Foreign language

[Anonymous]

Looking for ideas.... my rising kindergartener did not get lucky in the language immersion lottery, and I'm pretty disappointed. I know we have a shot again at first grade and will definitely apply but in the meantime I'm not going to hold my breath.

Has anyone had luck pursuing Spanish or French in a serious or semi-serious way outside of an immersion program? (I don't think enrolling in private school is in the cards for us.) I know there are Saturday schools and private tutoring is possible.... just wondering what others in our shoes have done and if anything worked well or did not work well. Our daughter is already very interested in Spanish but doesn't have any current skills beyond basic phrases -- sadly we're not a bilingual household. I suspect that given her interest she'd pick it up well, for whatever that is worth. She's a fairly academic kid, as far as that goes at age 5.

I'm also somewhat curious what opportunities might exist later in K-12, other than starting level 1 language in 6th grade. Is testing into a language immersion program later in elementary remotely possible without native level skills? What about more advanced language classes in middle school? Or is that realistically only going to serve the immersion kids? Basically, I'm willing to do some work to support foreign language but I'm wondering if that has us going it on our own the whole way or if there's hope to tap into more advanced language programming at MCPS at some point.

[Anonymous]

At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in the French Saturday school. There are plenty of parents who do not speak French. Inquire early of these weekend schools if they can accommodate a non-bilingual speaker - the younger she is, the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

+1

[Anonymous]

This won’t compare to an immersion program, but if she’s interested in Spanish, you can find preschool songs in Spanish on this Youtube channel. It’s helpful for learning basic vocabulary.
https://m.youtube.com/@SuperSimpleEspanol/videos

Once she learns to read (in English), she can try Duolingo.

Your public library might offer additional resources. Montgomery County, for example, offers access to Rosetta Stone and Mango Languages. There’s also something called Tumblebooks which (from tge description) is animated talking books, with some Spanish books available.
https://mcpl.aspendiscovery.org/WebBuilder/ResourcesList

[Anonymous]

sadly you are stuck waiting until middle school for mcps

[Anonymous]

DS is doing tutoring in Spanish. It’s not same as immersion, but it gives something at least in terms of pronunciation and language familiarity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is doing tutoring in Spanish. It’s not same as immersion, but it gives something at least in terms of pronunciation and language familiarity.

Appreciate the suggestions in this thread.

Also want to ask: where did you find a good tutor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

+1

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

Not true. People speak 3-4 languages in my country and we only have one official language. The 2nd biggest language is like Chinese to us. We hardly ever hear it when out and about, but we all learned it.
It's also somewhat cultural to learn 3-5 languages. Language teachers are abundant and so are free classes.
I learned six foreign languages simply as part of my education.
It takes three lessons a week, some awesome teachers, doing the homework, memorizing and using the words. TV has also been a lot of help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

Not true. People speak 3-4 languages in my country and we only have one official language. The 2nd biggest language is like Chinese to us. We hardly ever hear it when out and about, but we all learned it.
It's also somewhat cultural to learn 3-5 languages. Language teachers are abundant and so are free classes.
I learned six foreign languages simply as part of my education.
It takes three lessons a week, some awesome teachers, doing the homework, memorizing and using the words. TV has also been a lot of help.

Are you OP? Are you living in "your country"? Not relevant. sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

Not true. People speak 3-4 languages in my country and we only have one official language. The 2nd biggest language is like Chinese to us. We hardly ever hear it when out and about, but we all learned it.
It's also somewhat cultural to learn 3-5 languages. Language teachers are abundant and so are free classes.
I learned six foreign languages simply as part of my education.
It takes three lessons a week, some awesome teachers, doing the homework, memorizing and using the words. TV has also been a lot of help.

Are you OP? Are you living in "your country"? Not relevant. sorry.

I thought Pp’s response was extremely relevant. I appreciate them sharing their experience with language learning. Our country tends to do a lousy job teaching foreign language, so I think it’s great to hear about how it can be done better.

[Anonymous]

Big Learning often has after school classes for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

Not true. People speak 3-4 languages in my country and we only have one official language. The 2nd biggest language is like Chinese to us. We hardly ever hear it when out and about, but we all learned it.
It's also somewhat cultural to learn 3-5 languages. Language teachers are abundant and so are free classes.
I learned six foreign languages simply as part of my education.
It takes three lessons a week, some awesome teachers, doing the homework, memorizing and using the words. TV has also been a lot of help.

OP here. Thanks for this. I am somewhat confused by the responses saying No, unless it's just chiming into say MCPS isn't going to help with this at all (fair enough!). Are people actually trying to say my 5 year old can't learn a language?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age? No, unless it's also a language spoken daily within the family.

Not true. People speak 3-4 languages in my country and we only have one official language. The 2nd biggest language is like Chinese to us. We hardly ever hear it when out and about, but we all learned it.
It's also somewhat cultural to learn 3-5 languages. Language teachers are abundant and so are free classes.
I learned six foreign languages simply as part of my education.
It takes three lessons a week, some awesome teachers, doing the homework, memorizing and using the words. TV has also been a lot of help.

OP here. Thanks for this. I am somewhat confused by the responses saying No, unless it's just chiming into say MCPS isn't going to help with this at all (fair enough!). Are people actually trying to say my 5 year old can't learn a language?

DP here. As a bilingual speaker, I want to add that:
1) languages learned at ages 5-7 and then not used again can be forgotten (have seen this in many many people who immigrated to the US around that age, who even stopped responding to their parents unless their parents put in a lot of efforts, they spent summer abroad in their home country etc)
2) I "learned" French at age 4. Which meant I learned a few words and a few songs. I later learned French "for real" in school and even more as an adult (I have an online French tutor I talk to almost every weekend.) Did "learning" it at age 4 help? Maybe, in a super minimal way.

So maybe what PPs are trying to say is that your child probably won't learn or retain much unless it's reinforced at home or you have a special circumstance (family abroad that visit often, spending time in another country, nanny who speaks foreign language etc.)