Have/will you teach your kid a second language?

[gabosaurus]

That is today's modern parenting question.
Pretty much everyone on my side of the family speaks more than one language. My sister speaks Spanish and German in addition to English.

We had our daughter-elect out today shopping for bedroom furniture and other various essentials. We went to East Los Angeles, where they have a lot of bargain places. I took my sister along for translation.
After that, we went to a cook out at my sister's house. Pretty much everyone there (except us) spoke Spanish.
Danielle had a lot of fun learning Spanish words and phrases. She picked them up pretty quickly. Now she is intent on learning Spanish. My sister gave her a couple of books she used when she was tutoring kids several years back.

On a related note, we were in Pasadena and saw a couple of fully covered women, complete with veils. Couldn't tell if they were Muslim or Hindu.
Danielle wanted to know why they were wearing bathrobes. I decided against trying to explain it to her. :p

[dread]

Yes I taught my kids two languages...



Good english and bad english (to curse)


Nothing like a superlative spun from the creative annals of history, that evoke passionate diliberation.

[Gaffer]

I live in the US, I don't ravel overseas. Therefore I do not need to know a second language. Anyone coming from another country that wants to talk to me better learn English.

[Trigg]

Learning a foreign language is required in highschool and college. My son is taking Spanish next yr.

My sister if fluent in Finnish and Swedish, my dad speaks Spanish since he works in the Dominican.

My Spanish pretty much sucks although I can order beer and find a telephone and bathroom, all the necesities.

[mundame]

I question how necessary it is to learn foreign languages now, since English is the lingua franca of the world.

It's a terrible mistake to make Spanish a second language here; it just encourages Latin America to move north.

[crin63]

My younger son and my daughter are learning Spanish. They both want to learn Italian after Spanish. My daughter is also learning Armenian and will work on learning Mandarin at some point.

When you live in Los Angeles there are an awful lot of different languages spoken. Go to the San Gabriel Valley and its Mandarin, go to Glendale and its Armenian and Russian, go to East Los Angeles and its Spanish. The list just goes on and on.

My daughter thinks she may want to be an immigration attorney. My son is still torn between law school and an MBA.

I realize its America and I expect those who live here to learn our language at some point but I think it only makes good business sense at this point to learn multiple languages. Their money spends just like ours does and if we can advantage ourselves by learning multiple languages then why not.

[crin63]

I also forgot to mention that I want any and all these people from different ethnic backgrounds to come to my church to sit under sound gospel preaching.

Currently we have white, black, hispanic (multiple South American countries represented), Chinese, Egyptian, Armenian, Endonesian, Russian (and others I cant think of at the moment) that attend my church. For many of them english is their 2nd language.

It is truly a blessing to see all these groups of people working together for a common cause.

[hjmick]

My Spanish pretty much sucks although I can order beer and find a telephone and bathroom, all the necesities.

After two years of high school Spanish, I know enough to order dinner, a beer, find a john, and get my ass kicked.





Okay, I know a little more than that, but you get the point.

[Trigg]

After two years of high school Spanish, I know enough to order dinner, a beer, find a john, and get my ass kicked.





Okay, I know a little more than that, but you get the point.

I can muddle through written spanish better than spoken. I tried the Rosetta Stone before traveling to Mexico. It's a good way to learn a language I just didn't stick with it, no reason to, since there isn't anyone around to speak it with.

[gabosaurus]

A girl who went to school with my sister majored in Slavic Languages in college. She then went to law school. Now she works for a company that does a lot of business in Eastern Europe. She makes an ungodly amount of money in addition to paid travel all over the world.

My daughter wants to learn Spanish because a lot of her soon-to-be relatives speak Spanish. Learning Spanish is a smart thing if you live in Southern California. It makes you that much more employable.

[hjmick]

Learning Spanish is a smart thing if you live in Southern California. It makes you that much more employable.

I'm not sure about that, but it certainly makes it much easier to talk to your co-workers and neighbors.

