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maize

maize

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I hear you, it's hard trying to figure out where to go. I currently don't really know the destination. I do know that as a English/Spanish home, both girls need to be bilingual - speaking, reading, writing.

 

I started learning German informally as a teen when I lived there for two years (dad is retired military). I don't remember a lot, but can figure out some reading, and have an ear for it. I took Spanish in 8th and 9th grades (while in Germany!) but didn't look at it again until I was junior in college. Still didn't help until I met my husband a year later, then mostly learned through immersion, although grammar gimmicks came to mind periodically (-o, -as, -a, -amos, -an). I've been speaking for 20 years now.

 

While I was taking Spanish in college, I befriended girls from Taiwan and Tokyo. You know where I'm going with this... but, I eventually dropped Mandarin for Japanese because I was scared of the tones. I didn't get past the hiragana and katakana and conversational vocabulary, but was working out sentence structures by looking at (not reading) Japanese sentences in instructions and things. I'm weird like that. When I had my oldest, I introduced German and Japanese and bought those First 1000 Words in... books. It wasn't until later that my oldest took to earnest the Japanese, and the youngest decided she liked German better (we had a German neighbor).

 

When I taught preK, I had 4-year old children telling me they couldn't play with certain other children because they didn't talk the same. So, they were all learning something new - by the end of the year, they could sing the good morning song in English, Spanish, and German, and were greeting each other in 10 languages.

 

So, Chinese. I work for VIPKID, teaching English to children in China. They had a special for their teachers to have our children take Chinese classes with their sister company, Lingobus. So now, here we are. Since they are currently emphasizing pinyin more than what I would like (Gymnast is not reading both her languages fluently yet, so I really don't want another Roman-letter-based teaching), so I put her in a class on Outschool. I teach there, and use the teachers there. It's been great.

 

I'm a mishmash of languages. But I can teach Spanish well. :D

 

That's my story.

I think we are kindred spirits :)

 

I come from an internationally mobile family--in just two generations (myself and husband, our siblings and their spouses, and all the kids of the above) we have people born in ten different countries and a total of more than twenty countries lived in. You'll generally hear a few different languages just at a family reunion.

 

But my kids are growing up entirely in the US, and I failed at my dream of creating a truly multilingual home. They've had exposure to languages at least. My 7 year old is in a Chinese immersion school, and my older kids meet weekly with a Chinese tutor. The 14 year old wants to attend a StarTalk Arabic camp this summer.

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katilac
katilac

You know, saying "ignore this thread" to this group is like saying "don't push the big red button!" 

ErinE
ErinE

Homeschoolers.     They always think the rules don't apply to them.

purpleowl
purpleowl

Ignore this post in this thread.

Jean in Newcastle

Jean in Newcastle

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I learned Japanese at the same time I learned English. But Japanese was the “outside the house†language and English was the “inside the house†language. I was about six months behind my Japanese friends in language development. They would switch from Japanese baby talk and it would take me that long to notice and switch!

 

I had a Japanese teacher twice a week during elementary school who taught us to read and write from Japanese elementary textbooks. I learned up to sixth grade kanji. But kanji requires constant review to maintain and I haven’t done that. But I have done a kanji app where I can “guess†most of the kanji without consciously knowing why I know which is the right one.

 

I was kicked out of high school Japanese when I tried to take it for “knowing too muchâ€. So technically I have never formally learned to speak Japanese.

 

I have dabbled in Spanish. And Portuguese. And Russian. And Chinese. And French. (My French teacher thought it hilarious that I spoke French with a Japanese accent. )

 

I was forced to take Latin in high school. I was able to teach Ds through tenth grade. I took a preliminary Hebrew class in seminary. I took a lot more koine Greek in seminary.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Renai

Renai

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I think we are kindred spirits :)

 

I come from an internationally mobile family--in just two generations (myself and husband, our siblings and their spouses, and all the kids of the above) we have people born in ten different countries and a total of more than twenty countries lived in. You'll generally hear a few different languages just at a family reunion.

 

But my kids are growing up entirely in the US, and I failed at my dream of creating a truly multilingual home. They've had exposure to languages at least. My 7 year old is in a Chinese immersion school, and my older kids meet weekly with a Chinese tutor. The 14 year old wants to attend a StarTalk Arabic camp this summer.

 

This is awesome! I'm the only one in my family that really got into languages.

 

Gymnast just turned 7 at the beginning of this month, and I think she takes after me. She wants to learn all the things! So, we started with Lingobus here:  https://www.lingobus.com/home?referralCode=8ZMEL6. T hese are one-to-one classes.  She likes them, but I think the teachers are expecting her to read pinyin too much right now. I'd rather she just learn the characters. (referral link that will get you two free classes if you decide to buy a package) She loves most of the teachers she's had.

