Your children learning Russian or not

[northkape]

I posted this as an answer and my opinion on the other site.
Thinking that it might be valuable for future husbands / wives from here also...
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Learning languages is an almost free gift for your children...
They have no problem learning three or even four at the same time.
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Me and Lena gave our twin boys three languages almost from the start.
We decided that Lena would communicate with them only in Russian from day one.
And she still does, till this day. I took care of the Norwegian language.
We learned them to speak, read and write in both languages long before starting at school.
Then we had them in an English speaking kindergarten from age 3,,,
and later in private English speaking school.
Today at age 10 they are fluent in speaking, reading and writing Norwegian and English.
They understand Russian almost 100%, speaks very good, reads good,,,,
but writing and grammar is lacking because Lena were unable to find time for practicing.
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Spending time teaching your kids, is the best gift you can ever offer them.
At the same time you are building a relation and friendship that might last a lifetime.
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We decided to give our boys a broad platform in life.
In sports I take them to gymnastics training two evenings a week,,
I go swimming together with them two Sundays a month.
In the winter we go skiing in the mountains and in the summer hiking in the mountains.
We go fishing, walking into the forests for picking mushrooms and berries, birdwatching,,,,
and much more all year long.
In music I take them to our private piano teacher one evening a week,,
At school they have additional piano and also violin, guitar and singing in a choir.
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In arts they go to a private teacher one evening a week learning to draw and paint.
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All of these activities have been going on now for 6 years.
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I have been teaching them in mathematics and science since before school,,,
and so many other things.
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I'm still reading bed-time stories for them almost every evening,
even though they are equally good and fast readers as myself already.
I just love reading for them and they love listening whenever we have the time for it.........
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Kids just loves learning new stuff, all the time, around the clock.
For me, this has in many ways been the best part of my life...
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I made a small web page for women prospects to look at,,
with some photos and videos of my boys here:
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http://www.northkape.com/pictures/photos/index.html
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They attend an incredibly nice school,,,,
with dancing, music, theater, singing, arts in addition to all sciences...
Look here and click on video, then technology video as an example...
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http://www.cisfredrikstad.no
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Jan

[ML]

Acquaintances of mine from Ukraine moved to Ireland 5 years ago. 
They had a 5 year old boy who entered the Irish school system immediately with English as language of instruction.  Children also learn Irish Gaelic at school.

Despite talking mostly with him in Ukrainian at home, he now (5 years in) cannot speak sentences in Ukrainian.  He can speak Ukrainian words and short answers, but cannot (for instance) tell about some event using Ukrainian language.

[ML]

Today at age 10 they are fluent in speaking, reading and writing Norwegian and English.
They understand Russian almost 100%, speaks very good, reads good,,,,
but writing and grammar is lacking because Lena were unable to find time for practicing.

Do children still get some instruction in 'Old Norse' at school?

[mendeleyev]

My earliest experience with multiple languages was in the Netherlands Antilles. Kids much younger than my age were fluent in Spanish, Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Papiamento (local language). I was an English speaker trying to learn Dutch. I picked up a lot along the docks as it was vegetable and fruit boats coming from places like Venezuela and grocery/supply freighters from Holland that kept us in the modern world.

Dutch was the official language and Papiamento the de facto language while the others were used for communicating with the daily ship crews that passed through the islands.

That experience taught me something so in our home we encouraged languages. My Russian wife already spoke Greek, German and passable English when we met, and she could navigate Ukrainian and Belorussian okay as I imagine is not uncommon, so we encouraged language learning. The youngest takes to languages like a duck to water so she wonders what the fuss is all about among the rest of us struggling mortals as myself. She added Italian and French to her Russian, English and Greek so by the time she entered University.

She is now a teaching assistant at MGU and it was her use of languages and the number of foreign students there that contributed to the reasons why she got that position.

[Boethius]

Acquaintances of mine from Ukraine moved to Ireland 5 years ago. 
They had a 5 year old boy who entered the Irish school system immediately with English as language of instruction.  Children also learn Irish Gaelic at school.

Despite talking mostly with him in Ukrainian at home, he now (5 years in) cannot speak sentences in Ukrainian.  He can speak Ukrainian words and short answers, but cannot (for instance) tell about some event using Ukrainian language.

He probably can, but doesn't want to.  I remember taking my kids to the park, and sitting next to me were Russian speaking grandparents.  We started a conversation (they were from Ukraine).  The toddler they were with responded in Russian, an older child, about 8, in English.  The grandmother told me "He refuses to speak Russian."  She pointed to their home, across from the park. 

