Author Topic: Some kids are amazing..well, mine are anyway. (Read 580 times)

Curval · « **on:** August 22, 2002, 02:02:05 PM »

The mixed race thread reminded me of this.

Last night my wife, who is Vietnamese, said something to my son who is a year and a half in her native tongue. She rattled it off really fast, and he started to cry. I looked at her with a puzzeled expression and she told me that she said to him that he is not allowed on the bed. (He has been standing up on the bed and dancing about and has almost fallen off on numerous occassions.) So, without looking at him, or pointing, I remarked on how his thumb-nail was really getting to be black - his brother slammed it in our sliding glass doors a few weeks ago. I said that in English, obviously, and I immediately noticed that he looked down at his thumb and he then presented his thumb to me for inspection.

He is already billingual! Freaking amazing to me because I have never been able to learn another language...and not through a lack of effort.

senna · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:17:01 PM »

Hey Curval, cute kid

Read somewhere that its been said that kids learn languages very quickly compared to adults.

gofaster · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:18:22 PM »

I recall reading somewhere that kids that are bilingual at an early age often have trouble learning to read and write in school. Something about the differences in sentence structures causing a conflict in their reading comprehension. Maybe it was all just a bunch of hooey.

miko2d · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:20:59 PM »

Didn't you know that asians are smarter than caucasians? He must have his mother smarts

Anyway, I see your bilingual and raise you chin-ups.
He is 10 months old and wants that apple. I feed him, honest...

miko2d · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:24:10 PM »

He does get confused sometimes...
Where are pictures of yours, btw?

CyranoAH · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:31:49 PM »

From what I've read and seen (the kids of a friend of mine are a good proof of this), the best way to teach a child two different languages without him/her mixing them up is to have each parent talk to him/her always in the same, distinct language.

This friend of mine is Spanish, but his mother is german. His wife is spanish as well, and they have been living for 3 years now in French Guiana.

So he talks to their children in german, she does in catalan (I won't go much into it, but it's a language spoken in northeast Spain, and some parts of southern France and a region of Italy), they speak with their friends in french and they learn english at school.

The elder son is now 10, and he is proficient in catalan, german, and french, and he's picking up english very fast.

Gloria and I plan to do the same when we have our own children, but we haven't decided yet which will be the second language we'll be teaching them, english or french.

The learning capabilities of a young mind are truly amazing.

Daniel, aka Cyrano

Curval · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:34:50 PM »

Pic is in that racism thread actually..lol

Here is one I have posted before though...just for you man;)

I'll have to "call" you on that chin up thing:D

midnight Target · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:53:41 PM »

Just in case you might follow American Football Curval, Dat Nguyen just signed a 6 yr. deal with the Dallas Cowboys. He's a pretty good linebacker.

Sandman · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:56:00 PM »

Oh... they're cute now alright... Give it 15 years and you'll be counting the years until they get the hell outta your house.

Sandman · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:56:51 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by senna
Hey Curval, cute kid Read somewhere that its been said that kids learn languages very quickly compared to adults.

Absolutely true statement.

miko2d · « **Reply #10 on:** August 22, 2002, 02:59:48 PM »

Curval: Here is one I have posted before though...just for you man;)

Note to self - shop in Vietnam for prospective daughter-in-law.

Curval · « **Reply #11 on:** August 22, 2002, 03:03:02 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by midnight Target
Just in case you might follow American Football Curval, Dat Nguyen just signed a 6 yr. deal with the Dallas Cowboys. He's a pretty good linebacker.

Not a big football fan...but I wonder if there are any Vietnamese that don't have Nguyen as their last name.

Seems weird that a Vietnamese guy would be playing football..most are so short and skinny....ooops was that a racist remark? Well, it's a stereotype...but one that is fairly accurate. I'll bet he grew up in the US...my wife and her 5 siblings who were born in Vietnam, are all tiny. Their sister that was born in a refugee camp, but who was brought up in Canada towers over all of them. Must be the food they eat over there.

midnight Target · « **Reply #12 on:** August 22, 2002, 03:44:12 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Sandman_SBM
Oh... they're cute now alright... Give it 15 years and you'll be counting the years until they get the hell outta your house.

My youngest - 14

Will probably kill me before she hits 18.

gofaster · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2002, 03:49:51 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by the great Spaniard CyranoAH
Gloria and I plan to do the same when we have our own children, but we haven't decided yet which will be the second language we'll be teaching them, english or french.

Is there a French online air combat flight simulation?

Question answered.

gofaster · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2002, 04:21:11 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Curval
my wife and her 5 siblings who were born in Vietnam, are all tiny. Their sister that was born in a refugee camp, but who was brought up in Canada towers over all of them. Must be the food they eat over there.

Actually, yes it is. There was a sociological study conducted amongst Japanese living in the US after WW2 looking at body weight and physical height. For the most part, the Japanese adults born and raised in Japan were shorter and slighter, whereas their kids, born and raised in the US, or brought over at an early age, tended to have builds closer to the average of the US population. The study concluded that dietary intake and lifestyle contributed heavily to the increased size of person of Japanese descent.