 

Currently, I have her taking a class with an Outschool teacher: https://outschool.com/classes/first-year-chinese-for-young-learners-part-1-HybSE9Oo?sectionUid=ddb3405f-6dd1-4c5e-bbe5-1861d5d97955#abjch1hxpn. She (we) are learning Chinese using riddles, and learning the characters. We had to buy a native text for the class, but it came with a code to access online homework.  I think we'll eventually get back to Lingobus, but we're enjoying this class, too. She doesn't have her whole series listed yet, though.

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maize

maize

Posted
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I learned Japanese at the same time I learned English. But Japanese was the “outside the house†language and English was the “inside the house†language. I was about six months behind my Japanese friends in language development. They would switch from Japanese baby talk and it would take me that long to notice and switch!

 

I had a Japanese teacher twice a week during elementary school who taught us to read and write from Japanese elementary textbooks. I learned up to sixth grade kanji. But kanji requires constant review to maintain and I haven’t done that. But I have done a kanji app where I can “guess†most of the kanji without consciously knowing why I know which is the right one.

 

I was kicked out of high school Japanese when I tried to take it for “knowing too muchâ€. So technically I have never formally learned to speak Japanese.

 

I have dabbled in Spanish. And Portuguese. And Russian. And Chinese. And French. (My French teacher thought it hilarious that I spoke French with a Japanese accent. )

 

I was forced to take Latin in high school. I was able to teach Ds through tenth grade. I took a preliminary Hebrew class in seminary. I took a lot more koine Greek in seminary.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got called out for speaking Japanese with a Spanish accent :)

 

One Japanese funny:

 

I spent a couple of months studying the language intensively before moving to Japan. We were taught somewhat formal speech--verbs ending in -masu etc.

 

But I found that when I tried to communicate in Japan people would pick up on my low language fluency level and would talk to me as they would to a child--except I had never learned those forms.

 

It sure was a confusing language at first!

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Tsuga

Tsuga

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Jo keeps getting emails from West Point. :huh:

 

 

 

Do you think someone is watching us? Cuz if so, they need to know that my kid is my radical opposite.

 

They target excellence. I'd be flattered and move on. Well I mean I wouldn't because DD 2 would be awesome at one of those academies...but in your situation I'd move on. :D

 

Ds got a phone call from an army recruiting office the other day as a “follow up “. I asked Ds about it and he said that he hadn’t initiated any contact. I’m pro military but Aspie plus army would be a disaster.

 

I agree. Did he just register for selective service?

 

My kids do that, too. I’m like, “do you not notice that there is someone else talking to me right now?? Wait yer turn, Sparky.â€

 

I HATE THAT. I am like "you know that mom you see on the commercials? Who answers ten people at a time? I'm not that mom. Stop. Wait."

 

So, I belong to a few local homeschool groups (one I moderate on my own, a couple of others I help moderate), and one lady reached out and asked if I'd like to teach my online classes to a face-to-face group. It is something I had proposed in the past, but didn't get much of a response, so continued with my online ventures.

 

She asks me how many students do I need to make a class run, and what would I charge. I let her know I have several different classes I offer, so it depends on what they are looking for. I also gave her the link to my profile so she can get an idea of what I do. She writes back, "I am not thinking of a subject. Just an ongoing Spanish class for elementary ages. So the kids can grow and learn over time."

 

Ok, that's not helpful. I tell her what ages I work with, and tell her about the different series I do. I tell her they are mostly thematic -science, literature- or even seasonal. I let her know I write my own curriculum, try to adjust to the learners, and I have classes that I run currently. I again tell her to look at my page to get an idea of what I do.

 

She answers back, "Sounds good to me. Think about pricing for me. It would be hard to gather a group together without that." She also asks what days or times am I available. 

 

I feel like she's not getting what I'm saying. Or maybe I'm just not getting it. I just wrote back, "Some of the classes are one-session skills (alphabet/pronunciation, shapes,) holidays, songs, etc.; other classes are multi-session series (Story Time, Science Time, Beginning Spanish, etc.) that would require a commitment. Some things could be combined (a skill class and song class). But, it really depends on what families want. Have you looked at what I offer?" I also gave her the average price per one hour class, per student.

 

In other words, I can accommodate using the classes I already have, but I need to know what she wants. 

 

Can anyone enlighten me? What am I missing? Why do I feel so dull?

 

It sounds like you want to work as a consultant (working out the terms of reference according to her needs) and she's expecting a packaged offering (just tell me the package inputs, costs, activities and expected results, and I'll choose).

 

Right now, I'd say, "It sounds like you're looking for more of a packaged offering to choose from, but my consulting style is more adaptive, so I'm asking a lot of questions to develop that for you."

 

In the long run, I'd suggest developing some packages with set prices for classroom groups, like "this size group, this age, this content, this length of day over this period of time, this price." Because people don't think, and that will get you more business. They want a menu.