Six years later, my daughter asked me to give her friend a ride home after a school event.  Turned out to be the same boy.  I asked him if his grandparents were from Ukraine.  "Yeah," he said, "everyone knows my grandparents."  The boy, now in high school, can speak Russian, but generally, doesn't want to. 

[northkape]

ML,,, no,
I wasn't even sure what it is, (had to look it up)
we didn't learn it in school 40 years ago either.
Jan

[mendeleyev]

Bo and ML, correct me if I'm wrong but I think that there are very different attitudes in the USA and perhaps parts of Canada versus Europe and Asia when it comes to speaking multiple languages.

I can imagine a kid in North America not wanting to stand out and be ridiculed because he speaks a language the other kids don't understand, especially one with political connotations such as Russian.

Would you think that such a stigma just wouldn't be very commonplace in other parts of the world?

[Boethius]

In Canada, for the most part, nobody cares. 

[ML]

I can imagine a kid in North America not wanting to stand out and be ridiculed because he speaks a language the other kids don't understand, especially one with political connotations such as Russian.

You are probably right.

However, this doesn't apply to the example I gave.

There, the 10 year old cannot use his native language to describe to his parents, inside their home, events in his daily life.

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I live in a large university town (the university is large, not the town) and here we are used to hearing many languages when out and about at the grocery stores, malls, etc.

Doesn't bother the adults at all; but not quite sure how the school children react if they hear their classmates talking to each other in them there furein languages.

[ML]

ML,,, no,
I wasn't even sure what it is, (had to look it up)
we didn't learn it in school 40 years ago either.
Jan

Last year, I sat on plane next to a man around age 35 from Norway.

He told me that he and all children had to take lessons in Old Norse in their schooling.

Ireland also has this requirement for Irish Gaelic.

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I am amazed at how the Scandinavian people (living there) seem to speak 'accent free' English today.  I have been told it is thanks to American TV shows.

As a child, I spent a fair amount of time in upper midwest (Northern Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.) and remember the strong accents of the Norwegian and Swedish people who lived there.

[CanadaMan]

Learning languages is an almost free gift for your children...
They have no problem learning three or even four at the same time.
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Yes that is so true.
I believe the more languages one can speak the richer one's potential life experience.

Regrettably my parents decided not to teach my brother and myself all the languages they knew as we grew up.

Had they done so, today I would be speaking English, French, Polish, German, Russian and Yiddish.

 

[Anotherkiwi]

...I am amazed at how the Scandinavian people (living there) seem to speak 'accent free' English today.  I have been told it is thanks to American TV shows.

No, ML, those ones speak with an American accent! 

[ML]

No, ML, those ones speak with an American accent! 

Actually USA is only country in the world whose inhabitants speak English without an accent (well ignoring the southerners and northeasterners).

[Anotherkiwi]

Actually USA is only country in the world whose inhabitants speak English without an accent (well ignoring the southerners and northeasterners).

We've had this argument before, and every other English-speaking country would argue vehemently to the contrary!  Everyone else recognises an "American" accent.  Although the UK is an exception, because it has so many regional variations (who on earth can understand Lowland Scots or Geordies without an awful lot of practice?  ), other English-speaking countries are reasonably homogeneous when it comes to their standard speech patterns.  New Zealand only has one region which is minimally different from the rest of the country; I doubt that I could tell the difference between the speech of someone from West Australia and someone from Queensland (although I/O might); and every South African I've heard speaking English sounds pretty much the same.  However, they are distinctively Australian and South African in general terms (as are New Zealanders - at least to Australians).
 
I think I have a pretty good ear for languages, having won prizes for French and Latin at school, and I would love to have grown up in a bi-or multi-lingual household.  Now I have to content myself with trying to learn a bit of Russian, although it's on hold until I work out whether or not I will actually make another attempt to find my "other half" in the FSU.  The ones on sites like EM who really strike awe into me are the interpreters whose profiles show (or claim) them to be fluent in half a dozen (or more - the best I've seen is 11) different languages.  My one and a half and a bit (well, several bits) rather pales into insignificance in comparison.

[ML]

We've had this argument before, and every other English-speaking country would argue vehemently to the contrary!  Everyone else recognises an "American" accent. 

I just talked with my brother on the phone earlier this morning.  I listened very carefully; and I did not hear any trace of an accent.

I will walk later today with a neighbor guy, and I will try to listen if he has an accent also.

[SANDRO43]

Actually USA is only country in the world whose inhabitants speak English without an accent

No country/language on this planet is accent-free . Depending on local history, different phonetics for many/most words of the same common language can be heard even just a few miles away - as is the case in my country.

These past 50 years or so, TV has done much to 'flatten' accents to a more widely accepted 'standard', but has not succeeded in totally eradicating them.

