Do you think it's a good idea for my 1st grader to take French and Spanish? I'm just curious about confusion, since they're both Romance languages. Any experience with teaching (or having tutored) two languages at the same time for elementary?
Wow! Two seems like a lot. Keep in mind that kids that age are ALSO learning English So, that would be like studying three languages at the same time! I just picked one...French...because we had all the Disney films done in French at our local library. Also, we had a neighbor from Quebec who would work with my daughter a little and she really enjoyed visiting. Incidentally that's a terrific way to help kids to absorb a language....if they have a favorite Disney film that they like to watch again and again....pop it in one day in the foreign language of your choice with English subtitles. Helps with foreign language retention, and helps with reading! Ya can't lose. Wish I had some advice about trying to teach two...but wow...that just seems like way too much for that age (to me, anyway)
Is there a reason you WANT to teach two languages at once? My recommendation is pick one. The 2nd one will be easier to pick up since it is also a romance language, but it could be confusing to learn both at the same time. Just my .02
There's someone here, I believe it's Embassy, teaching her kids at least two languages at once, but I believe they are very different languages. Maybe Arabic and Mandarin? If your tv/tv-system supports it, you can change the language from English to something else (maybe Spanish AND French -- mine only does Spanish, I think). So you can watch pretty much any show in the target language at any time.
I don't have personal experience with this, but my twin sister is a French teacher, and she's also fairly fluent in Spanish. She learned both at the same time in high school. Not sure about a 1st grader..........
Thanks for the advice, everyone. CrazyMom, I love that idea about Disney films in foreign language for retention! Krista, it was just a crazy thought! No particular reason, really. I've seen kids who learned several languages at this age, but they had tutors and nannies, etc, who spoke those languages. I wasn't expecting conversational level, but just more of a global awareness, if that makes sense. Lindina, I believe you're right about Embassy, now that I think about it. I guess it works best when the languages are drastically different. 2littleboys, I can see how learning one helps with the other, which was probably in my thinking, but on the flip side, I see how that can be confusing for 1st graders. But that gives me an idea about high school!
