What language to teach my kids...

[Beestie]

I have a 3 year old daughter and a four year old boy.

I would like them to learn a 2nd language and would like opinions on which one I should choose, when to get started and the best method(s) to use.

[lumberjim]

teach them Klingon. that's always useful

[elf]

I had wanted my kids to learn a second language - and had the perfect opportunity since the woman who was taking care of them spoke Fresian. But, she was lazy and it was easier not to teach them, so she didn't. Hell, at that age, you just have to speak it, and they will learn!

I suppose that the most useful would be the most common foreign language in your area. Immersion is the best way to teach a kid, in my opinion. Get videos in the chosen language (Spanish, German, French and Italian are the easiest ones to find, and I believe in that order). It's a good starting point.

The more exotic the language, though, the more fun they'll probably have with it, it being almost a 'secret' language between them - and it might be more valuable than knowing, say, Spanish. But, then again, knowing Spanish would probably be more easily useful, no?

Yeah, I'm gonna stop babbling now.

[Slartibartfast]

esperanto


In the US the second language most spoken is Spanish, and it is on the rise in numbers.

If you have ancestors from a particular country, you might want to teach them a language from there to help give your children a link to their past.


It is great that you want to teach your children another language! Any choice you make will broaden their experience.

Chinese, so they can follow after where all our jobs are going. Just kidding!

I'd say Spanish since Spanish seems to be becoming this country's second language, and just to be eccentric, I'll vote for Latin as a second choice. Why? Latin may be a "dead" language, but before it passed on, it became the mother of all tongues. Even English has many words derived from the Latin. Latin is the language of science, medicine, and the law, as well as theological scholars; not to mention classical ones. Its too bad so few of our high schools offer it anymore - just one more symptom of the decline of our educational system.

Latin aside, kids pick up foreign languages pretty fast. I was speaking German at age 5 when my Dad was stationed over there (alas, my folks didn't encourage me to keep it up, so I forgot most of it when we returned to the US 3 years later). If you can swing it, I'd say hire someone whose native tongue you want your children to learn to come be their nanny for a few hours a week. Tell her to speak in her language with your kids. You'll be amazed at how fast they pick it up.

[OnyxCougar]

I'd say it depends on where you live. In the southwest, definetly Spanish. In the Northern US I'd go French. *gag* The fastest and best way to teach your child a 2nd language is to take a class yourself, and then start speaking in both languages at home. Also, get children's books (like Sesame Street) in both languages. (That's how I learned Croatian.)

[Beestie]

Originally posted by lumberjim
teach them Klingon. that's always useful

maj luq

[lumberjim]

buy' ngop

[mrnoodle]

I vote for Spanish. The Hispanic population is growing by leaps and bounds. The Quebecois population is holding steady. Thank God.

I learned French because I thought it would get me girls. I was wrong. It got me hit on by guys. *sigh*

[Griff]

My girls are learning French. It's not so important which language kids learn. The main thing is that they work on a second language early so they're wired for it. They can learn Tagalog later.

[lumberjim]

Originally posted by mrnoodle

I learned French because I thought it would get me girls. I was wrong. It got me hit on by guys. *sigh*

sounds like a good thread idea

[glatt]

From a practicality standpoint, in the USA, after a person knows English, Spanish is the best idea.

If you want your child to be marketable with the government and CIA, you might want to choose one of the mid-east languages. Maybe that's a good reason to avoid those languages.

Otherwise, Spanish makes the most sense.

If your child is old enough to have a preference, a language of his/her choice would probably be more fun to them. French/German/Italian are all good for trips to Europe.

But really, Spanish is the best bet.

[lumberjim]

if you teach them Latin, they would have a very easy time adding spanish, italian, and french.

[Radar]

I was going to suggest the same thing Jim. Latin makes all the romance languages easy to learn. While spanish is practical, it's also very easy. While they're young and learning languages is easy, latin would be a good choice. It will make learning French, Spanish, Italian, and Portugese very easy.

If, for practical reasons, you want to choose languages based on the number of people they can communicate with, Chinese, Spanish, French, and Portugese are probably your best bets and as you can see latin gives you a fantastic head start on these.

I wish I had taken latin in school instead of Spanish. Though I can still speak Spanish fluently.

[Happy Monkey]

I had six years of Latin because I didn't want to take a language. It helped with my SATs, but I can hardly remember a word of it.