Re:Ancient Echoes
by thequadehunter on Saturday November 25, 2023 @09:40PM
(#38418706)
Same with me. Dad is Mexican and I took Spanish because I thought he could just help me every time I got stuck. At 15 years old it did not occur to me what a wasted opportunity it was that he never taught me.
I ended up learning Japanese later in life through tons of immersion and living in the country, and knowing what I know now I wish I could have explained how important bilingualism is to 15 year old me...or even my dad. It is the single most eye-opening thing I've ever done. Something about it just makes you so much more cognoscente about everything you say and do even in your native language. It's like I "came online" or something.
Re:Ancient Echoes
by thaumasiotes on Sunday November 26, 2023 @07:32AM
(#38421130)
My father's mother was Mexican.
When I was born, my mother specifically requested that she teach me to speak Spanish. She refused to do so; when her own children were born, she had been forbidden from teaching them Spanish.
There is also the issue of approach: learning the grammar of a foreign tongue before the rest is tedious and will bring kids very little. If, however, you learn my immersion and naturally, then you are sure to be hooked. That's how I learned English anyway, on my own.