my old college marketing professor told a joke:

what do you call a person who speaks 3 languages?

'trilingual'



what do you call a person who speaks 2 languages?

'bilingual'




what do you call a person who speaks 1 language?

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'an American'

 

i don't know how many families (korean) i've seen that immigrated from korea and the first thing they wanted was for their kids to learn english - only to find out in a few years the kids would learn so much english and completely forget korean and never speak it again. it happens a lot and it's pretty sad that they lose that part of their heritage. you see it a lot in kids that immigrated when they were still in elementary school and younger. obviously older kids retain a lot of their original language. now when i talk to parents that are so worried their kids will not learn english, i quickly warn them to not let them forget korean, because it happens QUICK. this only applies for families that move into areas that predominantly speak english, and not moving into chinatown or k-town... that would be a different story.

also, i think the OP is differentiating between learning a new language just to learn it and speaking the language of one's culture/ethnicity/heritage.

 

many europeans are multi-lingual because a) english is taught early as it is an "international" language b) geography

this doesnt fully apply to us

while foreign languages should be more heavily emphasized, our current education curriculum is already lackluster in mathematics, history, geography, rhetoric .............. all of which should be given more weight

 

This old joke puts it very well.

Scenario:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro 's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro 's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Foundation must be laid first. As a psychobio major, they often teach us that the critical points for langauge development is in the first 6 years, then a plateau starts to wane in. As long as the precident of using 2 languages fluently is established, the child will be able to compensate. If both languages are used by the parents, the child may become not very well versed in either languages, i.e. Chinglish.

 

I speak a foreign language, my wife does too. Fortunately its the same one. It's fun to talk about things in front of people and they have no idea WTF i'm saying.

 

What is inherently good about knowing more than one language (especially if that one language is English)?

 

My soon to be wife speaks fluent Cantonese. In fact, when conversing with the rest of her family, they all speak it. I have been trying to learn it...they all think it is cool that a white guy is learning to speak Chinese. It is rather hard, but I'm slowly getting it.

Anyway, my fiance speaks English just as well, if not better than I do. Her mother speaks enough to be able to talk to me, but that's about it. When we have kids, we will primarily speak in Chinese...at least until they get ready to start school...hence once of the reasons I am trying to learn. We both think that it will be good for our kids to be able to speak both languages.

I think as a kid, it is easy for children to learn multiple languages. Her cousins (the oldest being 19) are fluent in both languages, as is her brother. But as the OP said, they all speak in Chinese when conversing with each other. Unless it is her and her brother, then they talk in English.

 

I speak both English and Spanish. I speak Spanish most around family and English most around friends. My wife is trying to learn Spanish and we want to teach our daughter Spanish.

 

i having a hard time answering that question since i've almost always spoken 2 languages, adding a third later in life. the short answer? probably nothing, especially if you live and die within 15 miles of your birthplace and content with taco bells representing your local mexican food and panda express representing your favorite chinese food, as many americans do.

however, knowing another language gives you access to trains of thoughts and logic directions that you might have never considered before, not to mention that many more potential mates to choose from. in addition, it helps on your resume, helps to know another language for work, and in this day of globalization, not knowing more than 1 language just seems silly. i've used my language skills to my business advantage more than once during negotiations and found it to be invaluable to have people speaking languages in front of me they assumed i don't understand.

finally, if you're not a history buff, you need to know that languages come in and out of dominance: latin, french, italian, german, english, and god knows what else in the future. those who're naive enough to think english will be the predominant language in the future should take a second look.

 

I spoke only English up until high school where I was forced to learn one. I chose German. I can't speak it fluently, but I know enough to get me around town if I were to go there.

Learning Cantonese to me is actually exciting. In fact at our wedding reception, Part of the speech where I address her family is going to be in Cantonese. It is a challenge to me to be able to converse with her family in their native tongue.

You ask what good can come of it? To me it is invaluable. Her family totally supports me in learning and seems to be very happy that I am even putting an effort towards learning it. And in my learning, I will be able to pass that along to our children. Because I already know that Chinese is going to be their primary language. Why would I want to alienate myself from my own children?

If nothing else...It'll just be fun to be able to speak it.