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Slache

Slache

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I slept 10 hours and speak Greek in a Spanish accent. I thought that made me special. Honestly I thought that meant I was deficient so I'm glad y'all do it.

 

I can’t think of anything to say that’s not whiny or inappropriate. Good morning. Here’s a prickly hedgehog of groggy introvertedness: 🦔

We're supposed to be appropriate?

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Jean in Newcastle

Jean in Newcastle

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I slept 10 hours and speak Greek in a Spanish accent. I thought that made me special. Honestly I thought that meant I was deficient so I'm glad y'all do it.

 

 

We're supposed to be appropriate?

 

We naturally apply the same strategies that allowed us to learn our first non-native language to subsequent languages.  Thus we often have that accent with new languages. 

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Renai

Renai

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Good morning! It's Friday!

 

Hope you get second sleep, Renai!

 

We have to leave at 7 to get to the kids' orchestra rehearsals. :svengo: We should be back 10:30/11 tonight. I have to remember to pay the mortgage and bring water bottles.

 

Coffee!

 

No second sleep. Gymnast had an 8am(!) follow-up appointment at our clinic. all is clear. She has lost almost a pound since Saturday though. I told the doctor to tell Gymnast that it is okay to go outside as long as she is dressed for the weather. She's been afraid to go outside because she thought she'd get the bad cough again. I've been kicking her out daily for at least a few minutes, because she's nuts.

 

After the appointment, we went to the grocery store. To get groceries. we came home in time to still have breakfast. 

 

On the agenda:

 

Gymnast: math- telling time (had a little practice in the doctor's office), maybe some time on Prodigy; Spanish reading, Chinese (memorize riddle), violin.

 

Me: Finish prep for tomorrow's class; clean kitchen and bathroom; keep Gymnast in line. Yesterday, as I was about to scrub some kitchen cabinets, I heard water dripping in the living room. I turned around and saw Gymnast pouring water from a small height into one of those Halloween pumpkin baskets. I told her it was a bad idea, and to take the water out of the living room. I turned back around to continue cleaning, and all of a sudden hear a kerfluffle. She tells me, I didn't know the basket had a leak.  :ohmy:  :svengo: There was water all over the living room floor and making its way to the kitchen. Yeah, I can't turn my back for a second. And she's 7! They were supposed to be getting BETTER at this age... 

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luuknam

luuknam

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I'm feeling sad. I just can't get myself to drag my whining kids to city hall to hand in my quarterly reports. I tried calling them twice to ask if there is an email address I can send them to, but they didn't answer the phone. I left a message the second time. They close at 2:30. I hate bureaucratic nonsense. 

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Jean in Newcastle

Jean in Newcastle

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Is Japanese really not a native language for you?

 

I'm kind of weird when it comes to Japanese.  On one level I'm truly bilingual.  I can think in Japanese.  When I was immersed in the language you could not tell me apart from a Japanese person on the telephone.  When I was speaking Japanese over 8 hours a day (when I was doing an internship in the summers at a Japanese hospital) I had a hard time switching to English afterwards.  Now after 35 years plus of being away from the country I am not as fluent, but if you give me some time talking the language, it comes back fluently and has always been fluent on the small talk topics.  But I did not go to school in Japanese.  So technical language is something I had to learn from context and by asking questions.  So I did have to consciously employ a lot of learning strategies to expand my vocabulary as I moved from one context to another. 

 

That said, you can't really tell that from what accent I use for new words.  I always sounded out new English words with a Japanese accent.  ;)  It was the cause of a lot of ridicule from American classmates. 

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Renai

Renai

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I'm feeling sad. I just can't get myself to drag my whining kids to city hall to hand in my quarterly reports. I tried calling them twice to ask if there is an email address I can send them to, but they didn't answer the phone. I left a message the second time. They close at 2:30. I hate bureaucratic nonsense. 

 

 

Me too. I'm dealing with beaucratic nonsense. Again. This time with student loans. They don't like my proof of income, so tell me what to write in a letter. I write the letter, now they don't like the letter and want me to add more. Sheesh.

 

I'd rather take a nap.

 

Unfortunately, Gymnast has her second wind and is sitting here eating coconut milk yogurt.

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Jean in Newcastle

Jean in Newcastle

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I'm feeling sad. I just can't get myself to drag my whining kids to city hall to hand in my quarterly reports. I tried calling them twice to ask if there is an email address I can send them to, but they didn't answer the phone. I left a message the second time. They close at 2:30. I hate bureaucratic nonsense. 

 

How far away is city hall?  Can  you bribe yourself to go and turn them in by promising yourself something like frozen yogurt afterwards?  I do this kind of bribing a lot. 

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luuknam

luuknam

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Me too. I'm dealing with beaucratic nonsense. Again. This time with student loans. They don't like my proof of income, so tell me what to write in a letter. I write the letter, now they don't like the letter and want me to add more. Sheesh.

