Multiple Languages

[mereminerals]

I posted this in the K-8 Board, but thought I would post it over here to see if anyone might have any recommendations.

 

My dd11 has decided that she really wants to learn several languages before she graduates. She has mentioned Italian, Romanian, French, and Chinese. She has also mentioned wanting to learn ASL. She will be in 6th grade next year. I honestly have NO idea where to even start her. She will be working with a lady who teaches Latin next year. Do we just start with Latin and add in a new language every year or two? What would be the best approach to teaching a child multiple languages in a 6 year time span?

 

Thanks!

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

What would be the best approach to teaching a child multiple languages in a 6 year time span?

 

Thanks!

 

I'm not claiming this is the best approach, but my DD started two languages at the same time (Chinese and Spanish), so it doesn't seem necessary to wait a year or two between each language. DD was 9 when we started those two languages (her third and fourth languages, not counting Latin which she did too young and promptly forgot).

As long as the two languges are not similar they can be done at the same time. It is, however, time consuming.

[EthiopianFood]

It is, however, time consuming.

 

How much time do you your students spend a day on languages? Dd isn't even "official" kindergarten age, but we are EASILY spending an hour a day on Mandarin, not including enrichment "for fun" DVDs. I would like to add in Spanish in two school years, but I can't imagine spending two hours a day just for foreign languages with a first grader. :001_huh: I was hoping we could get something accomplished with a hour for Mandarin, then half an hour later in the day for Spanish. Your students are quite a bit older than mine though, so I'm interested in your perspective.

[Rosie_0801]

For ASL, studying seriously for two years will get you to about as fluent as you are able to get. To start, find out what classifiers are and treat them as though they are the most important parts of the language. Work at turning a story (a nursery rhyme is a fine beginning) out of words and into a sort of home movie in your head. Practice the alphabet, and even more importantly, reading it back.

 

I can't recommend resources for classifiers because I use Auslan, not ASL.

 

Rosie

[mereminerals]

For ASL, studying seriously for two years will get you to about as fluent as you are able to get. To start, find out what classifiers are and treat them as though they are the most important parts of the language. Work at turning a story (a nursery rhyme is a fine beginning) out of words and into a sort of home movie in your head. Practice the alphabet, and even more importantly, reading it back.

 

I can't recommend resources for classifiers because I use Auslan, not ASL.

 

Rosie

 

Thank you. My only regret is not starting her earlier in ASL.

[mereminerals]

I'm not claiming this is the best approach, but my DD started two languages at the same time (Chinese and Spanish), so it doesn't seem necessary to wait a year or two between each language. DD was 9 when we started those two languages (her third and fourth languages, not counting Latin which she did too young and promptly forgot).

As long as the two languges are not similar they can be done at the same time. It is, however, time consuming.

 

I think I will have her start ASL and then choose another language for us to work on this school year. Thanks!

[momof2cm]

I grew up learning multiple languages in school. Obviously there is my native language and in 5th grade, we started with French. I had this language all the way through high school. In the 7th grade English was added for the next 6 years. In 9th I had a choice of adding Spanish or German. (for another 3 years) I also had Latin, but that was my choice. Dh had the same languages plus Latin and Greek.

 

Both of us are still fluent in French (because of lack of practice our oral skills are rusty) and English. Dh can still translate Latin and Greek. (the easy stuff anyways)

 

So yes, it is possible to study multiple languages at the same time. It all depends on how much exposure there is.

 

My kiddos are fluent in English and Flemish and are now taking Spanish. Besides them reading with a horrible accent in Flemish, there seems to be no issues. Oh, they both study Latin too!

[Guest jasperraff]

I think it's better if you child learns a language after another. French and Spanish are a bit similar and can be learned one after the other. :) Japanese and Chinese are a bit hard because of the characters that one needs to learn.

[garddwr]

I posted this in the K-8 Board, but thought I would post it over here to see if anyone might have any recommendations.

 

My dd11 has decided that she really wants to learn several languages before she graduates. She has mentioned Italian, Romanian, French, and Chinese. She has also mentioned wanting to learn ASL. She will be in 6th grade next year. I honestly have NO idea where to even start her. She will be working with a lady who teaches Latin next year. Do we just start with Latin and add in a new language every year or two? What would be the best approach to teaching a child multiple languages in a 6 year time span?

 

Thanks!

 

It's wonderful that your daughter has such an interest in languages. I would start by reminding her that if languages are truly a passion she has a lifetime to learn them--she doesn't need to fit it all in before high school graduation! I would suggest picking the language she MOST wants to learn, and starting with that. Learning language, especially outside of an immersion environment, takes a huge investment of time and effort and she will be better off focusing on just one or two and really learning to use them than she will dabbling in five or six but never mastering any. This way she will gain a skill for a lifetime and will also develop her language learning abilities, enabling her to better tackle other languages later. Trying to do too many at a time is likely to result in not going very deep in any and likely not retaining what she does learn.

