English or Mother Tongue
English or Mother Tongue
(OP)
Hello all,
This may be different type of question.
I'm a structural engineer working in Sri Lanka. My mother tongue is Sinhalese. We had our primary education in Sinhalese medium and at the university we had our engineering education in english medium. All our day-to-day works are conducted in english. Most of students in university found some difficulty dealing with english as they had had their primary education in sinhalese medium.
Now we have the oppotunity to educate our children either in sinhalese or english medium from small age. Anyway, Well conversant in english has clear advantages in this region.
My question is if I give my child an english medium education which is not his mother tongue, will that affect his early development of thinking / analytical ability.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Clefcon
This may be different type of question.
I'm a structural engineer working in Sri Lanka. My mother tongue is Sinhalese. We had our primary education in Sinhalese medium and at the university we had our engineering education in english medium. All our day-to-day works are conducted in english. Most of students in university found some difficulty dealing with english as they had had their primary education in sinhalese medium.
Now we have the oppotunity to educate our children either in sinhalese or english medium from small age. Anyway, Well conversant in english has clear advantages in this region.
My question is if I give my child an english medium education which is not his mother tongue, will that affect his early development of thinking / analytical ability.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Clefcon





RE: English or Mother Tongue
RE: English or Mother Tongue
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Children are said to have an innate ability to learn languages; several at once. Children I know from multi-ethnic families and families living in a new culture have no problem learning two or more languages and keeping them separate.
My wife speaks around eight languages, not all equally well. She is most fluent in the three languages she learned as a child.
Children are also very adept at discovering the social rules that tells them how to behave in different circumstances.
My sister, a teacher, asked her children why they didn't behave at home the way they behaved at school. Simple, different rules. In other words they have few problems sorting out often complex social surroundings and learning different behaviours to suit.
One of my brothers in laws family had a three language environment for their children to grow up in. Their children learned early on the appropriate rules for when they had company and which languages they could and couldn't use.
When they had English only guests they were only allowed to speak English. One time when we were visiting the little boy lapsed into his parents native language. His mother promptly spoke to him about it:
"What did I tell you about speaking only in English to our guests?"
"Oh, yes, I must speak to them in English," he replied, " but I was talking to myself."
The main problem would appear to be making sure the child is comfortable among his peer group at having several languages.
A French woman, living in England and teaching French and speaking perfect English, could never get her son to learn French because it is thought he felt it would set him aside from his friends. (She was a single parent and thus, at home, there was no opportunity for him to see French as a natural conversational language in that environment and he couldn't, it seems, understand why she wanted to talk to him in French when they both could speak English. Sad, because it meant that eventually, if he did learn French, it would be in the English school system - which is, apparently, to drop oral exams in foreign languages as it is too stressful- and not from his mother.)
Multi-generational immigrants can often experience the situation that the grandparents speak their native language only, the parents usually speak both languages but the children, even if they learn their family's native language at home can find it uncomfortable to speak it and soon begin to forget it or refuse to speak it. This leaves the parents having to act as interpreters between the children and their grandparents. It appears such children have no problems learning other languages if their peer's at school are also learning them.
For children it isn't a problem with capacity, they can learn several languages with ease if they are young enough. The real problem would be to help set some clear rules and expectations of them in the home environment so that they will be comfortable speaking the languages the family will use in the home environment.
The saddest thing is where the children lose the ability to talk with their elder relatives.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: English or Mother Tongue
I think if you are going to immerse your children in an English-only curriculum, it would be safe to use your mother tongue and customs at home.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
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RE: English or Mother Tongue
They have found that once a child learns a second language, it is easier for them to learn additional languages.
Definately a good idea to teach them both languages from an early age.
Theat is just my two cents.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: English or Mother Tongue
They can have phone conversations & listen to music in all three (phone and lyrics are the most difficult things to understand in a foreign language).
That is my experience.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
It is a well-documented fact that people who learn two or more languages as young children absorb and learn other languages much easier as adults. A child's brain is wired to learn language up to about the age of 8, but I've heard it is best to start exposure to a second language by the age of 3 to get maximum benefit.
I spoke French with my grandfather, Italian with my grandmother and English with my parents. When I was married to a German, I learned to speak well enough to communicate with his parents in German. Practice is essential for retention and for that I would suggest only the most gentle corrections on use and pronunciation. Encourage your children to use both.
"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
RE: English or Mother Tongue
The Key is NOT to deprive children of the mother tongue (if other than English) or your own culture, while trying to learn English or any other subject. Encourage them to learn both or more. The brain does not get strained if by learnig more by just being subjected to information in normal life. Knowing more can only be beneficial.
