Reply to Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]These discussions always seem to treat fluency in a foreign language like some mysterious, all-or-nothing proposition that is not worth undertaking if it is not done perfectly from the get-go - with very little understanding of how speaking more than one language actually functions, or how many different ways there are to be proficient in a language. [/b]

As far as i'm concerned, giving kids exposure and the building blocks to learn other languages early on is a good thing; it's been proven to be a good thing; and bilingual education does that. Some kids are going to attain higher levels of fluency than others, because some people are simply better at languages than others. Good luck controlling that. [/quote]

Because, come on, the vast majority of us have taken YEARS of foreign language study through school and still never became fluent in it and never use it now.

I started Spanish in middle school and took it every year through college. I did a study abroad semester in Peru. My Spanish did become conversational at one point but then I stopped using it in my every day life and now, over a decade later, it's mostly lost. I could use it to get around on a trip but nothing more than that.

[b]If you don't use it at home or at work in your every day life, what is the point? It was wasted effort. It came to nothing.[/b]

This is what parents are wondering about YY when they don't speak Chinese themselves and so can't support it at home.[/quote]

Because you don't know at age 8 what you are going to do or be. By your reasoning, kids who aren't going to be recruited for college soccer shouldn't bother with travel, a chunky preschooler should never take ballet, and art class is a complete waste of time if you don't have any talent.

I'm sorry you regret studying Spanish, of all things, [b]but your experience is not universal.[/b][/quote]

It's closer to universal than not. Most Americans are monolingual. [b]They're monolingual because they can be, because the rest of the world speaks English.[/b] Go anywhere in the world today, even the most rural areas, and you will find people with some degree of English proficiency. With that being the reality of the situation, I don't see what advantage it gives my kid to risk his math education (which I do believe you need to be competitive in this world) for the possible benefit of learning a language we can't support at home and which he will most likely never become fluent in anyway.

The point is, if it's not being reinforced outside of school, it's useless.[/quote]

WOW. This is why our country is going down the tubes. And I thought DC was liberal. And cosmopolitan. I feel seriously sorry for you.[/quote]

NP. Like it or not, the bolded sentence is a statement of fact. I didn't read her post as saying that learning a foreign language is *always* useless but more in this specific circumstance, when you are a.) risking the fundamentals not being well understood by your child and b.) you can't support the language at home. Those two factors together do not produce high odds of success imo (success = good grasp of fundamentals plus language fluency).[/quote]

Not at YY, don't care about the weirdos whose hobby it is to trash it, but there is a LOT MORE to learning another language than communication with others as an adult. Children's minds actually grow when they learn multiple languages. Literally certain areas become more robust, developed, and active. (Martensson 2012 study comes to mind among others)

Furthermore, you're also exposing your kids to another culture and the awareness of their position in the world. My very young kids asked to donate their toys to the Mexican and Puerto Rican efforts because they worried about the kids who had lost everything. This is a side benefit- kids learn about their privilege and understand that they have to work hard because they have so many advantages.

And I don't think you're "risking" your kids math skills if you teach them other languages. To the contrary!!  You're risking their brain development! [/quote]

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