Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-h Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:ac4 From: ac4@pucc-h (Tom Putnam) Newsgroups: net.kids,net.nlang Subject: Re: Teaching children to be bilingual Message-ID: <1327@pucc-h> Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 10:55:40 EDT Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1327 Posted: Tue Oct 9 10:55:40 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Oct-84 07:29:31 EDT References: <1505@ucla-cs.ARPA> <858@ihuxb.UUCP> Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 19 I had an interesting experience while vacationing in France a few years ago. A mother, father, and daughter sat behind me in a stadium, and I listened to their conversations. The mother spoke English, the father listened and replied in French (I speak a little myself), and the daughter listened to either one and spoke in English. This was the normal mode of conversation for most of the evening. Occassionally any one of the three would throw in a phrase or two from their "other" language. This supports a point of view which I think many of us may have experienced when learning a new language: it is much easier to learn to understand the language than it is to construct your own phrases (i.e. speak) in a language. (This even applies to computer languages). You never really learn to speak in a language unless you actually use it. -- Tom Putnam {decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|seismo|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:ac4