Anonymous wrote:They hired an African-American principal with many years in urban education and an Executive Director who had ran a successful charter school. For their Hebrew curriculum coordinator and language instructional staff they hired 100% native Hebrew speakers. Many people on their Board are also Hebrew speakers - and I found this in about 5 minutes on their website. We feel very lucky to attend, and are excited about the intro Hebrew classes they are planning for parents.

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Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

I'm the original poster. My son is bi-racial African American and Mexican. We speak to our son in our native language, I in English and is dad in Spanish. Although reading and writing will be a separate task it's something that we work on daily.

Anonymous wrote:Many ELL students were born in the USA but because the dominant language at home is not English there English is often not as fluent (at least in reading and writing) as it could be.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

I'm the original poster. My son is bi-racial African American and Mexican. We speak to our son in our native language, I in English and is dad in Spanish. Although reading and writing will be a separate task it's something that we work on daily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

You have no idea about the research that informs such "speculation," do you? (Or, worse, perhaps both words mean the same to you?)

Speculating that someone who speaks Spanish at home will never be able to read it, write it or probably even speak it (?) because they are at a Hebrew immersion school is completely stupid. Yes, you have to work at the home language if you're not studying it at school, but to assume that's impossible for this family makes you look like a condescending jerk. (And yes, I do know of what I speak since I was shuttled off to various friends and relatives throughout my teens to work on Spanish and German when we were living in Italy.)

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Vitriol aside, I have a sincere question: the parent who says she's excited for her son to learn "this important business language", on what basis does anyone consider Hebrew an "important business language", when almost all of the international business conducted by people who speak Hebrew is conducted in English? How is Hebrew an "important business language" in any way, unless you live in Isreal?


I work in NoVa and use French and Hebrew in business all of the time. People in France and Israel speak English, but language skills, are useful in business, regardless of whether or not the people you are speaking with could hypothetically answer you in English. I have a colleague studying Swedish for that very reason. Israel is a global business center, no question, and kudos to parents for realizing the importance of bilingualism.


Ok, but even with what you say above, "important business language" is a serious stretch. No biggie though, hopefully Sela will be a great school and as you said, bilingualism is good for all kids, regardless of language, even if the utility of some languages is questionable, the effect on the developing brain has been shown to be positive for any bilingualism. I hope Sela kids and families have a great first year.


Well, I think that was a quote from the article, I didn't make that claim. However, increasingly, I think the world is flat and languages that you might not deem important - can actually be important in business - I would put Scandinavian languages, Hebrew, Polish, Hungarian, Czech in that category.


But on the world stage, "important" is relative. There is NO way, when you look at the business conducted worldwide, and the languages it's conducted in, you can get away from Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, and French and Arabic as the only truly "Important" languages, in that those are the languages that either the most business is conducted in, or languages (like Arabic) where there is a huge market for those who speak the language fluently. None of the languages you mention even approach the use of the languages I just listed in their marketability, and marketability/use is really the only meaningful definition of "important languages" from a business perspective.


Meant to write "from a worldwide business perspective. Obviously people in Sweden care about Swedish, and Swedish is important to business in/with Sweden (even though they also mostly speak English in international business).



Not true at all, particularly for people in science, engineering, and hi-tech - quite the opposite actually. Germany, Scandinavia, Israel - this is where a huge percent of R&D is happening.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vitriol aside, I have a sincere question: the parent who says she's excited for her son to learn "this important business language", on what basis does anyone consider Hebrew an "important business language", when almost all of the international business conducted by people who speak Hebrew is conducted in English? How is Hebrew an "important business language" in any way, unless you live in Isreal?

I work in NoVa and use French and Hebrew in business all of the time. People in France and Israel speak English, but language skills, are useful in business, regardless of whether or not the people you are speaking with could hypothetically answer you in English. I have a colleague studying Swedish for that very reason. Israel is a global business center, no question, and kudos to parents for realizing the importance of bilingualism.

Ok, but even with what you say above, "important business language" is a serious stretch. No biggie though, hopefully Sela will be a great school and as you said, bilingualism is good for all kids, regardless of language, even if the utility of some languages is questionable, the effect on the developing brain has been shown to be positive for any bilingualism. I hope Sela kids and families have a great first year.

Well, I think that was a quote from the article, I didn't make that claim. However, increasingly, I think the world is flat and languages that you might not deem important - can actually be important in business - I would put Scandinavian languages, Hebrew, Polish, Hungarian, Czech in that category.

But on the world stage, "important" is relative. There is NO way, when you look at the business conducted worldwide, and the languages it's conducted in, you can get away from Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, and French and Arabic as the only truly "Important" languages, in that those are the languages that either the most business is conducted in, or languages (like Arabic) where there is a huge market for those who speak the language fluently. None of the languages you mention even approach the use of the languages I just listed in their marketability, and marketability/use is really the only meaningful definition of "important languages" from a business perspective.

Meant to write "from a worldwide business perspective. Obviously people in Sweden care about Swedish, and Swedish is important to business in/with Sweden (even though they also mostly speak English in international business).

Not true at all, particularly for people in science, engineering, and hi-tech - quite the opposite actually. Germany, Scandinavia, Israel - this is where a huge percent of R&D is happening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

You have no idea about the research that informs such "speculation," do you? (Or, worse, perhaps both words mean the same to you?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

What a stupid thing to speculate on. You have no idea what this child's Spanish language skills are or will be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

+1. So funny some of these parents with bilingual, trilingual 3/4 yr olds. Yes, my snowflake is ready to add another language... Without consistent exposure, the language will be gone or so basic that they won't be able to speak it with any type of fluency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will be entering PreK 4. I hope he will do well as this will be his third language next to English and Spanish.

Sorry, but if your kids don't have real Spanish exposure at school they won't be able to read, write, and probably not even speak proper Spanish over time.

+1. So funny some of these parents with bilingual, trilingual 3/4 yr olds. Yes, my snowflake is ready to add another language... Without consistent exposure, the language will be gone or so basic that they won't be able to speak it with any type of fluency.