My son’s friend speaks English and Danish. My cousins’ children speak English and Spanish. A colleague is raising her 2 kids trilingually: English, Spanish and Chinese. Dora the Explorer speaks 2 languages, as does her cousin Diego, and Sesame Street has been sounding more like the United Nations for years.
I’m monolingual, despite efforts to acquire Spanish (my so-called ancestral tongue) and German (the language of my in-laws). I studied, participated, got good grades – but the languages never took. What went wrong?
Experts suggest that age was the factor We acquire languages more easily when we’re young. In their book, “The Bilingual Edge,” linguists Kendall King and Alison Mackey explain how, when and why to teach your child a second language. Their common-sense approach is rooted in research, but written from the perspective of parents – and for parents. While it’s too late for me, it isn’t for my child – or yours.
|
RSS Subscribe
