About me!

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

This post is about me, not the kids.

Last week I registered for a Spanish class. About 25 years ago, my Spanish was better than my English, but the last time I was exposed to it was 20 years ago. Since then, nada. I haven't read it, heard it, spoken it. Nothing at all.

 

So I registered in level 1. At the end of the class, it was already coming back to me! The teacher moved me in level 3! Yesterday was my first level 3 class. My Spanish got even better! During the class, the teacher said I should be level 4, possibly intermediate 1, but those classes were not available at that place.

 

So why am I posting this? For two reasons. The first is that I'm darn proud ;-)

the second is to encourage all of you with bilingual kids. Even if they stop being exposed to the language, it *will* come back to them pretty quickly when needed!

 

And for those who are starting late with their kids, I started Spanish when I was 12yo. I reached fluency at 16. I worked in Spanish at 22 (although just a few months), then dropped the ball completely at 24. And from 12 to 22, my only exposure to Spanish was in class, btw. No immersion experience, just classroom.

[Nan in Mass]

I've seen both my mother and my grandmother pull out a high school-learned language and use it conversationally when needed after a gap of 40 or more years of no exposure at all.

[Joan in GE]

to find that all is not lost.

 

My mom has impressed me with her French when she comes over here and she studied about 55 years ago! She would never be taken as a native but she is not lost.

[Jane in NC]

Cleo,

 

That is just wonderful to hear. And may I say that it is also admirable that you are taking a Spanish class on top of homeschooling and everything else.

 

Applause, applause.

 

Jane

[cathmom]

That's great!

 

I had the same experience with my German and my Spanish after over a decade of not really using either one. It's there.

[Nan in Mass]

And Cleo, I have to say that I think you are talented in languages. : )

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

And Cleo, I have to say that I think you are talented in languages. : )

 

I would highly disagree with that, and so would my parents! I failed English all the way through primary school, and half of high school. At that point, my parents go fed up and shipped me to the UK for a summer. It was 'swim or die' immersion!

 

Spanish was easier to pick up, mainly because the expectations were lower. The classes started easy. And eventually, you would get it. Everyone in my class ended up fluent after 5 years.

 

And after 3 languages, the magic happens, and all others are easy to pick up. Well, maybe not Mandarin. My daughter is attempting it this year, and she's far better than I am.:tongue_smilie:

[Mabelen]

This post is about me, not the kids.

Last week I registered for a Spanish class. About 25 years ago, my Spanish was better than my English, but the last time I was exposed to it was 20 years ago. Since then, nada. I haven't read it, heard it, spoken it. Nothing at all.

 

So I registered in level 1. At the end of the class, it was already coming back to me! The teacher moved me in level 3! Yesterday was my first level 3 class. My Spanish got even better! During the class, the teacher said I should be level 4, possibly intermediate 1, but those classes were not available at that place.

 

So why am I posting this? For two reasons. The first is that I'm darn proud ;-)

the second is to encourage all of you with bilingual kids. Even if they stop being exposed to the language, it *will* come back to them pretty quickly when needed!

 

And for those who are starting late with their kids, I started Spanish when I was 12yo. I reached fluency at 16. I worked in Spanish at 22 (although just a few months), then dropped the ball completely at 24. And from 12 to 22, my only exposure to Spanish was in class, btw. No immersion experience, just classroom.

 

Well done!

 

I also wanted to concur that although starting early is best, it is possible to become bilingual even if you start later in life.

 

I was raised in a Spanish monolingual family, we lived in Madrid and I was a kid during the dictatorship of Franco which forbid the use of regional languages in Spain, so I had zero exposure to anything other than Spanish. My first and very brief experience with English was at school, I vaguely remember having a nun teacher from Puerto Rico who taught us a couple of simple songs and some prayers in English. Then nothing until Middle School when we started having English as a foreign language classes, but they were a total joke. I left High School being able to conjugate the verbs to be, to do, to have and with a very small vocabulary and pretty poor pronunciation.... but for some reason I was naturally good at English and I wanted to learn it well at that point. I went to College and got a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Modern languages with English as my major and Italian as my minor. So, please do not despair, it really is never too late if you have the will.

[Mabelen]

He is originally from Sri Lanka, where he was raised trilingual (Tamil-mother tongue, Sinhalese-majority language, and English-colonial language). He spent one year in Leningrad (St Petersburg) as a Post Graduate student, where he took courses I believe with the help of a translator. We had a family reunion last summer and one of our far flung relatives who has become a very succesful businessman in New York was leaving one of the parties and being picked up by his choffeur, who is originally from the Ukraine. Well, my father in law after I guess 55 years or so of not being exposed to Russian managed to exchange some chatter with the chaffeur. I thought it was simply amazing!

[Earth Angel_79]

WOW! I'm just encouraged after reading all these posts! I have always wanted to learn a variety of languages, but maybe not desperately enough. I am going to make it a goal to have my children exposed to many languages and start trying to master at least one of them myself!

[Ibbygirl]

Bien hecho! Felicitaciones. :) :party: :hurray:

[Renai]

This post is about me, not the kids.

Last week I registered for a Spanish class. About 25 years ago, my Spanish was better than my English, but the last time I was exposed to it was 20 years ago. Since then, nada. I haven't read it, heard it, spoken it. Nothing at all.

 

So I registered in level 1. At the end of the class, it was already coming back to me! The teacher moved me in level 3! Yesterday was my first level 3 class. My Spanish got even better! During the class, the teacher said I should be level 4, possibly intermediate 1, but those classes were not available at that place.

 

So why am I posting this? For two reasons. The first is that I'm darn proud ;-)

the second is to encourage all of you with bilingual kids. Even if they stop being exposed to the language, it *will* come back to them pretty quickly when needed!

 

And for those who are starting late with their kids, I started Spanish when I was 12yo. I reached fluency at 16. I worked in Spanish at 22 (although just a few months), then dropped the ball completely at 24. And from 12 to 22, my only exposure to Spanish was in class, btw. No immersion experience, just classroom.

 

It's nice to read this (from someone other than me!). No one believes me anymore :lol:. I had a similar experience with German, although I was not interested enough in learning German to reach fluency in the 2 years I was there. But, 20 years later, I still had an ear for it, and was able to pick it up rather quickly.

 

I say, it's never too late- whether it's for an older child or an adult!

 

Thanks for providing such a great example and encouragement. Good for you!