learning a foreign language is hard

[Anonymous]

My child wants to learn it, and it has been 2 months in. We pay weekly online tutor and in person group class, he attends every session. He has made really slow in progress because his passion is strong but he is lazy and no passion in practicing daily and his attention is not good during every session. He is still interested, but I am a bit frustrated that he does not try harder to stay focused or does any homework. I fully understand that I cannot be mad at him because learning a foreign language is a bonus (not a requirement at all) and he is only 7 year old. I and DH fully support him, and we all learn together to help him out with his daily homework. I and DH knows the basic conversation, but we are not fluent enough with heavy accents plus poor pronunciation.

He does not want to give up, and he seems not to care about his slow progress. If you have kid like that, do you do anything or just let him be not trying harder or serious?

[Anonymous]

Music and TV.

[Anonymous]

Two months isn’t that much time. Chill out.

[Anonymous]

Let him watch tv in that language.

[Anonymous]

I ain’t worried bout it

[Anonymous]

You should see what high school students have learned two months into their intro foreign language classes. It’s not much. Don’t fret.

Also I do not attach my extra curricular support to what I see as their efforts. If the kid is interested and getting something out of it, I support them as much as I can (within reason).

[Anonymous]

Tv is the best way - kids don't learn languages the way adults do, with grammar and homework. Travel to that country if possible or take him to a neighborhood that has stores and restaurants in that language (for Arabic or Chinese for example)

[Anonymous]

Op here. I have watched Korean dramas (with subtitles) and listened to k-pop music for 20 plus years. I also watched a ton of Japanese animation movies or cartoon (with subtitles) growing up. I can only speak greetings and basic phrases in Korean & Japanese. Does TV or music really work? Or it has to be simple TV or music designed for toddler?

My son is learning Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

1. Two months is basically nothing in terms of language learning.
2. There’s nothing wrong with predicating paying for extracurriculars on kids practicing but it’s important to have age appropriate expectations for practicing — at 7, I wouldn’t expect more than a few minutes a day and would probably make language practice something fun like watching an episode of a kid’s show in the target language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Music and TV.

+1

He's in a great spot to learn another language, but don't worry about grammar etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I have watched Korean dramas (with subtitles) and listened to k-pop music for 20 plus years. I also watched a ton of Japanese animation movies or cartoon (with subtitles) growing up. I can only speak greetings and basic phrases in Korean & Japanese. Does TV or music really work? Or it has to be simple TV or music designed for toddler?

My son is learning Mandarin.

TV can work for some people (I had a friend who learned Korean and Japanese entirely from tv but she was already fluently English/Mandarin bilingual so that may have helped). Personally I have noticed that tv/music daily really helps as a supplement to lessons but I can’t learn solely from it. I think immersion via media also works way better for younger kids.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Canada speaking English and French. Moved to Italy as an adult and basically became fluent in 3 months. Moved to Texas and speak fluent Spanish. Have been trying to learn German for 5 years and just can’t do it. I also tried mandarin, it was impossible. I use Rosetta Stone and classes, but it’s so hard. Unless you have daily exposure to the language or live somewhere where it’s spoken, for me at least, it’s super hard.

[Anonymous]

TV - While any language exposure via TV is good, as an adult learner of Spanish, what I’ve found helps me most isn’t when I watch adult shows in Spanish, but when I watch videos of preschool songs in Spanish. The speed is slower, the grammar and vocabulary simplified and repeated. It’s more like how kids learn language to begin with. Here’s the Youtube channel I like for Spanish songs, but it looks like they have songs and cartoons for other languages as well.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SuperSimpleEspanol/featured?app=desktop

https://supersimple.com/channels/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I have watched Korean dramas (with subtitles) and listened to k-pop music for 20 plus years. I also watched a ton of Japanese animation movies or cartoon (with subtitles) growing up. I can only speak greetings and basic phrases in Korean & Japanese. Does TV or music really work? Or it has to be simple TV or music designed for toddler?

My son is learning Mandarin.

In his dreams he will become fluent

[Anonymous]

Panic over a 7 year old learning Mandarin is unnecessary. With the birth dirth and the crisis in higher ed, you don't have to act like a complete psycho to make sure your kid gets into college and has a productive life, especially if you have a boy. Try taking a nice walk outside to get some fresh air.