Agnostic.com
10 4

I wish I had grown up bi-lingual. I think it is a privilege. I often begged my father to teach me his native language, but he refused, telling me that my brain was only big enough to learn English. Growing up bi-lingual improves brain development. It makes it easier to learn a third language as an adult. I can see why he would not teach me his language. When he was a kid, it was considered shameful to be bi-lingual. Now it is different. What do you think?

SKH78 8 Aug 4
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2

I think it is an awesome bonus to grow up in a multi lingual household! My mom speaks rudimentary German from when she lived there as a kid when her dad was in the Army. She took a couple classes as well, but never became fluent. Even so, she exposed me to it from a young age, she'd sing songs in German (said ANYTHING to get me to go to sleep! lol) and hosted a German club once a week after school in elementary school. So by the time I got to high school where I could take it formally, I knew some basics: "My name is..." colours, numbers, etc.
After majoring in it at university and spending a year abroad in Germany, I became pretty fluent (lost some since I haven't used it recently tho...). A lady in the airport a couple years ago overheard me speaking German, and she commented in English - with a heavy German accent - "let me guess, you were raised in America by German parents?" I was tickled to think that my accent was at least that good and I attribute it to having heard many of the sounds early in childhood.

Dunnottar Level 4 May 17, 2020
1

My cousin grew up in a family that spoke Spanish, French and English. Thinking this would work to be a great advantage I asked my uncle how many languages Bobby spoke, I was shocked to find the answer to be One, English. He was adopted and Mexican-Apache ancestry, my uncle said we did not wanting him to speak Mexican and be considered a dumb Mexican. I just about shit my pants, I was in College and needed to learn a foreign language to graduate, he would have had that in spades. I quickly figured my uncle was racist and too bad not as smart as he thought he was.

2

It's a big mistake not bringing up a child to be bilingual if you have that option. They may refuse to speak it, but just by understanding it they will have direct access to another culture practically for free, and the different ways the two languages work will give them insights into the workings of language which will make it easier for them to learn more of them later. It also seems to give some protective effect against dementia, delaying the effects of the decline.

On one of the radio programmes about polyglots that I linked to recently, there was someone who was brought up understanding Greek, but he refused to speak it and just stuck to English. His mother eventually took him to Greece for the whole summer holidays when he was eight, putting him in an environment where the only way to have any fun was to mix with the local children who didn't speak English. By the end of that time, he was speaking fluent Greek.

That gives us some useful information about language learning, because it's much harder to learn to speak a language than to learn to understand one, and yet once you understand a language fluently, that transition to speaking it fluently can be extremely rapid. I'm pleased about that, because I've put all my effort into learning to understand lots of languages without trying to learn to speak them, and once I'm free of my current work and can start travelling a bit, that should pay dividends.

I've also heard of a few cases where a child has been brought up understanding five or six languages as a result of having many close relatives from different cultures and also having foreign nannies. It does them no harm beyond a short time in which they may mix languages a bit, but they can make themselves understood well enough. There is no reason for anyone to worry about bringing a child with only two languages.

1

In Europe the average citizen speaks no less than 3 languages. To say you shouldn’t speak a second language for any reason is counter productive

LMORION Level 4 Aug 5, 2019
2

My former brother-in-law(ex-wife's brother)emmigrated to Stockholm and married a Latvian woman. They have 3 kids who grew up tri-lingual from birth. Dad speaks only English. Grandma, Latvian. Neighbor kids, Swedish.

Vita, the amazing wife, speaks Latvian, Swedish, English, Russian, German, French...all with at least workable fluency...

2

My grandma started but was short lived

bobwjr Level 10 Aug 4, 2019
2

I think you are correct. I had a friend who was bi-lingual and she taught her children as they began to speak. She would say 'cup' in english and repeat 'cup' in spanish. They speak both languages fluently.

freeofgod Level 8 Aug 4, 2019
3

My parents were both bi-lingual. They taught my older sister French - but not me.

It doesn't seem to have affected our development in any way differently. She can just order off a French Language menu a bit better than I can. 😉 She's lost much of what she did know - even though we both had French throughout school. Her continuously - me for six years.

I wish I had a second language - but it's ok - I'll take what I have.

People were shamed for not knowing English back in the day. Not for having a second language.

I was raised that using a second language in public in front of other people was exceedingly rude - if you had a choice in the matter. My parents insisted we never do that.

RavenCT Level 9 Aug 4, 2019
3

The more you learn at a young age the better an adult you developed into..

Charlene Level 9 Aug 4, 2019
3

I completely agree. I lost my momentum learning Spanish, and set it aside. I guess I'll really know how much I learned when I pick it back up.

bingst Level 8 Aug 4, 2019
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