Not knowing his/her own mother tongue and culture is equally detrimental to growth and fitting in the society. I have seen many confused children of foreign decent when they know nothing about theri own cultures.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
RE: English or Mother Tongue
I know people of Hispanic decent, 3rd or 4th generation in USA in their 30s, that don't speak spanish, I know they regret their parents not teaching them when they were younger.
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: English or Mother Tongue
In fact I am glad that my relatives here who have childern born here in the USA, make no attempt to teach them English at home but rather keep speaking our native language. Childern learn english in the USA by default, going to school, playing with friends and watching TV!, etc.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
From the age of birth till 5 yrs old the Amish people (google it if you dont understand) teach their kids and speak only to those kids in a "form" of the german language. At 5 they attend school till they are 14. they are taught english from that point forward. All religeous activities are done in thier german dialect. All business activities involving us english people amongst themselves are delt with in german.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
However, this is not uncommon in Europe. However, is that Europe which is also strugling with keeping up some decent economical standard, when compared with the "ignorant" yanks, who are a little dot on the competition horizont, ahead of the rest. They speak (poorly) one language, the american english, but the whole word can't get enough to follow them. Every spanish, hungarian and even french are learning the american english, because they hate the british accent. I accept that I feel better that I know who Alain Delon was, when the yanks cannot spell "english", but that's a different cattle of fish...
cheers guys!
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Interesting, we have a lot of european interns that come over to us (CA USA). Most of them learnt British English.
Likewise when I was still in the UK most Europeans I met spoke British English.
The obvious exception was a group of Germans who came from near one of the big US bases, they spoke more American English.
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Privet!
gr2vessels
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Your comments are invaluable.
Clefcon
RE: English or Mother Tongue
I'm spanish/english speaker, and I like to think of languages as just the thinner, outer communication layers. Languages are just varying enclosures of thoughts and feelings shared by everyone in all continents.
I usually contact many american and european customers by Skype or email, so I had to learn english at a late age (20+).
Since I started to get into the customer concerns about deadlines or budget, and found that everyone act the same under stress, I realized I was just starting to speak english :)
GonzaloEE
RE: English or Mother Tongue
(Did I just write that out loud?)
- Steve
RE: English or Mother Tongue
When reading maths, formulae or equations, sometimes an spanish reader appears, no matter if it's EN/SP written. Some called it "talking to myself".
With technical requirements from EN-speaking customers, sometimes I hear that 'internal CNN reader', and complex details are translated by the spanish reader inside.
I guess most people tend to hear these 'voices' always in their native language when dealing with complex text, no matter the source language.
PS: This thread has a schyzophrenic taste, hehe.
Regards,
GonzaloEE
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Regards,
GEE
RE: English or Mother Tongue
But of course being Finnish, he'll say nothing in any of them.
Quite a lot of university studies are available in English in European universities; they do it to facilitate student exchanges (Erasmus exchange). 'Erasmus English' is understandable, but has a fairly limited vocabulary, and nobody bothers much about grammar. Most of the students learnt some English from local teachers in their school-days, so they don't have an identifiably 'British' or 'American' accent.
The most difficult person to understand in an international group here is invariably me. I don't know why; I speak perfect, classic, accentless Australian...
RE: English or Mother Tongue
i was just on a vacation to mexico....i learned more spanish in 1 week, compared to the amount i remember from the 4 years in italian...
beleive me i wish i was able to go back and relearn italian and spanish...even tho they are so similar....
~~Joe
RE: English or Mother Tongue
I went to a technical Uni. and didn’t think the Erasmus English was that limited, well I guess when people first started the no-native speakers where really bad. But after a couple month most of my friends became pretty fluent with English and even (field specific) technical terms. I guess the technical stuff may depend on the country you study and the professors.
I have been told differently from freinds and family about ‘Erasmus English’ that it was very clear and to the point. Because all the slang, and many useless words cut out, and a good attempt at appropriate pronunciation, with a hint of a British accent. I know some locations on the US where the English barely resemble English. I guess its pritty relitive, to people, location, and education.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
I'm not saying that Erasmus English is necessarily 'bad', just that it is simple. As a social lingua franca it's fine, impressively so. On the other hand I've proofread quite a few students' papers and theses over the past few months, and they range from incomprehensible to barely adequate. Grammar is the killer, and it's probably not helped much by studying and socialising with other people that aren't fully cognisant of the rules.
I shouldn't be too critical though; I have to start learning Spanish soon.
Getting back to the OP, a primary education in English is probably the best way to develop an understanding of things like the proper use of articles and prepositions. As several posters have mentioned, kids are smart, they can be comfortably bilingual.
RE: English or Mother Tongue
Anyway, German is much like English in grammar (both languages share a common Germanic root), and easier to speak for people with a Spanish background (harsh sounds). I hope to get on track again with it.
Cheers,
Gonzalo
RE: English or Mother Tongue