8th grade DD is very interested in foreign languages

[Rhonda in TX]

DD has never been interested in foreign languages. She finally chose Latin because she would not have to speak it. She is doing First Form Latin this year. She is doing well and is loving it. She's now talking about wanting to learn other languages as well. She'll continue with Latin, but we'll probably add Spanish next. She's also interested in learning an Asian language. She can take CC classes in a couple of years.

 

Any thoughts? How feasible is this? I want to encourage her, but I want to be realistic as well.

Edited October 14, 2011 by Rhonda in TX
chose Latin because she would NOT have to speak it - forgot the "not"

[jhschool]

Hi

 

I suggest Japanese, which is *very* orderly.

First, learn all the Hiragana (symbols with sounds).

Then, learn the Katakana (same).

Don't bother learning Kanji right now.

Learn a lot of vocabulary--buy little kid's vocabulary books

and have her learn them.

Also get Japanese for Busy People.

Once she has a vocabulary of 500-1000 words and has

read the book, it's time to either get her a tutor or sign her

up for a Community class.

1 hour a day--no skipping days! for 6 months should get you

on track.

 

----

 

Spanish is very easy--do that too. Read, read, read!

Anything in your library and use a dictionary.

30 minutes a day for 6 months and then start buying methods

and workbooks.

You can take classes too--those are everywhere, in Co-ops

too.

 

----

 

Definitely feasible!

 

 

J

[kiana]

Take it one year at a time. If two works okay, move to three if she still wants to. If three is too hard, she can drop one. :)

[Nancy in NH]

My 14 yr old ds loves studying languages, and it all started with Latin. He began Latin in 4th, adding Greek (Koine) in 6th, and this year he has decided to study French as well. I have tried to keep up my own study of Latin, though he is barreling ahead of me at the moment. He has studied Greek mostly independently, and we just began tackling French together at a slow pace, along with his 10 year old sister. So, based on my experience with him, I would say let her go for it. If the enthusiasm is there, she is bound to enjoy it and work hard at it. You can always slow the pace or drop something, if it gets to be too much.

 

I think it's worth considering adding in one language at a time, in order to gain some familiarity with the language before jumping into another. But then again, my son seems to have no problem switching gears, so I could be dead wrong about that. He hasn't attempted to begin two new languages at a time, but I'm sure there are kids out there that would have no problem doing so. Then again, I suppose one might consider computer programming akin to learning a language, so I stand corrected if that counts--my son took that up this year also. So many languages, so little time! One day he'll be multi-lingual, and I'll be saying, "In English, please!" Enjoy the adventure!

Nancy in NH

 

 

 

 

 

DD has never been interested in foreign languages. She finally chose Latin because she would have to speak it. She is doing First Form Latin this year. She is doing well and is loving it. She's now talking about wanting to learn other languages as well. She'll continue with Latin, but we'll probably add Spanish next. She's also interested in learning an Asian language. She can take CC classes in a couple of years.

 

Any thoughts? How feasible is this? I want to encourage her, but I want to be realistic as well.

[Nan in Mass]

One of them was Japanese.

 

I think it is important to define your goal for each language. If you don't, it is possible to spend lots of time dabbling and not really get anywhere useful in any of them. It takes a lot of time to learn a language to the bilingual point. If you are trying to become fully bilingual in one language, you may have to sacrifice other subjects in order to add other languages. There are many useful levels of language below the bilingual point. How you study a language has a lot to do with how you are going to be able to use that language. Can you speak Latin or just read it? There is speaking, understanding spoken language, writing, and reading, and there is foreign-to-English and English-to-foreign. My experience if you practise only three of those eight combinations, you will struggle in the other seven. There is lots of overlap, of course, and you can study a few of the combinations and then with a bit of practice, convert them to the others later. My point is just that to be fully bilingual requires a huge vocabulary and being able to do all eight of those things easily. By defining your goals for each language, you can free up lots of time, unless you are aiming for bilingualness in all of them. If you just want to be able to travel in a language, for example, you don't have to be able to write much more than your name in the language, you only need to be able to read signs, maps, and directions, you need to be able to speak and understand (different from recognizing written words where the root is obvious and you don't need to pick out the meanings from a fast stream of words run together), and you need a limited vocabulary (you don't have to know how to say slave or electron or soldering iron).

 

jhschool's advice about learning Japanese is perfect, I think, at least in our experience. We did that much and then my son went to Japan for a month. If he had wanted to continue to study Japanese, we definately would have needed a tutor or a class. We had come to the point where we were moving at the speed of molasses sigh. My advice is to find a good tutor for all your foreign languages once you are past the very beginning, if you want to make progress fast.

 

Another thing to consider is that if you get to the point where you can read the language fairly well, you can double up your subjects and study, say, history in that language.

 

If you can find a tutor, you can practise conversation via skype. Pimsleur tapes are good, too, as a beginning. Then you will need a tutor.

 

Last tip : )

Reading children's books is a great way to grow your vocabulary. After one month of cc Spanish, I am able to read children's book!!! (There is a lot of vocab that looks the same as Latin or French.) I am really excited because this is a pleasant way of studying and sticks in my mind much better than memorizing lists.

 

-Nan

[angela in ohio]

My oldest is in Latin II and Spanish I this year, as well as a co-op ASL course (not for credit, she needs it for her volunteer job.)

 

My second is more into languages. She is in Latin I and Spanish A (half of first year high school Spanish,) the ASL class, and studies Greek on her own (Elementary Greek, Year 3.)

 

They are also both very interested in computer languages, grammar, and linguistics. They take the National Computational Linguistics Olympiad and it ties it all together.

 

As long as they are getting in the basic college-prep requirements, I let them add on as much as they want. Another language? Sure. :D

 

I would definitely keep going with the Latin. Those concepts (and sometimes vocabulary) will help in any language learned. Decide one second language (we chose Spanish) and then let her play to her hearts content in others. The first two years of Latin present all the grammar (in a typical program) and then they spend the last two reading, so there is an opportunity to introduce another language in years three and four with some ease, too.

[Aquinas Academy]

DDs 13 and 15 are both doing three or four foreign languages, depending on what you consider foreign. DH is francophone and the girls are fairly fluent in French, but it's not their mother tongue. They are also studying Latin, Attic Greek, and either Norwegian (DD 13) or Icelandic (DD 15).

Learning several languages is certainly possible, it just takes time. Our school days are long, in part because of all those languages. I've told both DDs that if they want to drop a language I will probably let them, but so far they enjoy all of them too much. :)

[Storm Bay]

DDs 13 and 15 are both doing three or four foreign languages, depending on what you consider foreign. DH is francophone and the girls are fairly fluent in French, but it's not their mother tongue. They are also studying Latin, Attic Greek, and either Norwegian (DD 13) or Icelandic (DD 15).

Learning several languages is certainly possible, it just takes time. Our school days are long, in part because of all those languages. I've told both DDs that if they want to drop a language I will probably let them, but so far they enjoy all of them too much. :)

What is your 15 yo doing to learn Icelandic?

[Rhonda in TX]

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement. DD has never been very enthused about school, so it's nice to see her excited about something. I think we'll consider adding another language in the spring. :)

[Aquinas Academy]

What is your 15 yo doing to learn Icelandic?

This, along with communicating with some people she knows in Iceland.

[Storm Bay]

This, along with communicating with some people she knows in Iceland.

Thanks! My cousin has a second Bachelor degree in Icelandic that she did in Iceland, and I've thought about learning it (our mothers' heritage).