 

 

Yeah, my stuff pales compared to your stuff. It's just that I knew what to do, had a routine, got things done, until we got evicted (technically - it's not like we were behind on payments or anything, the landlord just wanted to sell the place) and moved to a different school district. Since then, it's been a struggle, including some BS with the previous school district asking for stuff that wasn't legally required, but that's been sorted out now. Everything has been harder since the move. 

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luuknam

luuknam

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How far away is city hall?  Can  you bribe yourself to go and turn them in by promising yourself something like frozen yogurt afterwards?  I do this kind of bribing a lot. 

 

 

I tried to bribe myself, but it's too far to leave the kids home alone because this is the US, and there's no parking near it (well, there's a paid lot that may or may not be full), so, if it's full I'd have to park at DW's work, at which point it'd be a 20-30 min walk from there, i.e. if I leave now we could maybe make it barely in time. I don't know. Too hard. 

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luuknam

luuknam

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I faxed it. I hope they're going to be happy with it. They still haven't returned my call. 

 

Besides just straight depression causing me to freeze, the if-thens are the worst!

 

 

Right. It gets pretty ridiculous at times, like "I could mail it to them, BUT I don't know if they need to receive it by x date, or if it needs to be post-marked by x date, and I don't know where the post office is, but I can look that up, but I know that we have envelopes and stamps, but I don't know where, and I could ask the post office if I could buy one envelope and a stamp, but I don't know if they sell individual envelopes, and I don't want to buy more than one because we have envelopes, and besides, will they think I'm stupid, and again, I don't know if they need to receive it today or if it needs to be postmarked by today, and if I go to the post office I might as well go to city hall, except there's no parking at city hall, and I'm really too frazzled to deal with dragging the kids around, and why did DW decide to go to work today when she's been working from home the vast majority of other days recently, and this shouldn't be this hard, I just suck, and" anyway, this obviously can go on much, much, longer, but I'll spare y'all. 

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luuknam

luuknam

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Btw, the above is why I have meds, but the meds can be addictive, as well as cause memory issues if taken long term, so I try to not take them every day (I have some other meds I do take every day, but they still leave me with stuff like the above). 

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KrissiK

KrissiK

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I speak Southern accent (read almost hick sounding) very well after visiting family in Virginia.

My first year in college in San Diego I had a suite-mate from the Dallas, Texas area. She had a pretty strong accent when she first came, but it faded. Except when a cute guy was around and she dug that accent up so fast....🙄
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KrissiK

KrissiK

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I faxed it. I hope they're going to be happy with it. They still haven't returned my call.

 

 

 

Right. It gets pretty ridiculous at times, like "I could mail it to them, BUT I don't know if they need to receive it by x date, or if it needs to be post-marked by x date, and I don't know where the post office is, but I can look that up, but I know that we have envelopes and stamps, but I don't know where, and I could ask the post office if I could buy one envelope and a stamp, but I don't know if they sell individual envelopes, and I don't want to buy more than one because we have envelopes, and besides, will they think I'm stupid, and again, I don't know if they need to receive it today or if it needs to be postmarked by today, and if I go to the post office I might as well go to city hall, except there's no parking at city hall, and I'm really too frazzled to deal with dragging the kids around, and why did DW decide to go to work today when she's been working from home the vast majority of other days recently, and this shouldn't be this hard, I just suck, and" anyway, this obviously can go on much, much, longer, but I'll spare y'all.

They will have to be happy with it!! ((Luuknam))
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maize

maize

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Like, it'd be funny, if it didn't interfere with my ability to function.

:grouphug:

 

I will say that after watching dh's struggle with chronic depression I am in awe of everybody who deals with such things and just keeps going. I honestly think it takes more mental fortitude for him to just get himself out of bed in the morning than it takes for me to get through an entire day. And to do that day after day after day...

 

Sometimes I think we completely miss the real heroes in life.

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luuknam

luuknam

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They will have to be happy with it!! ((Luuknam))

 

 

Thanks. Exactly. The only thing they might not be happy about is that I haven't signed it (other than just my typed name), because I have no clue where our scanner is nor how to hook it up. That said, at the very least this gives me something to point to to say that I tried, i.e. if they're going to give me a hard time over it, it should at least buy me time. 

 

The stupid part is that the quarterly reports are meaningless. I and everybody else I know just write down some random grades because we don't know what on earth to write down anyway (I mean, really, what should I write down for PE for 2nd grade? Who cares?). I hear HSLDA is working with NY to possibly get rid of the quarterly reports, but that they're offering to give them portfolios upon request with a 2-week notice? Which would not be an improvement, though at least it'd be more meaningful (I don't want to be randomly asked for portfolios though - once at the end of the year I could get on board with, but them sending me a letter at random times? No). 

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