Kids learn languages faster then adults

Forums: Languages, Parenting, French, Child Care, Rosetta Stone
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Our son will be eight years old next month and he already speaks English and Spanish fluently.

Not long ago he told me he wants to learn French. So for Christmas I got him the Rosetta Stone French version software. Well in just a week’s time playing with this software he can now speak another language I can’t understand, well some of it anyway Cool

Au revoir

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Type: Question • Score: 26 • Views: 16,237 • Replies: 57

@jcboy,

That's great!

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

After all these years I'm still trying to learn Spanish Razz

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@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

Our son will be eight years old next month and he already speaks English and Spanish fluently.

Not long ago he told me he wants to learn French. So for Christmas I got him the Rosetta Stone French version software. Well in just a week’s time playing with this software he can now speak another language I can’t understand, well some of it anyway

Au revoir

My husbands doctor speaks Italian (his birth language), English, Spanish and French.
He learned them all as a child.

Are there any other languages Antonio would like to learn?

Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and other Asian and Middle Eastern languages would be a real bonus to his future.

1 Reply

@chai2,

So far just French. I’m not sure where he came up with that idea, one day he just came to me and said I want to learn to speak French and when I said why? He said “Why not”. So I though that would be a good Christmas gift and he’s been practicing with it ever since Razz

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When my daughter was 8 she sat next to a Chinese girl in class who needed to have a translator. They got on very well, and the translator told her about Cantonese classes that were held at that school every Sunday. She went for four years, and that's what set her off.

An interest in languages at an early age can only be a good thing.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

The Rosetta Stone software is the best, from what I’ve read on the Internet. He’s learned quite a few different sentences in the short time he’s been using it. The speech recognition is pretty neat and he’s not self conscious about talking to the computer.

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@jcboy,

I've heard good reports about it, albeit from Rosetta Stone themselves, but otherwise have no real knowledge. My daughter's language skills came from traditional classroom techniques, but she's just got an ear. When we went on holiday to Crete she worked out the vowel sounds of the Greek alphabet just by listening to people talking and looking at posters. I don't know how she does it. She doesn't get it from me, I speak very basic French, enough to get a round of drinks in, and that's about it.

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@jcboy,

I love this magazine ad for Rosetta Stone.

http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/images/uploads/farmboy-banner.jpg

1 Reply

@chai2,

I saw a documentary on this guy. The only way to experience it is to listen to tapes that are only available in certain locations. It's a closely guarded secret.

Quote:

The Michel Thomas Method is an original method developed by Michel Thomas for teaching languages.

Thomas claimed that his students could "achieve in three days what is not achieved in two to three years at any college" ("three days" meaning sessions as long as eight or ten hours per day, although students claimed not to experience the lessons as over-intensive, but actually "enjoyable" and "exciting"), and that the students would be conversationally proficient.

Thomas was initially hired by celebrities and other public figures, such as Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Emma Thompson, and Woody Allen, as well as by Grace Kelly following her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco to meet her need to learn French rapidly.

The method first rose to prominence in Britain, following a BBC television science documentary The Language Master, wherein Thomas taught French to sixth form students for five days at a further education college in London in 1997. As a result of the interest generated by this documentary, UK publisher Hodder and Stoughton commissioned Thomas to produce commercial versions of his courses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Thomas_Method

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

So this guy teaches you a new language in a few days.
Can he do that with everybody? Not all people do have an ear for language - their own just as well as a foreign.
I wonder if you really can get the soul of a language when learning it that fast.
Learning a foreign language at school does not always give you a good feeling for the new language either.

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@saab,

My first italian dictionary was put out by Mondadori (I haven't seen them around anymore, that was in the 80's, but I just looked them up, and they still publish). It was a smallish but fat paperback that I read until it was almost shredded, falling apart in many places. What I liked about it so much was that they would give a lot of examples of word usage, including colloquialisms - those examples helped me catch on to the humor, the imagery, the playfulness of native italian speakers.

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@saab,

That's what's claimed, it's his voice on tape, but the only way you can hear them is to attend a specialist licenced centre. The main criticism seems to be that the technique is jealously guarded. I've not seen interviews with anyone claiming that it didn't work. (That's not to say there aren't any.)

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Was it a dict5ionary or a phrasebook?
What phrasebooks or books to learn from they have gotten worse over the last few decades.
It used to be a good language, also teaching about the country and its traditions, food etc.
Lately I have run into books with lots of pictures, a few sentences and even wrong information about the country.
It is so sad.

I got to look at a book about Englsih for beginners.
All the time it was written he´s, she´s it´s etc. I pointed out it is better for a beginner to have written English instead of oral English. It is difficult with his, he´s, Is he? It should be he is, she is etc. I´d . Does it mean I had or I would or I should. When a person is a beginner it should be written out correctly.
I got to know it is a shame that a person who does not know English well is teaching.
Ot a book Swedish for beginners. Here people were asked about food. The Swede said there is no special Swedish food. A sentence like that is absurd. Instead the authors should have made a list of what we have of specialities.

http://scherdin.shapemeup.se/files/2013/12/julbord_tappa.jpg

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@saab,

saab wrote:

Lately I have run into books with lots of pictures, a few sentences and even wrong information about the country.

Exactly that's what some criticise about the Rosetta Stone method.

I think that we have a huge advantage here in Euope re learning foreign languages:
- English is taught from Kindergarten onwards in most countries,
- at high school/grammar school, you learn at least one more (in Germany two) language, compulsory. (And voluntarily at least two more = four foreign languages are offered at all high schools here),
- you are within hours in a country with a foreign language (all school classes here go on exchange to foreign partner schools)

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@saab,

A dictionary with the added phrases past the definitions, small print, thick book for a paperback. I kept it for years with a rubber band to hold it together but finally tossed it, dumb of me, since I never found a better ital dictionary, for me - though I admit I didn't search past the usual university or other good bookstore.

To add to your comments, I rue the photo-ization (my made up word) of guide books now of more recent vintage. I want information. I don't want to see fabulous photos of the place, or maybe just very small ones. I want the thrill of walking around a corner and seeing an incredible scene, be it a piazza, some grand architecture, some stunning formal or informal garden, and so on. I like surprise, almost a shiver of visual pleasure. My favorite old guide books were by Richard Saul Wurman -
The books walked you through a city, told you about the history of the street, what was interesting about the buildings - chock full of information.

better described here than in that sentence by me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wurman

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@izzythepush,

I have been teaching in that way that you only speak the language being taught.
When the student does not understand a word you have to explain it by either make a small drawing, make a sound or move around.
that is all easy when it is say a pig or walk or jump.
There are words which are difficult to show like: envy.

1 Reply

@saab,

I'm just reporting what I've heard. The only way to verify it would be to take the course.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

His method is very good - it seems like the way we teach our children to speak.
It is similar to Berlitz teaching too.

1 Reply

@saab,

Antonio has learned so many different French sentences in such a short time I decided to order the Spanish version for myself. I can understand a lot of Spanish I just can’t speak it very well but from what I have read Rosetta Stone is the best out there. Se habla espanol? Cool

0 Replies

Kids learn languages faster then adults

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