Scheduling languages

[OlgaLA]

I am trying to plan ahead a little, and I can't decide what to do with spacing the languages I want to learn with my daughter. She is 7, almost 8, a rising 3rd grader. She speaks Russian and English fluently for her age, and we are aiming for true literacy in these two languages. She has also started studying Spanish about 6 months ago. Spanish is useful here, but I would prefer her to learn French as her main foreign language, and she likes it, too. She also wants to learn Latin and Greek (and ancient Egyptian, but I think I convinced her to wait till college for that one.) With learning spoken Armenian thrown into the mix, we are getting 7 languages, which I think is a bit too much and at least some of them will suffer. So, what would be the best way to spread them over time, and which one(s) should I cross out from the list if I want her to know them, not just be acquainted with them (except Armenian, that one will have to stay as everyday conversational language, which I think should take 6 months - 1 year). Oh, and from the Latin/Greek pair she is more interested in Greek.

[Mabelen]

I would trim the language list. Russian, English and Armenian seem to be the heritage/community languages your daughter is/will be exposed to and therefore non negotiable, is that correct? That is 3 languages already even if Armenian is limited to conversational skills.

 

Other than those 3 I would pick just one modern language and one classical language, that still gives her 5 languages which should be plenty. You say your daughter has already been learning Spanish... I would just run with that unless you have very strong reasons to switch her to French. If she has a preference for Greek, then that would be the classical language.

[Ester Maria]

I am trying to plan ahead a little, and I can't decide what to do with spacing the languages I want to learn with my daughter. She is 7, almost 8, a rising 3rd grader. She speaks Russian and English fluently for her age, and we are aiming for true literacy in these two languages. She has also started studying Spanish about 6 months ago. Spanish is useful here, but I would prefer her to learn French as her main foreign language, and she likes it, too. She also wants to learn Latin and Greek (and ancient Egyptian, but I think I convinced her to wait till college for that one.) With learning spoken Armenian thrown into the mix, we are getting 7 languages, which I think is a bit too much and at least some of them will suffer. So, what would be the best way to spread them over time, and which one(s) should I cross out from the list if I want her to know them, not just be acquainted with them (except Armenian, that one will have to stay as everyday conversational language, which I think should take 6 months - 1 year). Oh, and from the Latin/Greek pair she is more interested in Greek.

It's not nearly as bad as you think.

 

First, Russian and English you don't need to worry about or even count as foreign languages. They are the ones your daughter will learn on a native language level, with literature, and if you homeschool her bilingually, she will get to learn content areas in both languages and thus get more than enough exposure to both and master them both properly.

 

Second, you actually have 2+2 formula: Latin and Greek (2 classical ones) and Spanish and French (2 modern ones). 2+2 is more of a rule than an exception in classical schools in Europe, the only "weird" thing about your situation would be that you have two native languages rather than one. If your daughter has already started Spanish, just let her continue. Add classics in middle school period (I suggest 5th grade for Latin and 7th grade for Greek), and I suggest you to postpone French for a little, saving it for 8th-9th grade, so that your daughter gets fairly used to Spanish and the classics before starting French. It doesn't mean that she'll know French any worse than Spanish just because she started it late (she'll also be able to learn more quickly at that stage), and since she has already started Spanish, I think it's valuable to continue that one.

 

Whether or not you're going to learn Armenian "for real" or just develop a sort of passive understanding and basic conversational abilities is up to you. If it's a language she'll be hearing constantly, it might be a good idea to learn it at least a little - an hour a week over many years will amount to something, right?

 

Your daughter is actually in a similar position as are my kids. :) What's Russian for your daughter is Italian for my kids, your Spanish is my kids' Hebrew, French and classics are shared, and what's Armenian to your daughter is probably German to my kids (which they can get by and communicate in, due to exposure, but which they haven't studied formally). It's possible, you just need to dedicate certain amount of time to it. What's crucial is to get a VERY strong grounding in both native languages, and then add the rest, preferrably gradually.

[OlgaLA]

Thank you, ladies.

 

My main problem is that while I don't view Russian as a foreign language, it comes with LA, literature, and history and will stay until graduation. It is much more than a foreign language from the scheduling point of view, so I cannot just not count it. I don't want to overload my daughter too much. But, Ester Maria, you almost convinced me that it is all still possible :) I'll keep your suggested schedule in mind and then make decisions when the time comes.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I actually don't think 7 is too much.

 

I don't think she can actually study 7 languages at once though. But it sounds like she is already proficient in English and Russian, so you could stop considering them "languages" and just do school bilingually.

 

Since she is already studying Spanish, let her get a solid grounding of Spanish is, then add another language in once every year or so. Eventually (hopefully) she'll get to a point in the language where she can drop the official study of it and just read, write, listen, and speak to keep up her knowledge.

 

My DD is 4.5. We speak primarily English. We have been studying French for about 6 months. We *may* be adding in Latin this year. In 2 years, we'll be starting German. If we don't start Latin this year, we'll start around 3rd grade, after having a year of German. Then around 5th-6th grade we'll start Greek. Then in high school, she'll do another modern language, of her choice. That's 6 languages, and this is from an English speaking family, in an English speaking environment. But eventually I'm hoping that we can drop the modern languages as an official study and we will converse in it, read books, watch movies, etc. to keep using our skills.

[OlgaLA]

I thought about it some more. Yes, of course she will not be studying 7 languages at once. That is probably my main problem, I don't want her to study 6 languages and 4 sciences all at once in high school. Or, rather, I am afraid that she won't want it :)

Right now we have 4 languages going. English and Russian are not done as "languages" but as language arts and literature. I tried introducing grammar on a more formal level during our study of Spanish, but she is just not ready yet. So it is more of an immersion right now. Armenian is spoken by a few of her friends, and her dad is Armenian. He speaks Armenian, although it is a foreign language for him, and can correct her. Right now we want her to pick up enough vocabulary and basic grammar to understand and converse with her friends. Unfortunately, it is a rare case when someone here is really literate in Armenian, and definitely not the second generation. All of them switch to English as soon as topic goes beyond basics. So I think we will drop the lessons after a year or so and just leave it to her conversations with friends and her dad. After that I'll add Latin or French. I definitely want her to read classic French literature, especially since I came to realize how often translation kills the original. Now I understand that I should have started with French and added Spanish later, but it is too late now. Oh well. I may drop Spanish somewhere in high school if she is good enough by then and can talk, read, and write fluently AND she is overloaded with other subjects. Of course, it will also somewhat depend on

her academic preferences.

 

I want to thank everyone who answered my question, it is really starting to fall in place in my head :)