I am a firm believer in knowing more then one language. I unfortunately, was not brought up with more then one language. My family was Polish but the language was forsaken for English so my mom knew more Latin from Catholic school then Polish. I was really drawn to French in High School but was not able to take more then one class due to the great number of math and science classes I was "told" would be better for me to take. I want to correct this for my kids and give them and their growing brains the opportunity to process more then one language. Fortunately, my neighbor is from Belgium and speaks French. Her grandson is close in age to my boys, so once or twice a week we go over there and learn french (mom learns too). Julien's attention span is not too long for learning but I get to try and talk and listen to french the whole time. She always has tea and cookies, which is an added bonus! In return we give her grapes from the garden and toys that Julien can part with for their grandson. This is true bartering at its best and I am grateful for it! I love having this opportunity for myself and my son. I highly recommend this relationship.
I met a woman at the park who was teaching her daughter and her neighbors son Spanish and her neighbor was teaching them Russian. So these kids will know 3 languages by the time they are ready for school!! Amazing!!
How about you, do you have any of these language relationships or desire too?
I've been teaching Holden to speak German since he was a baby. We speak both languages fluently in the house, so he hops between the two fairly naturally. It does tend to confuse his teachers though, as they are not familiar with the language and he doesn't understand why they don't know what he's talking about (sometimes he doesn't realize he's speaking two languages-he just thinks that there is more than one way to say several things). I do have to say though-we sent him to a private Jewish preschool last year, and Holden walking in and introducing himself in German went over like a lead balloon.
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I had to laugh out loud. Thanks for sharing.
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