One of my hobbies these days is the invention of a school. We’ve had some discussion about providing a session a week in another language. The question is, how would we teach that language to children?
There are many philosophies about language learning. I live in Canada, and we have successful French immersion programs in schools. I didn’t attend one, and my daughter is not attending the one in our area. I love the idea as a concept. The teacher speaks in French and the children have to learn how to navigate in another language. Intense, but it works. However, I would imagine that would be quite stressful and disorienting for my daughter, and I don’t want her in school full time either.
Of course, there’s always the potential to speak to your child in another language if you have one. Many of us are concerned about our accents and our vocabulary. The kids tend to resist as well. However, if you’re skilled enough and devoted enough to do this, it’s a very natural way to learn.
There are language classes too. My daughter is in one. I don’t think that they are going to make her fluent, not unless we attend for many, many years. However, I think that they are good for a general exposure to the sounds and concept of another language. If you’re far away from language classes, taking them online through venues like LiveMocha for teens and the Muzzy BC language course for younger children provide good instruction and an opportunity to learn any number of different languages.
There’s also travel, which is my preferred method of language immersion, since it comes with a cultural experience as well. However, the challenge is that I speak English to my daughter. In Costa Rica, for the first time I tried to speak as much Spanish as possible to her, and I found it much easier because it was in context. She picked up a lot, and we are planning to move to Switzerland for 6 months in the next few years so that we can have a longer French immersion experience there.
How do you encourage your child to learn other languages?
Image courtesy of Lusi at Stock Exchange.