Paul's Gal Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 (edited) We have a bit of a problem here in our home. The kids will sometimes put a Latin verb ending on a Greek verb, will add a Latin word to negate a Greek sentence, add a Spanish preposition to a Latin phrase, etc. I don't think that the languages are "running together"; rather, I believe that they're combining languages for sake of ease. Perhaps. Hmm... Anyway, any suggestions? We speak and school only in Spanish, but they will occasionally say something like, "No quiero hacer dividing esto con el". I know that's sheer laziness on their part, to avoid a more difficult word. Thoughts? www.meanolmama.blogspot.com Edited November 26, 2008 by Paul's Gal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted November 22, 2008 Share Posted November 22, 2008 perfectly normal. It will sort itself out if they don't hear anyone else outside the family talking like that (and I doubt there are many kids out there who can mix English Spanish Latin and Greek!) Having seen many multilingual kids grow up, I wouldn't worry one iota! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 I find myself doing that, it happens. If I'm looking for a German word but can't think of it, I get in "foreign language" mode, the Spanish and Russian words will pop up in my head. This is useful for conversational Spanish/Italian where the words are very close! Otherwise, not so useful, although I met an individual from one of the former Russian countries in 1991, he preferred speaking German to Russian--he hated the Russians, so this was a good slip-up for him! Also, my German is much better than my Russian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 This is totally normal. It's not laziness, it's just the way our minds work. I remember having the same process occur when I was taking college German--I'd find myself inserting a French word, or conjugating German words as if they were French. As Cleo said, it will sort itself out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 And you know, after 5 years of learning Latin, I still can't write one word! I can read it, (not advanced Latin though!) I don't have to translate as I read, I get what I read right away, but I can't speak, I can't write. Why? It comes out effortlessly in Spanish! Now if you had asked me to write something in Spanish, I would not be able to. But if I try Latin, the Spanish I didn't know I remembered comes out rushing. That's because I learned Spanish as a teen, and Latin in my 40's. What you learn before the age of 20 stays with you for a LONG LONG time.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Yeah - that happens around here. We laugh and move on. Best wishes Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Just adding my agreement that it is normal and will sort itself out. They obviously understand the materials if, mixing languages noted, they are using the forms correctly :D. Oh, well, it does right itself, it's a normal process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momof165 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 That's perfectly normal. It happens at our house all the time. We are studying three languages at this time - and ds 9 uses all of them at once. We just smile :) and go on from there. At times, we (dh and myself) have a hard time keeping all of our languages straight - so, how can we excpect from our ds 9 to be better than we are! :D Sonja __________________________________ Homeschooling JUST ONE - ds 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friederike in Persia Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 is the rule I try to reinforce in our home, though it gets broken plenty, esp. by ds 5. :001_smile: I still think it's a good thing to aim for though and I find that the older they get, the more they're able to stick to it. However, one of our favourite games is to build a sentence with as many languages as possible. 18 was our record so far, but that was with some visitors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violin69 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 We have a bit of a problem here in our home. The kids will sometimes put a Latin verb ending on a Greek verb' date=' will add a Latin word to negate a Greek sentence, add a Spanish preposition to a Latin phrase, etc. I don't think that the languages are "running together"; rather, I believe that they're combining languages for sake of ease. Perhaps. Hmm...Anyway, any suggestions? We speak and school only in Spanish, but they will occasionally say something like, "No quiero hacer [i']dividing[/i] esto con el". I know that's sheer laziness on their part, to avoid a more difficult word. Thoughts? www.meanolmama.blogspot.com We live in Slovakia and are learning Slovak. The kids aren't fluent in portuguese; my husband & I are. My daughter turned to a Slovak classmate the other day and asked "Que isso?" When he looked at her funny, she repeated herself then it dawned her that she wasn't speaking Slovak. We all mix languages especially my husband and I. Sometimes all in the same sentence! I don't think it is all laziness as the mind sometimes has funny ways of processing language. I'd suggest gently having them repeat their sentence with the proper correction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 (edited) o Edited February 13, 2009 by Joan in Geneva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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