[Guest AngelicaFlores]

I think you should not begin to learn all these languages all at once or they will turn into an awful mess in your head. Start with the easiest one and after understanding the pattern it will not be so difficult fro you to add new languages to the list.

[SuperDad]

It's wonderful that your daughter has such an interest in languages. I would start by reminding her that if languages are truly a passion she has a lifetime to learn them--she doesn't need to fit it all in before high school graduation! I would suggest picking the language she MOST wants to learn, and starting with that. Learning language, especially outside of an immersion environment, takes a huge investment of time and effort and she will be better off focusing on just one or two and really learning to use them than she will dabbling in five or six but never mastering any. This way she will gain a skill for a lifetime and will also develop her language learning abilities, enabling her to better tackle other languages later. Trying to do too many at a time is likely to result in not going very deep in any and likely not retaining what she does learn.

:iagree:

[cathmom]

I triple agree with the gardener and Super Dad. That scenario is not doable. As I'm reading your post, it sounds like your dd has never even studied a language. She probably doesn't realize how much work it is. I would do perhaps Latin and two others at the most. In college she could possibly add a third if she still wants to.

 

I'm curious why she's interested in Romanian?

[mereminerals]

I triple agree with the gardener and Super Dad. That scenario is not doable. As I'm reading your post, it sounds like your dd has never even studied a language. She probably doesn't realize how much work it is. I would do perhaps Latin and two others at the most. In college she could possibly add a third if she still wants to.

 

I'm curious why she's interested in Romanian?

 

We have introduced her to Latin and worked on it last year. She will be working with a teacher this coming year to get her Latin up to par. She has sat in on ds15's German with me and it came very easy to her.

 

On Romanian, it has been a pull of hers for several years. She feels led to be a missionary and that these are the languages that will be necessary for her. Some of her choices were a surprise for me. This is all totally her pushing for and not mine. Now, if she would just choose Spanish, it would be complete immersion for her as my stepmom and sisters are fluent.

[Embassy]

I posted this in the K-8 Board, but thought I would post it over here to see if anyone might have any recommendations.

 

My dd11 has decided that she really wants to learn several languages before she graduates. She has mentioned Italian, Romanian, French, and Chinese. She has also mentioned wanting to learn ASL. She will be in 6th grade next year. I honestly have NO idea where to even start her. She will be working with a lady who teaches Latin next year. Do we just start with Latin and add in a new language every year or two? What would be the best approach to teaching a child multiple languages in a 6 year time span?

 

Thanks!

 

I don't know how far you can progress on multiple languages in a 6 year time period. How much time per day can she dedicate to study? We are doing multiple languages, but we started quite young. My 4th grader spends about 1.75 hours on languages per school day and progress is slow. If she is highly motivated I might start with more than one and build from there in future years if her interest remains high.

[Nan in Mass]

I have a child who wanted to do multiple languages. He is older now and still interested in languages but more interested in engineering and much more picky about how he studies languages. I chose to do one book-wise, one immersion-wise, and one very badly, aiming just for basic communication skills. That left us not having to spend too much of the school day on languages. I think multiple languages are possible in six years but not without spending a significant amount of time and effort (and probably money) on this and not without periods of immersion. She could probably aquire one by being an exchange student in high school. She could probably study two more for school and put extra time into turning them from study-languages into useful-languages by reading, movies, magazines, you-tube videos, music, conversational partners, and travel/immersion. I highly recommend finding good teachers/tutors and using them right from the beginning. You will get much farther faster that way.

 

Nan

[cloudswinger]

I think it's better if you child learns a language after another. French and Spanish are a bit similar and can be learned one after the other. :) Japanese and Chinese are a bit hard because of the characters that one needs to learn.

 

French and Spanish are similar enough that you will end up confusing them. They (and Romanian!) are Latin based languages, so if you learn Latin, there are enough cognates that you can understand things(but also enough to confuse, again!) Japanese uses Chinese characters, so if you learn Traditional Chinese characters, you will also have a lead on reading some Japanese. Verbally they are completely different. Chinese being a tonal language will also be the more challenging of the two Asian languages, although it's grammatically much simpler than Latin. No declensions or word genders to worry about memorizing. I would do Latin and Chinese together, they are so dissimilar that there really would be no confusion. Then you would have the basis for learning a lot more languages more easily.

[Guest adampaul12]

It is one of the great forum for learning mutliple languages mentioned by the members here.