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There will always be benefits to learning multiple languages, that being said I wouldn't put my kids in a Spanish immersion school. learning more languages can be beneficial if your job involves traveling but if a foreginer lives in the US, they need to learn English. a couple summers ago I was on the west side of Grand Rapids, a prodominately polish neighborhood, we don't have a big latin american population here in GR as it is. I dipped into a grocery store on a 90 degree day and asked if they had bags of ice. The clerk just stared at me, so I asked again, and she just said "ice? que? ice?" like she didn't know what ice was. I was shocked, how can you not know basic english in a city where everyone speaks it and there's barely a spanish speaking community at all, it just baffles me.
Where i grew up, the majority of my friends were multilingual by the nature that we are majority children of immigrants (Mexican, Thai, Cambodian, Chinese, Taiawanese, Korean etc). Also, the majority of us have taken endeavors to learn a third or a fourth. My Asian friends took Spanish throughout high school and college, some with better success than others. Also, ive always been impressed by how the majority of the Asian doctors i had in my childhood, whether Indian or Chinese or Korean, knew how to speak Spanish well enough to communicate with my mom.
I speak Spanish and Portuguese, but they are very closely related...more so than Spanish and Italian. It felt more like learning to speak Spanish with an accent than anything. Ive taken several years of Mandarin, but retention has been difficult as i hardly use it in any aspect of my daily life. My cousin, who lives in Mexico, has been a lot better of it and also got to spent a year in Taipei, which is what helped reinforce her skills the most. Mandarin is her third language after Spanish and English. English being a requisite for university graduation for all my cousins in Mexico, so they all know it .
Learning another language definitely opens up other worlds, the only issue i see is with actual retention and practice of the language. Even second generation immigrant children have a difficult time keeping up their skills.in their family's native language. My family is only on the second generation right now (we're from Mexico), and English already clearly dominates, with some of my cousins not.being able to speak Spanish, though they understand some. At our family parties, im always code switching...English with my cousins, and Spanish with my aunts/uncles/grandparents. Though my aunts and uncles know English too, so it is mostly to benefit my grandparents.
the most difficult language to learn is the 2nd language (1st being your mother tongue) because you'll have to learn both the language and how to learn a language (that it is a process in itself).
The most difficult language is the 2nd IF it is vastly different from your native language.
Would it be difficult for a Spaniard to learn Italian? Hardly. I find in Europe many cleaning ladies speak at least 2 languages. The difference between Spanish and Italian for example is smaller than that between Mandarin and Cantonese.
I admitted that to be able to speak 4 languages still takes a lot of efforts, but as I said, if it is the 4 Romance languages, it is as impressive as a Chinese being able to speak English. Not really a huge deal. It is like saying I can lift 4 dumbbells without specifying how heavy they are.
So next time when people claim "I speak 3/4/5 languages", please specify which languages they are. I am sure most Catalans speak Spanish (and many speak French) and many Dutch speak German. Impressive? Hardly.
After considerable research, I realized there is a lot of debate whether America needs to be multilingual or not. The neuroscience researches have shown a tremendous benefit: learning a second language not only improves learning and cognitive skills, it also showed improvement in the brain's executive functions, such as planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks.
I am debating whether its worth my time and money to have my children placed into a Foreign Language Immersion School ?
Everybody sees the obvious benefit. And yet, our society seems to be standing by: "We are in America, speaking another language is not necessary". Any thoughts? Appreciated...
I agree that English should come first in your lives. The US is an English speaking country and its obvious why that should be your focus.
Placing your children in a language immersion program will not hinder them in any way, it will only benefit them. Living in the US, they will always have an opportunity to develop their English language skills and most language immersion schools have a portion of the day (sometimes 50/50) devoted to English language instruction.
My daughter has been in a Spanish immersion preschool since the age of 1, minus a short interruption where we moved to the UK. She will now be entering a Spanish Immersion Pre-K program that will take her through until the 8th grade. She is 4 years old now and can switch back and forth between both languages proficiently (for her age obviously). I speak Spanish fluently and my wife conversationally and we see no difference between her English language skills and her unilingual peers. There are times where her English language skills are even more advanced.
I would say go for it. Plus learning a foreign language also opens up other closely related languages if you wanted to extend your language learning skills further.
All I can say is that not knowing languages is one of the reasons why Americans are not respected where I live. Most people think they are just plain stupid and ignorant.
All I can say is that not knowing languages is one of the reasons why Americans are not respected where I live. Most people think they are just plain stupid and ignorant.
For not knowing another language when we live in a vast country that primarily speaks one language, the language much of the world primarily speaks or learns as their second language?
We only border two also very large countries. One also speaks English (French in small pockets) and the other speaks Spanish (if I'm not mistaken, the most common second language here). So why should we have to know/learn other languages unless we want to? It's not like we commonly come across those speaking vastly different languages than us from different countries on a daily basis, or really on any basis. There's no need for it. Some want to learn other languages, and great, I encourage it if that's what they want. But there's no need. Most foreign languages would be useless on a daily basis in America. I live in a very diverse area, northern NJ, part of the NYC metro, and still don't see a need to speak another language because English is overwhelmingly the primary language anyway.
This isn't Europe, made up of mostly small but very culturally different countries. Travel between EU countries is common and easy, traveling to an area that speaks another language is easy and never too far away, unlike in America, so it would make sense for Europeans to know another language than their primary one (and English). That's not the case here.
If someone travels a lot to non-English speaking countries, then learning a foreign language can be essential. It is much more difficult to understand other cultures if you don't speak the local language.
OTOH, If someone simply stays put in America and wants to become financially successful in this country, then learning a foreign language is not essential.
English is the primary language used in schools, universities and for most important careers in America.
For not knowing another language when we live in a vast country that primarily speaks one language, the language much of the world primarily speaks or learns as their second language?
We only border two also very large countries. One also speaks English (French in small pockets) and the other speaks Spanish (if I'm not mistaken, the most common second language here). So why should we have to know/learn other languages unless we want to? It's not like we commonly come across those speaking vastly different languages than us from different countries on a daily basis, or really on any basis. There's no need for it. Some want to learn other languages, and great, I encourage it if that's what they want. But there's no need. Most foreign languages would be useless on a daily basis in America. I live in a very diverse area, northern NJ, part of the NYC metro, and still don't see a need to speak another language because English is overwhelmingly the primary language anyway.
This isn't Europe, made up of mostly small but very culturally different countries. Travel between EU countries is common and easy, traveling to an area that speaks another language is easy and never too far away, unlike in America, so it would make sense for Europeans to know another language than their primary one (and English). That's not the case here.
Then perhaps you should share with your fellow countrymen, who you said think Americans are ignorant and stupid for not knowing another language, and that it's a reason why they don't respect us.
I think that is kind of unfair and unnecessarily judgmental.
Then perhaps you should share with your fellow countrymen, who you said think Americans are ignorant and stupid for not knowing another language, and that it's a reason why they don't respect us.
I think that is kind of unfair and unnecessarily judgmental.
But many people are going to hate Americans no matter what After ignorant comes fat, then war mongering etc
PS. I know many non ignorant Americans
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