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Greg Kimnach

In article , says...

"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
.. .
I have a 4-year old son who goes to day care 3-days a week. He likes to
watch Dora the Explorer which for those of you that don't know, teaches
kids a few Spanish words. I use to object to him watching it, but now I
don't have the energy to keep changing it when he watches it. Now he
comes home from pre-school and they are teaching him the days of the week
in English and in Spanish. What the f---???

Why do 'they' feel it is important to teach my 4-year old son Spanish
words when he can barely speak English?? Is Spanish going to be on the
SAT or LSAT or MCAT ???

This is getting really ridiculous.

To my way of thinking it's nothing to get upset about. Knowing two
languages does nobody any harm, children learn multiple languages far more
easily than adults, and adults who know two languages generally have a lot
less trouble with learning another than do those who only know one, so if he
starts out with English and Spanish, later if he wants to learn Japanese or
Russian or Aramaic or whatever he'll have a leg up.

In many localities the Catholic schools, which nobody has ever accused of
being bastions of political correctness, start a second language in second
or third grade--in Louisiana and Canada it's French, don't know what they do
elsewhere.

Further, it's an odd thing about languages--different languages express
things differently--something that one can say in a few words in one may
take several paragraphs in another--knowing two gives you an alternative way
of looking at things which can sometimes help with problem solving.

Further, in many parts of the US today, "yo hablo espanol" is a useful thing
to have on a resume for just about any job that involves interacting with
the public.

Rather than fighting it I'd say to encourage him at every opportunity.

I read the OP's post and quickly scanned through the FU's. Here are my
quick and disjointed thoughts, as meaningless as they may be.

The OP finds it "unbelievable" for the very reasons, no doubt, that my
initial reaction is.

It's Spanish.

He and his child were not given a choice. In the states we've been
hearing a lot about bilingualism for many years. And I can't stand it.
Why? Because bilingualism is semi-officially English/Spanish. It's
ubiquitous: ATMs, on-line banking, phone help lines, ad nauseum give us the
choice of English or Spanish. NotGerman, Swedish, Russian, etc. Why only
Spanish?

We're a nation of immigrants. And many of us, if we were lucky enough to
have parents who had the pride and forethought to teach us, learned another
language (or more). But we were taught to keep it at home, not "demand"
that "the state" and businesses conform to us. Because we're a nation of
immigrants, we need a single common language to be used: English. No
choices. It's either English only, or all. Why discriminate?

Before you go lambasting me, know that I am thoroughly convinced that
bilingualism/multilingualism is a very good thing for individuals. I tell
my immigrant friends that they should speak only their native
language(s)--Spanish included!--to their kids at home. Offering Spanish in
schools is good too: if there's a choice. I know that other than French,
some elementary schools offered either German or Russian also. Many high
schools no doubt did offer more than English, French, Spanish and the
classics. But it seems that we've spiraled down to just English and
Spanish. Why? (Even Latin, which I studied for 5 years, and classical
Greek are less prominent in HSs than just a decade ago.)

I was borne and raised in the states, but did not speak English until I
went to kindergarten. From the time my boys were borne, I've only
communicated in Hungarian with them and their English language skills have
obviously benefited from it. And when we have to pick either Spanish or
French when they enter third grade, I'll push for French.

Lord knows, they're exposed to enough Spanish-no matter how informally-and
they'll be "quad-lingual."

To keep on topic, here are your Hungarian words for the day:
Fa - wood
Tolgyfa - oak
Nyirfa - birch
Juharfa - maple
Cseresznyefa -- cherry

I've wasted enough of your time...
--
regards,
greg (non-hyphenated american)
http://users.adelphia.net/~kimnach