cdgni Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 My dd (age 10) is trilingual (English, Russian and French). She knows some Arabic. She understands more Arabic than she can pronounce. We will live here for another year and move to non Arabic speaking country. I imagine she'll stay in French school, so I don't think she will forget it. However, I am concerned about Russian and Arabic. She is fluent in oral Russian but doesn't read or write. If we moved away and she didn't continue to speak it- would the language stay in the brain for easy recall many years later? What about the Arabic? I don't imagine that she will retain the language, but the fact that she understands 50-70% of what is being said.. will it be easy to recall later if she should want to study it again? Young children learn and forget languages easily- what about 11 year olds? Cathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 German woman who is fluent in English, French, German and Korean was visiting us recently and said something about having to reinforce a language after the age of 10yo if it was learned before. I don't know where to find that information and I'd never heard of it, but it does seem to fit with people's experience... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 I researched this and the answer I got was that you had to keep the language going until about age 13, preferably closer to 15. I don't know if this is connected to brain changes at puberty. This finding came from a researcher who had done work on 'second language attrition' - you might like to do some searches on those terms. Best wishes Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Thank you for that info. It's exactly what I (probably Cathy too) was looking for but didn't know what to search under. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdgni Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 Thank you. This is the exact information that I was looking for. One more assignment to a Russian speaking country and then I can choose someplace else! I'll have to let the Arabic fall by the wayside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Or, you could pick some Arabic books and have "Arabic days" on Tues/Thurs....just to keep some of it:-) My husband learned his Russian...through the language cds that start with "P" and he sounds like he's always spoken it. (or so the russian's here say) The only difference as far as how he speaks...is he doesn't use the "slang" he's more proper... So, hearing Arabic...might help keep it up. The way he learned ...was they said a sentence...and he repeated...or answered questions... You might be able to think of what to have someone record for you...and take a few cds with you. Just a thought:-) Carrie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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