin?  Are you using a tutor? I would suggest to you that one of these is a requirement, or your children will just be learning to speak gibberish.  The consonant sounds are subtle, and the tones are critical to get right or you are saying a different word.

 

Good Luck,

 

Ruth in NZ

[garddwr]

nm 

 

[Embassy]

We do multiple languages, but haven't tried the method you described.  We do best when utilizing a textbook method with supplements like DVDs, iPad apps, and games.  We do all our languages several times a week and just make slow and steady progress.  I attempted to work with my kids together, but ended up having to split them up and work separately.  They learn at different paces and do much better one-on-one.  It is more time consuming for me though.  

 

Arabian Sinbad is a great resource for learning Arabic vocabulary.  I'm liking My First Chinese Words for younger kids.  It teaches basic vocabulary and sentence structure.  

 

I'd say try it out and see how it works for you.  

[lewelma]

I speak Spanish, French, and Japanese; I have studied German, Arabic, Cantonese, and Russian for at least one semester each, but can't say I speak any of them.

 

Awesome! 

 

We have used a tutor once a week for 3 years. My older boy apparently has a good accent, but still struggled with some of the sounds a full year into his studies.  I would suggest that your once a week review during the off months, would be with a tutor reviewing pronunciation rather than reviewing memory work (words, characters, writing, etc).  I would also suggest that you get started with mandarin with a 3 month intensive rather than a 1 month. 

 

We have also found that the writing is very slow to get started compared to something like spanish.  My older son can read 800 characters but can only write about 100.  Unfortunately, the most commonly used characters are by far not the easiest.  The easiest characters are the really old ones like: man, earth, bow, rain.  The ones you use a lot are more abstract and more difficult to write like: I, is, they, thankyou.  It can be very frustrating!

 

But I am definitely NOT a language person.  This is just our experience with Mandarin in particular.

 

Ruth in NZ

[garddwr]

nm 

 

[lewelma]

I took a year of intensive Japanese in university, and I will tell you that Mandarin is *very* much harder to pronounce.  My attitude has always been for them to get the proper accent when they are young, rather than trying to clean up a mess later.  And I have been told by all 3 of my tutors that there is definitely a certain accent that is the 'best', so you need to consider that when finding a tutor or helper.  Of course, I would not have a clue what the 'best' is, but each of my tutors has interviewed the next one to insure that the 'right' accent is being taught.  All of my tutors have been highly educated - masters or doctorates, so perhaps it is an 'educated' accent --not sure.

 

 

[garddwr]

I took a year of intensive Japanese in university, and I will tell you that Mandarin is *very* much harder to pronounce.  My attitude has always been for them to get the proper accent when they are young, rather than trying to clean up a mess later.  And I have been told by all 3 of my tutors that there is definitely a certain accent that is the 'best', so you need to consider that when finding a tutor or helper.  Of course, I would not have a clue what the 'best' is, but each of my tutors has interviewed the next one to insure that the 'right' accent is being taught.  All of my tutors have been highly educated - masters or doctorates, so perhaps it is an 'educated' accent --not sure.

 

Yes, Japanese pronunciation is quite straightforward--no tones, and most of the sounds are already familiar to English speakers. I would really love to find a native tutor for Mandarin.

[Wilma]

As far as finding a university student, you might could trade them use of your laundry facility and a home-cooked meal for an hour of their time - surely that wouldn't jeopardize their student status. It'd have to be the right person, though, since they'd probably become family-ish.

[garddwr]

As far as finding a university student, you might could trade them use of your laundry facility and a home-cooked meal for an hour of their time - surely that wouldn't jeopardize their student status. It'd have to be the right person, though, since they'd probably become family-ish.

 

Now that is worth looking into :)

[Guest JuniperMtn]

I have several different children learning different languages.  I hadn't thought about trying to teach all the children all the languages, particularly when they are not related, like Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic.  My youngest ones are really enjoying SALSA Spanish (free from Georgia Public Broadcasting). They are able to watch the episodes and pick up a lot of vocabulary on their own. 