You know, there was a time when immigrants were happy and willing to assimilate to their new, chosen country. They would learn the language and adopt many of the cultural rituals. It was a source of pride for them. Not so much these days.

I often wonder if the effect of political correctness has influenced this trend. In an effort to not offend people from other countries and cultures, it has become too easy for immigrants to ignore adapting to ways of their adopted country.

Eh...sorry...stream of consciousness...rambling...whatever...

[KitchenKitten99]

I was amazed at the amount of Spanish I remembered at all when I was in Cabo San Lucas a couple months ago. My sister didn't know any, except please, thank you, and no thank you. I ended up translating for her, without even needing a book or electronic thingy. It just all came flooding back to me, even noun/verb conjugation and vocabulary. I had a nice little conversation with one of the vendor ladies there about her adorable son she had with her.

I'll be going back in a few years with DH, so I'll likely have to translate for him too.

I am not going to make it a point to teach my kids a new language. I'll leave it to them if they want to do it beyond graduation requirements.

[Said1]

In answer to your question, I do encourage my daughter to speak and learn french outside of school. If she wants to survive in this town, it's a must- a major plus if moving to the west coast - she better not!

On a related note you sound more like you're getting a .............:laugh2:

[crin63]

You know, there was a time when immigrants were happy and willing to assimilate to their new, chosen country. They would learn the language and adopt many of the cultural rituals. It was a source of pride for them. Not so much these days.

I often wonder if the effect of political correctness has influenced this trend. In an effort to not offend people from other countries and cultures, it has become too easy for immigrants to ignore adapting to ways of their adopted country.

I have several 1st generation Armenian friends. They love our freedoms and they have learned to speak English but they are appalled by the Liberals trying to tear apart families in the name of tolerance and political correctness.

They just cant believe the things they see happening. One of my Armenian friends said America is committing cultural suicide and he sees his freedoms rapidly disappearing. This guy grew up under Soviet domination and he is simply appalled with the Socialist direction America is heading.

Armenians are very family oriented when they get here, but soon after their kids go to our public schools for their humanist, homosexual and Liberal indoctrination the children begin to drift away from their families.

[midcan5]

My father is Puerto Rican, when his parents lived in New York we were a melting pot and not a tossed salad, the only time I heard Spanish was when they didn't want us to hear. They never taught him their native tongue. Different times. My mother is Austrian, her parents native language was German spoken as a child, so I studied German in school. But even though I am liberal I think English should be the first language for all. Traveling through Quebec can be great fun as the French speaking Canadians think you are a lazy Canadian. Our sons studied French by the way. Personally I think whatever divides you is an impediment to progress and language does that when it isolates you.


http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Memory-Education-Richard-Rodriguez/dp/0553382519/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212454277&sr=1-1

[midcan5]

I have several 1st generation Armenian friends. They love our freedoms and they have learned to speak English but they are appalled by the Liberals trying to tear apart families in the name of tolerance and political correctness.

They just cant believe the things they see happening. One of my Armenian friends said America is committing cultural suicide and he sees his freedoms rapidly disappearing. This guy grew up under Soviet domination and he is simply appalled with the Socialist direction America is heading.

Armenians are very family oriented when they get here, but soon after their kids go to our public schools for their humanist, homosexual and Liberal indoctrination the children begin to drift away from their families.

No offense but what in the hell are you talking about?

[avatar4321]

i hope so. i need to practice with someone.

[retiredman]

I speak (or spoke) three languages. My oldest son speaks four. My younger son speaks two and my only daughter speaks two.

[Psychoblues]

I've taught all my kids Politicese and how actions certainly speak louder than words.

They are all, I am proud to say, at least inclined towards the principles of the Democratic Party with some liberal reservations.

[manu1959]

me ...danish and german...20 years ago.....not so much anymore ....

wife .....spanish....

we are ecouraging chinese.....

[Psychoblues]

"Ecouraging" Chinese?

That sounds self defeating in my honest opinion.