Annette Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hello I am new to posting, but have been reading for a long time and love all the ideas shared here. My 10yo son is interested in learning Chinese (says he would like to live in Shanghi someday). We have been getting lots of Chinese language books from the library. My plan for him this year is Prima Latina and Rosetta Stone Spanish. To me this is the most practical road to take. My fear is that if I discourage him now that he won't want to pick up Chinese again in high school (like recommended in WTM). But, I do not think learning Chinese right now is the best choice. My thought is that I would stick with MY plan and just purchase him some simple workbooks on Chinese like we have been borrowing from the library just to keep his interest. But part of me says to go with what he wants and skip the Spanish for now. If the desire is there right now, I feel like I should encourage it. What would you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summer Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 I think it is best to go with his plan. Chinese is very hard to learn and can take a long time to get. I would work on the Chinese. Also, Chinese is the most common language in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Guess I'd really evaluate how important the spanish is to you. I wanted to study russian when I was his age, and that desire stuck with me till I actually had the opportunity to. I've dabbled in chinese for my dd, and frankly it's a prety hard language to learn. You just have to honestly evaluate your resources and what you can make happen. I'd give him anything he wants to do independently but be honest if you can't find a good resource for him for right now. It might be something that just has to wait a while. But if you can find a resource you like (a class, auralog, whatever), then I'd do that over the spanish. Also, just as an observation, if he has a linguistic gift/bent, PL is going to be way easy for him. I'd put him into LfC or something with a better clip. Learning one language, especially a grammatically complex one, is going to open his mind to the concepts of how languages work, making the next one easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 HelloI am new to posting, but have been reading for a long time and love all the ideas shared here. My 10yo son is interested in learning Chinese (says he would like to live in Shanghi someday). We have been getting lots of Chinese language books from the library. My plan for him this year is Prima Latina and Rosetta Stone Spanish. To me this is the most practical road to take. My fear is that if I discourage him now that he won't want to pick up Chinese again in high school (like recommended in WTM). But, I do not think learning Chinese right now is the best choice. My thought is that I would stick with MY plan and just purchase him some simple workbooks on Chinese like we have been borrowing from the library just to keep his interest. But part of me says to go with what he wants and skip the Spanish for now. If the desire is there right now, I feel like I should encourage it. What would you do? OH, I hear you! I'm in the same boat, but dd wants to learn Japanese so she can go to Japan and see Hello Kitty. IMO, not a compelling reason to learn Japanese! So, I was debating between French and Spanish. Someone pointed out last night that the US's Spanish-speaking population is rising, so Spanish is the most practical language to learn, generally speaking. The same person also pointed out that most major countries in the world teach their students English, so most likely anywhere you'd go, you'd find English being spoken, or at least known. I've nixed Japanese for now. If dd wants to learn it on her own time, fine; but it's not going to be a part of our school. I'm on the fence over French or Spanish. I've taken Spanish in high school and college and it would be the easiest for me to teach, but dd says she is more interested in French. So, I've not decided what to do yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 I think it is best to go with his plan. Chinese is very hard to learn and can take a long time to get. I would work on the Chinese. Also, Chinese is the most common language in the world. Not necessarily. Yes, it's true there are more people, numbers-wise, who speak Chinese; they're all in China, so it's not like Spanish or English, were it's used in more places in the world. Here's a map that shows what languages are spoken in what countries. Very interesting! http://www.allcountries.org/maps/world_language_maps.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 I would drop the Spanish and work with both Latin and Chinese. Better to work with a child's interest than against them. Last year, because we had the opportunity to travel to France, we did French very casually. Next year dss may have the opportunity to travel with dh to an Aikido event in Japan. They're having a great time with Rosetta Stone Japanese this summer, which we'll continue throughout the school year. Does your library have Rosetta Stone Chinese? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Chinese is a great idea if you have a tutor. I really don't recommend it otherwise: the tones are so hard for non-native speakers to get, and he will really need drilling. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Yes: Mandarin is spoken in China, Singapore and Taiwan. Apart from that, it's a minority (community) language in lots of countries, but not much use as a medium for communication. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hi, I'm new too and have also been lurking around for a while (do people introduce themselves here or just jump in??) Anyway, my two 10yo dds just took a really great Chinese course direct from China - every night at 8pm, they would log onto the computer (had to be two separate ones), and they had a teacher in Beijing (it was 8am there) videolink up and give them lessons, have conversations with them, etc. They also had a book and homework, and there were two other kids in the class somewhere else. I was really impressed with what they learned and how the whole class went (and my expectations are very high). It was also really reasonably priced! They had 10 classes over a 2-week period. We're learning two other foreign languages (I may qualify as a junkie), but I've been thinking of asking them if we can get another class together maybe next summer so we can continue. They sound very flexible as far as scheduling classes. Here's the link to their website: http://www.guavatalk.com/chinese/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 Thanks so much for the ideas! I have been looking at Rosetta Stone, but because of the expense and the impracticality of learning Chinese at this point I have held off. I have not looked into it at the library. How would that work? Would I have to take him to the library everyday to access it? I don't really want to invest in a tutor at this point either. They do teach it at the public school, I don't know that the teacher is a native speaker of Chinese though. Would that be like having a tutor? Thanks for the Latin advice, what is LfC? Is it mentioned in the book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette Posted July 18, 2008 Author Share Posted July 18, 2008 I will be looking into the website, it sounds like something that would work for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyR Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 LFC is Latin for Children . Their program works at a much faster clip then Prima Latina. It all depends on what you want. My 10yr old grasps learning foreign languages well and we started with Prima Latina regardless. I think its working well for us. LFC( Latin for Children) does teache more words per level then the LC program. But to me that's okay. I'd rather have them have a solid foundation. http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/FLASH/lfc_intro.html Also if you will be teaching two languages you may just want to stick with the PL as not to make him feel overwhelmed with having to switch back and forth too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obi-Mom Kenobi Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Why? Because we want to. Because the chance to reclaim a bit of my son's family history is intriguing to me. Because pedaling under an old windmill on a deserted bike path makes me shake with happiness. Because my son could wander the winding canal paths of Delft for days and not get bored. I firmly believe that any language that you want to learn should be a language you have the opportunity to learn. Spanish isn't going away. Your son can always learn it later, should he choose to or need to, but to remove a desired language because it's not "practical" is like removing all your pretty shoes in the closet because they're not "sensible". *shudder* Please, please go with the language that your son is loving and don't eliminate it just because you can't see the point to it. The Chinese and Indian economies are the fastest growing in the world. Who's to say that his interest in one of those languages isn't the best idea he's ever had? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Do you live in a community with a significant Asian population? My dd2 is adopted from Taiwan and I want both of my dds to learn mandarin (and I want to learn it too). In our area we have a Chinese school that meets on Saturday mornings. The parents send their kids there to learn the language and culture. You don't have to be Chinese to attend. It is very reasonably priced and I am soooo excited about enrolling dd1 this fall. Maybe a program like this exists in your area? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Chinese school (or German, or French) is very commen in my part of the country. A neighbor boy has been doing Chinese school on Saturday mornings for 4 or 5 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 My boys are starting Chinese school in Scotland. There it is largely for children who speak Chinese at home, but who need to work on reading and writing. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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