[GQBlues]

Actually USA is only country in the world whose inhabitants speak English without an accent (well ignoring the southerners and northeasterners).

LOL #1: Obviously you haven't been through those drive-thru junk food stations, or ordered Chinese food for pick-up, or ate at a Mexican/Italian/Japanese/Indian/Korean/Greek, etc restaurants...

LOL #2: To say USA, and more specifically California, where half the population is now largely Hispanic; is uni-lingual is erroneous.

LOL #3: Here's proof that even native born Americans speak at least one *foreign* language in addition to *American*.





As for the topic, my wife's feeling is if and when we have kids she'll attempt to teach them to speak Russian, but with greater emphasis on English. She said she may change her mind later about teaching them Russian at all. I've already told her I won't try to teach them *my* native language as I just don't see the benefit of it considering I learned to speak another *foreign* language and it proved to be futile and a waste of my time.

The language is 'pig latin'. 

[CanadaMan]

No country/language on this planet is accent-free . Depending on local history, different phonetics for many/most words of the same common language can be heard even just a few miles away - as is the case in my country.

Right.
I don't know if ML is being facetious or not but most people (including myself) can't hear their native/local accent but have no problems distinguishing non-local ones.

[mendeleyev]

[GreenoMan]

Last year, I sat on plane next to a man around age 35 from Norway.

He told me that he and all children had to take lessons in Old Norse in their schooling.

I cannot say that this is not true, but I doubt it. Learning Old Norse/Icelandic is purely a literary adventure, like for students in France/Spain/Italy/Portugal to learn Latin. The language has changed so much that it is only an adventure into one's one culture. People in English-speaking countries do not study Anglo-Saxon in school.

You are probably mixing it up with Nynorsk (New Norwegian). Norway was ruled by Denmark for 500 years. There are two official written standards in Norway: Nynorsk (New Norwegian) and Bokmål ("book language"). "Book language" is based on Danish spelling. New Norwegian is based on Norwegian dialects. "Book language" is the bigger one of them, but both are used somehow and under circumstances that I do not really understand. I know for example that local councils can decide which one they want to use locally.

Ireland also has this requirement for Irish Gaelic.

Let us see if I remember this right, I might be wrong when it comes to some details.

Gaelic is mandatory to learn in school for a couple of years. It is spoken mainly in the West and some isolated spots in the country. People all over the country can demand to use Gaelic when communicating with local authorities. According to an Irish paper, Gaelic will become an option rather than a requirement due to financial cuts to education. Gaelic language is the basis of Ireland's cultural identity, but, despite efforts to preserve it, it is a diminishing number of people who speak it.

I am amazed at how the Scandinavian people (living there) seem to speak 'accent free' English today.  I have been told it is thanks to American TV shows.

As a child, I spent a fair amount of time in upper midwest (Northern Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.) and remember the strong accents of the Norwegian and Swedish people who lived there.

I Scandinavia, foreign TV programs and films are often subtitled, not translated. That is helpful for language acquisition, particularly speech. Students are taught foreign languages in school for many years. Small countries have to do this in order to trade with foreign countries and succeed economically.

[GQBlues]

It doesn't always pay to be bilingual...

[BC]

Do your kids a favor, push for a second or even third language at an early age.

The language doesn't matter any will do.. it's the ability to absorb other languages that counts.

[CanadaMan]

Do your kids a favor, push for a second or even third language at an early age.

The language doesn't matter any will do.. it's the ability to absorb other languages that counts.

Yes any language will do.
I would start however with the 'world domination' languages like English and Chinese first though.
That's what my brother did with his children. 

[mendeleyev]

I agree with you both. It is important to start early and research has shown that the brain can handle other languages easier in later life if it has already been trained to learn and recognize languages.

National Public Radio did a series on this and concluded,

...the power to learn language is so great in the young child that it doesn't seem to matter how many languages you seem to throw their way...They can learn as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear systematically and regularly at the same time. Children just have this capacity. Their brain is just ripe to do this...there doesn't seem to be any detriment to...develop(ing) several languages at the same time.

http://www.cal.org/earlylang/benefits/research_notes.html

[TS]

Learning languages is also how parents involved.
We have several Russian parents living by us and their kids struggle with English and Russian because their parents do not know English very well and also don't seem to teach them Russian either. When parents are lazy in language children may follow.
I met my wife in Ukraine when I worked there and she knew zero English but I could speak Russian.  When she came to the USA she passed college English in 1 year.  She worked hard that 1 year and passed 18 classes of spelling, grammar, speaking, etc.  She got a masters in English.
Parents who spend time with children can easily grasp numerous languages.  My children love the Canadian cartoons dubbed in English on Kartina satellite TV.