Are we doing a disservice to our kids by not teaching them spanish?

Pouvez-vous parler in français, s'il vous plait? Je ne peut pas comprendre l'espagnol! Nous pouvons parler en englais!

 

LOL..this whole thing is getting out of control. The original question was are you doing a disservice by not teaching your child spanish...right?

Well....simply put..NO. You are not doing your child a disservice.

Would it be helpful to know it? Yes, but it also would be helpful to know a variety of languages.

Would it benefit your child's future? Yes...and so would learning a variety of languages.

Should children be forced to learn spanish? NO

Should we all be forced to learn spanish to live here? NO

Is Spanish the language of illegal immigrants? Not all of them...some illegals speak other languages.

I suppose the question didn't need all the extra emotions from whatever side of the fence you are on.

 

LOL My best friend in school could speak French fluently because her mom was from France. French is a beautiful language. Do you speak French fluently?

 

LOL, Ava Rose!

MamaBear, it sure is beautiful, isnt' it?

 

An Taz ny es en Neu. Benigas vo goz Hanou; goz Glasgar doz; goz Bonogath vos gureys en Aor, pykar en Neu. Ro dha ni hydhou bara ny peb Dydh, Gava dha ny a gan Kam, pykar der govva ny, neb es Kama erbyn ny, en antal ny na dro, byz Gwitha ny ves a Droag, Rag goz es a Miternans; an Haesder ha an Spladn, Bounaz heb diuath. Amen.

This raises another relevant issue. The language of my forefathers (Cornish) is dead. English was forced on everyone living in the United Kingdom. Our Celtic cousins in Wales (Cornish, Welsh, and Breton are almost identical languages) were forced to adopt last names consistent with the English way - so ap Harry became Parry, ap Hugh became Pugh, ap Richard became Prichard, and so on. The ruling culture suppressed other ancient cultures from the region. IMO, it's quite OK to keep the fires of our past burning. America has more hyphenated people than any other nation on earth - Italian-American, Asian-American, African-American, Korean-American - because almost everyone, at some point, came from somewhere else. I didn't go so far as expect my children to learn a dead language, but I did teach them about the ancient Celtic people, places, and culture. It's part of who we are.

Some words in English come from the Cornish language. Penguin, for example, means 'white head' in Cornish. And Jennifer is a Cornish name. We chose the Cornish word for 'happy' (Lowen) as our youngest son's middle name. I particularly love the Cornish word for a butterfly. It's pronounced "tikki-du" and means "beautiful little thing of God".

 

LOLOLOL!!!!

Uh, no! I speak excellent survival French, but not much more than that. Well enough that if I were to spend a month or longer in a French-speaking environment I'd manage very well and would speak better when I left. I would not be able to follow along a conversation among several French speakers and be expected to have anything more than a VERY general idea of what the topic was.

 

So where did you learn to speak Cornish, Steve? I spent a month in Brittany many years ago, and learned a lot about Briton at the time. Do they still teach Gaelic on Cape Briton Island in Nova Scotia?

 

I learned how to count to 10 in Chineese when I was a kid, still remeber it. I really wish that I would have taken French when I was in school. My neighbor was from France and I LOVED to hear him speak French. He told my dh, "Watch out, she might leave you for a French man". LOL

 

A few years ago, I had to attend a major industry show in Geneva. The closest available accommodation was in a small town called Villeneuve at the other end of the lake. Every day, I had to catch the train to/from 'Geneve'. One of the stops on the way is Vevey. I actually looked forward every day to hearing the female guard on the train pronounce this name. Spoken by someone from the French part of Switzerland, it has to be one of the most sensual names under the sun.

 

LOL, so ya know what I mean?:lol:

 

I didn't. I cheated and copied that paragraph from a website in Cornish. While there's an attempted revival of the language, it's very difficult to bring a dead language back to life. Plus, there has been a huge influx of English into Cornwall, buying vacation homes in what is one of the most beautiful parts of Britain. Obviously, they have no interest in hearing a language that now sounds so foreign.

Since you've heard and seen Breton, maybe you know a little Welsh too. The Celtic languages have consonants and vowels that don't exist in the English language so they must be represented by pairs of letters - such as LL and DD and CH. In Welsh, DD is pronounced like a hard TH in English (as in 'than'). In Welsh, 'heddiw' (pronounced hethew) means today, 'dydd' (pronounced duth) means day, and 'bara' means bread. In Cornish, DD is replaced by DH - so those words are 'hydhou', 'dydh', and 'bara'. Is that enough for you to figure out what I quoted earlier in Cornish?

By the way, just before we were married, my wife lived a stone's throw from this town in North Wales. It's worth knowing that 'llan' means church and the first letter of some names is mutated when following other words - so Mair (Mary) becomes Fair.

 

Pick out the Evan Evans mystery by Rhys Bowan. I got a fair sampling of Welsh from them! When I was in Brittany, the people couldn't make a TH sound for NOTHING! It would come out a Z sound. I knew Welsh had a lot of doubled consonants, but didn't realize they represented other unique phonemes!

 

LOL...holy crap you girls are out of control. First I said no one was allowed to speak Spanish then I insulted people who use Spanish in their jobs. BTW - I work in government - so did I just INSULT myself?

I am in awe of the assumptions going on here.

If the two of you were insulted then you need to take a deep breath and relax.

Anyone who reads malice into my post is simply seeing what they want to believe. I gave several reasons why not teaching your children Spanish is not doing them a disservice and then I proceeded to state the reasons why I felt teaching MY kids Spanish WOULD be doing them a disservice.

I stand by that post 100%.

For what my goals are with my children's education I think Spanish is pointless, a "hobby" language if you will.

 

I think spanish is the langauage of choice in American but it has to be what you and your family wants. Thats the joy of homeschooling.

 

Actually, Coloradomom, I am not insulted by you at all. I was just pointing out the falsety of your statement, "Bilingual Spanish is common and I do not believe that it gets you very far in the job market. The positions are mundane and cater to government, food service, day labor etc."

I did not "read malice" into your posts. Maybe you do not realize how rude or stereotypical (therefore uneducated) some of the posts on here sound, but I believe everyone else does. I do not say that out of meanness, just hope those with the rude remarks will rethink some of the brash things they have said.

 

Not insulting you, personally, by the way. Stereotypes are usually the result of lack of experience.

 

Honestly, I think Coloradomom is taking way more heat than deserved and compared with some of the brash and appalling things coming from a few others.

 

Although, I am not saying Faith3 is being insulting. I have agreed with her 100% and you know that makes her right on, right? LOL.

 

The main thing I meant to say to coloradomom was that the statement she made was false. My husband's job has nothing to do with the fields she mentioned, yet the employers are asking if the applicants speak Spanish. Also that calling someones job "mundane" is probably at least a little hurtful to those who work in those fields.

 

:love: