An Interesting Issue

Chicago Boyz: Multiple Cultures.

Comments

[Classical Liberal]

So, if this guy and his wife only speak Mandarin at home, expecting their kid to learn English at school, he won't learn English until he starts school. As I understand it, the very first few years of a child's life--when the brain is most plastic--are when languages are learned most quickly and easily, and remembered longest. From the blog's title, I assume the writer is living in the U.S., near Chicago, yet he wants his kid to grow up without the benefit of speaking English as a "mother tongue," all so that some Chinese immigrants won't look down on the kid. Gee, he's really doing his kid some great favors! Yes, that's sarcasm.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

You're right.

In the first 10 years of my education, I had taken at least two languages. That seemed to be "normal".

Then came a short time when I was taking a total of four languages. I had no problem with two, three I could manage but four was too much. I could have studied four languages but it would have been very harsh and pointless. So, I know how incredibly easy it is to consume two languages.

It was a surprise to find out that kids in the US don't learn more than one language from a young age.

English-Spanish, English-Mandarin, English-Hindi...such combinations, I think, would be quite effortless for young children. It's just that the parents don't seem to bother with such options.