Dianne Feinstein versus Chuck Grassley

[redwood66]

Good news: kids are now learning to read, write, AND speak foreign languages beginning in preschool. My daughter’s preschool graduation featured songs sung in Spanish, a group recitation in Spanish (so cute—“bienvenudos a la esquala madres, y padres, y I can’t remember the word for grandparents nor the rest of the speech) and every day she would bring home papers she’d written out Spanish nouns and numbers. She is now in kindergarten and attends Spanish Club once a week in addition to learning a bit every day in class.

I’m hopeful this is being implemented in most schools in the States. We need to understand the languages of those countries in at least the same continent if not the rest of the world. I don’t give a rat’s patoot if DF knows which form of “there” to use and why; it’s important that we at least communicate with each other as best we can. Anyway he’s doing alright, as evidenced by his Octavia and expensive watch collection. Obviously those “trump” all other qualities. Ok now I’m being facetious...I’ll stop there.

It's so much easier and they are so open to new things at that age. I love watching little ones soak up everything like a sponge.

 

[AGBF]

I was very lucky to have a Berlitz instructor teach us in her home. One hour (or more) and nothing but German spoken. No English to be spoken at all. If you don't know it, look it up. Immersion works.

I know immersion works, which is why I used that method to introduce my daughter to French as an infant and a young child when her Italian father refused to raise her as bilingual in Italian. Had he spoken only Italian to her and I spoken only English, she would have grown up naturally bilingual. However, he refused. So I took her to the home of a Belgian friend twice a week since she was four months old and we spoke only French there. As a small child she spoke French as well as English. The problem is: you cannot stop. And we stopped when she started school, relying on the French "befores" and "afters" (before and after school language classes) to take the place of the immersion. They did not. She did not take French in school again until sixth grade. It was not offered again until then. No foreign language was.

 

[AGBF]

Good news: kids are now learning to read, write, AND speak foreign languages beginning in preschool. My daughter’s preschool graduation featured songs sung in Spanish, a group recitation in Spanish (so cute—“bienvenudos a la esquala madres, y padres, y I can’t remember the word for grandparents nor the rest of the speech) and every day she would bring home papers she’d written out Spanish nouns and numbers. She is now in kindergarten and attends Spanish Club once a week in addition to learning a bit every day in class.

I’m hopeful this is being implemented in most schools in the States. We need to understand the languages of those countries in at least the same continent if not the rest of the world. I don’t give a rat’s patoot if DF knows which form of “there” to use and why; it’s important that we at least communicate with each other as best we can. Anyway he’s doing alright, as evidenced by his Octavia and expensive watch collection. Obviously those “trump” all other qualities. Ok now I’m being facetious...I’ll stop there.

Although I cherish English grammar and used to go over things like the difference between "less" and "fewer" with my high school students, that was my JOB then. (And the students can learn English grammar as well as foreign languages, after all.)

But I couldn't agree more that communicating with others is of the essence now.

All I can say to your above posting is: Hear! Hear!

Deb