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Antea wrote:So, the questions are these:
If a child starts learning a language early (age 5, for example), but only 1 hour per week, do you think he will eventually learn the language and be able to speak and understand it later, at 18 for example?
Or do you think that this conventional method is a waste of time, and that with only 1 hour per week he will never be able to reach a good level?
Have any of you had this experience in your childhood with any language? And was it useful for you?
Antea wrote:If a child starts learning a language early (age 5, for example), but only 1 hour per week, do you think he will eventually learn the language and be able to speak and understand it later, at 18 for example?
vijayjohn wrote:Yeah. When I was in elementary school, for just one year, we had the opportunity to take Spanish classes once a week (and not even that often if the teacher happened to be sick or something...), and that was the only time in elementary school we ever had an opportunity to take any kind of foreign language classes.
Antea wrote:As we live in Catalonia, the only exposure we have it's to catalan and spanish. So it's not so easy to practise the language here, if you're not working in the tourism industry. I will try with cartoons and children books and we will see
vijayjohn wrote:FWIW, I think foreign language classes for children are a great idea (or at least can be). I just think they should be a lot more than just one hour a week because that seems like not nearly enough exposure to learn a language...
linguoboy wrote:vijayjohn wrote:FWIW, I think foreign language classes for children are a great idea (or at least can be). I just think they should be a lot more than just one hour a week because that seems like not nearly enough exposure to learn a language...
It isn't, but learning a language isn't the only reason to take language classes. In some cases, just introducing children to the concept of languages other than their own is valuable work.
vijayjohn wrote:But then do you even need a language class just to do that? If we can introduce children to the concepts of countries, history, etc. in one class broadly called "social studies," for example, then why not the concept of foreign languages as well?
.linguoboy wrote: In some cases, just introducing children to the concept of languages other than their own is valuable work.
vijayjohn wrote:But then do you even need a language class just to do that? If we can introduce children to the concepts of countries, history, etc. in one class broadly called "social studies," for example, then why not the concept of foreign languages as well?
Antea wrote:As we live in Catalonia, the only exposure we have it's to catalan and spanish. So it's not so easy to practise the language here, if you're not working in the tourism industry. I will try with cartoons and children books and we will see
Johanna wrote:finding physical copies for reasonable prices of pretty much everything has become much, much easier
Prowler wrote:I'm sure it'd take me longer to learn language if I started at, let's say, 20 than at 6-7 years old, but I also believe that I'd master the basics quicker.
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