 

My oldest is learning Arabic and we have looked for the right combination for him. I have put some of the Arabian Sinbad YouTube playlists on my computer to listen to while I work around the house, and the younger children love the music.  Even though they don't consider themselves to be learning Arabic, their interest level is high after watching the clips.  They have favorite songs and are picking up the vocabulary on their own.  As for a tutor, I think it is necessary.  Arabic has a lot of sounds that aren't in our language.  We have been taking an Arabic class through Critical Language Service which uses Skype so we can interact with native teachers from Egypt. They have been very accommodating of our scheduling needs and I think would be able to make arrangements for tutoring if you contacted them.  If you were to use tutors as a supplement to what they were learning from apps and videos, the time would probably be very well used in relation to whatever cost was involved. FYI, the Arabic that I have found most available is Modern Standard Arabic, which isn't usually used for speaking, but is necessary for learning to read the Quran or newspapers.  What we consider "Arabic" includes very many dialects which may not be mutually understood. Picking up available resources as you find them might result in a patchwork effect over time if you don't know which dialect you are learning from any particular source.

[EmilyGF]

I think you should write a purpose statement for your homeschool and your language learning. Choosing three languages in three different alphabets is pretty exhausting and you should know what your goals are. Also, doing three intensive languages means you are choosing not to do something else. Smart kids in Europe often learn three or four languages, but they start them at an older age (4th or 5th grade) and generally add on one a year. Then most drop all besides English as they begin to focus on their future studies.

 

I liked the NYT article arguing that Spanish should be learned by all kids and can be learned as a hobby because it is easy for English learners but that Chinese is practically a career.

 

I'm going at add that for a while my niece was learning Chinese and Arabic - but she wasn't learning Spanish and she was being taught Chinese by her dad (who grew up speaking it) and Arabic by her nanny while living in an Arabic speaking country. Now back in the USA, they have chosen not to continue her Arabic.

 

The languages may make total sense for your family. Good luck if they do. :-) I've chosen to focus on German because I speak it, and I try to speak it at least 2 hours a day with my kids. My goal is reasonable competency in expression and passive fluency. When they are in upper elementary, I'll have them learn some Spanish or Latin. Not quite sure which, yet. By high school, I think I'll have them down to one language, likely German, and have them do literature in that language because I expect they will have more important things to do.

 

Emily

[Embassy]

Does anyone know of any great resources I should look into, or have recommendations or ideas for the study of multiple languages? Do you think my 1 month intensive study rotation could work? I'm really hoping it will get us all speaking the language we are studying intensively that month. When we have tried to study each language every week I just feel like things are too fragmented and we don't make much progress.

 

Oh, in addition to this dd10 is studying Koine Greek using the Elementary Greek series--she loves this and does it on her own. Ds8 wants to study French and I haven't yet found any resources I love. I might just have him see what progress he can make with Duolingo.

:bigear:  What did you decide to do?  How did it work?

 

I started something last week that seemed to work well, but we do multiple languages during the same week.  I've had a list of assignments that I had my kids complete until mastery, but we weren't making great progress.  Last week I set weekly goals and set aside 90 minutes at the start of our school day to work on the goals.  My kids made so much more progress that way.  

[Embassy]

Do you speak Mandarin?  Are you using a tutor? I would suggest to you that one of these is a requirement, or your children will just be learning to speak gibberish.  The consonant sounds are subtle, and the tones are critical to get right or you are saying a different word.

 

Good Luck,

 

Ruth in NZ

 

Not necessarily.  I am not a native Mandarin speaker and we have only started using a tutor occasionally this school year.  We spent years learning Mandarin without a tutor and when the tutor met my kids she was impressed with their pronunciation.  We have focused on ear training though.  You can't say a sound correctly if you don't hear the difference between the subtle sounds or tones.  

[Hunter]

Are you focused on the process or the product?

 

For product, it's best to work on one language at a time.

 

Not everything needs to be about product, though. If you and your kids like to study multiple languages, because it's fun in the here and now, that is a valid reason to do it.