When we moved to the Spanish speaking side of the world a few months ago, we wanted to be all tech savvy. We whipped out our phones when someone said things we had no clue about (but desperately wanted to understand!) and asked them to speak into the google translate app. It. didn’t. work. Like. at. all. I think it’s w.r.t Spanish particularly. Since it is spoken in multiple countries, there are that many different accents, phrases, bad words & ways of saying things. I remember texting my son’s school bus driver enquiring about the bus schedule. I began the text with “Soy mama de M”… turns out instead of M’s mum, it meant I’m M’s breast. Thanks google. Thank you very much.
While we struggle with multiple languages (This should be easy for me - since this is the 7th language I’m learning!) (OK! I’ll stop showing off) and think, Gaaawd, why can’t the whole world just learn English- so everyone can speak with everyone! I came across this TED talk that gave a very plausible explanation of why we must actually preserve dying languages (It made no sense to me until I actually listened to the talk!).
Some people (children + adults) are natural polyglots, while some just aren’t! (It’s like Art or Math, some people can paint beautifully while others can barely draw a straight line). What decisions parents make now, will affect their children for years together. Growing up, my parents made English a priority since I went to an English school. Back then it made school easy and fast forward to now, I can effortlessly navigate countries speaking fluent English. If my parents had made our mother tongue a priority, It would’ve been difficult for me both back then & now! (btw, I do speak my mother tongue, it's just not as free flowing as English)
So what decisions are parents making around the world? How are children who are living far away from their homelands, coping with languages and overall schooling? Find out from the following four featured picks from last week:
15 Reasons why being a child in Germany Rocks
by Annabelle Humanes
from The Piri-Piri Lexicon
5 Things we love and hate about Mexico Public Schools
by Tina Marie Ernspiker
from Los Gringos Locos
Changing School: It would be hard, but helpful!
by Eolia Disler
from La Cité des vents
Teaching French: 5 Things that are Working
from Petit à Petit
Practical Mondays Link Up
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Ha! I'm the other way round - I almost always like visiting countries that speak a different language...and I try to learn a bit of the language and speak it (In Germany and Denmark they were awesome for humoring this). I don't really feel like I've gone anywhere if they speak English...tho I get what you're saying about it not flowing freely...
ReplyDeleteThat's so great! languages are fun when u've learnt em and daunting when u're still learning!
DeleteMy Mom is Portuguese and when I was born, she wanted to teach me how to speak it. My Dad, who is Irish and only really knew some Spanish thought she should teach me Spanish as a second language. Now today in my 30's, I desperately wish a second language had been taught to me because it's so hard to learn as an adult. Thanks for hosting! Hope you have a wonderful week :)
ReplyDeleteTalk about being hard! yesterday when I started my Spanish homework, I took me 30 mins only to begin! I opened the books and realised, hey ! I should go cut my nails! hey I should have some coffee..it went on & on!
DeleteI'm so jealous! You speak 7 languages??!? That is awesome. I took French for 4 years all through high school and remember bits and pieces; most of them cemented in from my trip to France where I was thankful a large portion of the people spoke English. I want to be one of those people who are good with languages but I just am not!!
ReplyDeleteno, no, no! I don't speak 7, only learnt 7! 2 have definitely gone obsolete in my brain, & 2 I'm still stumbling though:)
DeleteInteresting to read that you're grateful to your parents for prioritising English. This is a sensitive subject for us, as we haven't yet put enough work into learning the community language (German). Germans speak excellent English, but I feel so guilty! I learned French when we lived in France. Learning a language does take a lot of work, don't you think? My kids are growing up bilingual (English and Hebrew), so for now that's where we're focusing! Thanks for hosting the link up.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a sensitive topic and it was for us too! In India we speak 3 languages, English, Hindi & our mother tongue and I grew up avoiding my mother tongue since I was embarrassed with my lack of fluency. The point is, that many, many years later I realised that I was pretty good with the mother tongue- in spite of not speaking it - since I was surrounded by it! So focusing on English helped, but it didn't really 'put down' the third language. So whatever the focus, it's always helpful with surrounding kids with all the languages we know - you never know what sticks!
DeleteStarting my daughter in French immersion in September for GR1. I've struggled with her wanting to learn my first language so I'll keep trying knowing that you speak 7 languages, she should hopefully be able to handle 3!
ReplyDeleteI don't 'speak' 7 languages, lol, only 'learnt' 7! fluent in 3, kinna struggling with 2 and 2 have been completely erased from my brain ;)
DeleteI'm sure your girl will rock all 3!
I rarely speak my 'mother' tongue now, we were a bilingual household but switched to almost exclusive English when I was 5 to help with schooling. My amazing mother was fluent in 7 languages. I am fluent in English, can pick up Dutch (my mother tongue) when I need to and would be fluent in a few weeks. I can get by in German. I have learned a number of fourth languages, I could speak turkish for a while then forgot it when I learned Spanish, I forgot that when I learned Russian and I expect to forget that when I learn the next one. I can pick each of those languages up if I need to though.
ReplyDeleteI know! It's like the brain lets in a new language by evicting the previous 'tenant'! I forgot all french when I started learning spanish for a trip. I forgot spanish when I started speaking Indonesian. Now I'm desperately trying to learn spanish again and all that pops up is indonesian..the brain has yet to evict it to make space for spanish! baah! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteMy daughter has become a little interested in learning French recently due to Fancy Nancy. Luckily I minored in French in college so I can teach her a little! I hope she really gets into it and we can speak it to each other! Thanks for hosting the link up!
ReplyDeleteThat's great! Thanks for stopping by:)
DeleteI really struggle with languages. I wish I'd been encouraged to learn a different language when I was younger as it would have been much easier. I support my son's in their French homework and hope they'll find it easier than i did. #fartglitter
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, I know! languages are tough! thanks for stopping by:)
DeleteI'm hopeless at languages, but we're encouraging the Tubblet with her French and Spanish in the hope she'll be better :)
ReplyDeletehahaha.. thanks for dropping by:)
DeleteI picked up Spanish OK living there but I have done terribly with Thai. I hope my son is more skilled at languages than I am.
ReplyDelete#fartglitter
the only thai I know is khap kham kha... (& for some reason they end everything with a haaaaa, don't they?!)
DeleteWow 7 languages that's immense! We have a smattering of languages in our family but not doing very well at teaching any of them consistently but this definitely gives some food for thought!..thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub!
ReplyDeleteThanks Talya:)
DeleteI wish I could speak another language. I teach high school and have several parents who do not speak English. I wish I could communicate with them in their native language! Thanks for linking up with #BloggersSpotlight and we hope to see you back next week!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carrie:)
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