Immigrant influx to Chicago suburbs spawns foreign language schools for kids

This article from the Chicago Tribune explores the efforts made by suburban Chicago immigrants trying to instill their native heritage in their children, primarily through language study.

Immigrant influx to Chicago suburbs spawns foreign language schools for kids

By Russell Working |Tribune staff reporter

12:05 AM CST, January 4, 2008

Art and Maria Guelis are well-educated Russians who speak their native language at home, read Tolstoy and Dostoevski and watch Internet TV programs out of Moscow. But their 7-year-old son, George, always answers his parents in English.

Determined to pass on their linguistic heritage, the Guelises recently adopted a time-honored immigrant strategy that is burgeoning in Chicago's suburbs.

They enrolled their son in Saturday language classes in addition to his regular public schooling.

George attends a Russian school in Naperville, one of scores of weekend foreign language schools springing up in houses of worship and cultural centers as migration from Chicago and the high-tech industry in DuPage County bring a polyglot populace to the suburbs.

While embracing English as essential in America, these parents are striving to keep their own languages alive in their family for another generation. But history shows they face an uphill battle.

Read more.

10-Year-Old Boy Speaks 11 Languages

by Lauren Nemec

A boy living in England has my dream superpower.

Arpan Sharma, a 10-year-old British Indian boy, has a gift for learning languages. He has learned 11 languages so far and is eager to learn more.

Arpan's mother tongue is Hindi, which he learned from his parents growing up. He also speaks English, and learned French, German, Italian and Spanish at school. Using interactive CD-Roms, Arpan has taught himself Swahili, Mandarin, Polish, and Thai. Most recently, the young language genius has been learning the difficult language of Uganda- Lugandan.

He says learning Swahili was the biggest challenge, and that Mandarin was difficult, too. Hindi is his favorite.

The young boy enjoys studying music in school, in addition to learning languages. His headmaster believes that his musical training has helped him develop his talent for picking up languages, saying "Arpan is a language genius, a natural when it comes to listening to the exact pronunciation and repeating them perfectly. I think some of his talent is twinned with his ability as a musician. His good ear for music and tone is used for languages as well."

So what does Arpan plan to do with his talent and passion? He says, "When I'm an adult, I want to be a surgeon who can work in all the hospitals of the world and speak the language of the country I'm in."

Arpan came in 3rd place last year at the national Junior Language Challenge, and has reached the final round again this year, which will be held on Friday.

Good luck Arpan!

Photo Courtesy: Daily Times, Pakistan

Baby Talk is Universal

by Lauren Nemec

A recent study shows that verbal communication towards infants - or baby talk - translates well across cultures.

In the study, English-speaking women were recorded 'talking' to both children and adults, in approving, disapproving, comforting and attentive manners. The tapes were played for non-English speaking villagers in Ecuador, who were able to distinguish with impressive accuracy the difference between the women speaking to an adult and speaking to a child. In the case of baby talk, the Ecuadorians could even easily determine the mother's manner of speaking.

The report, published in the "Psychological Science" journal.
MSNBC's story on these research findings, "Baby talk knows no language barriers".

A separate study also published recently at the University of Chicago showed researchers that monkeys also use a form of baby talk with infants. Like humans, monkeys use of baby talk consists of vocal cues including tone, volume and pitch that result in a sing-song like quality.

Chicago-Sun Times story on these research findings, "Goochie-goo: Monkeys use baby talk".

Bonita Cinderella - Teaching Children Foreign Languages through Fairy Tales

by Lauren Nemec

An American writer named David Burke has developed a unique foreign language learning program for children. Concerned by Americans' lack of foreign language skills, Burke developed a line of children's books that teach children new foreign words in every book. The article, "US Writer David Burke Teaches Language Through Fairy Tales", offers an example from the instruction CD to illustrate how the books read:

"Once upon a time, there lived a poor girl - nuhaizi - named Cinderella who was very pretty - pioaliang. The nuhaizi, who was very piaoliang, lived in a small house - fangzi…."

So far, the books are available from English into Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese and from Spanish, Korean and Japanese into English.

I think this is a great idea, mostly because fairy tales are so universal. In the Czech Republic, for example, you can see Czech fairy tales portrayed on television during every national holiday. Czech children watch their Czech fairy tales on Saturday mornings with the same wide-eyed excitement as American children watching a Disney fairy tale. Though the tales may vary from country to country, the basic themes, plots and characters are usually the same.

Perhaps fun tools like these books will make children more eager to learn foreign languages and help them connect easily to other cultures.

You can visit David Burke's website at slangman.com to learn more about him and order these books. Here's a man as animated as his fairy tales...

Bringing Up Bilingual Baby

by Lauren Nemec

If you’re thinking about raising your child to be bilingual, one of the keys to success is to start as soon as possible. Studies have long shown that a child's brain is primed for learning languages from infancy until about three years of age. However, recent studies from the University of British Columbia imply that an even smaller window of time is ideal for introducing bilingualism to your child.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have made a new discovery regarding the way babies learn languages. According to the study, babies use facial clues (such as rhythm and movement of the mouth, muscle movements, and facial expressions) to distinguish between languages being spoken to them.

Babies from bilingual (French-English) homes and babies from monolingual (English) homes were shown a silent video of a person speaking in English, then in French. After a few moments, babies from 4-6 months old would lose interest in the video until the languages were switched, signifying that they can distinguish between different languages solely based on visual clues. (See the study in action! This is from UBC's Psych Department).

However, babies exposed to only one language tend to lose this ability by the age of 8 months. In the study, 8-month old babies with no multilingual experience were not able to make the distinction. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it”.

If you would like to read more about the study, here are some interesting articles:
Babies can tell if parents are bilingual
Secrets of babies' language skills
How Babies Decode Faces

If your child is older than 8 months, it's not too late to try to raise your child to be bilingual. (In fact, you're never too old to learn a foreign language).

Here are some articles giving advice about raising a multilingual child:

Ten Steps to Raising a Multilingual Child

Raising Bilingual Children: The First Five Steps to Success

You're Never Too Old to Learn a Foreign Language!

by Lauren Nemec

I found a sweet article today from the Hartford Courant about residents of a retirement community who are learning foreign languages in order to communicate with each other. You can read it here.

Nearly 40% of the residents at the Olympia, Washigton retirement community are Korean-born, and don't speak much English. Though they had been neighbors for many years, the American and Korean residents could not do much more than smile at each other- until now. At the request of the residents, English and Korean classes are being offered at the community. Being able to ask of their neighbor something as simple as "How are your children" in their neighbor's native tongue has not only helped the seniors to develop respect for each other, but has also opened the door for friendship.

Studies have shown that children who begin language learning at early ages will have better native pronunciation and an increased ability to speak the language fluently than an adult who begins language study later in life. However, according to language-learning-advisor.com, advanced age should not prevent a person from successfully learning a foreign language. Quite the opposite! A person's life experience, motivation, confidence and mature cognitive system can greatly contribute to their learning a foreign language.

Besides, I guess it helps that they don't have the added pressure of studying for exams or certificates!

*Photo credit: courant.com, Tony Overman