Bilingualism

My son is 3 years old. He is half English and half Argentinian with relatives in Britain, Spain and South America.Every attempt is being made to bring him up bilingaul in both English and Spanish. But in an almost exclusively English speaking country this is hard.Personally I am linguistically useless (I have enough trouble with English) but my other half is a translator by trade and obviously well placed for this sort of thing. At least in an academic sense.Does anyone have any experience, advice or insights into bilingualism? Extending the topic - Are there any notable psychological or educational advantages or disadvantages to bilingualism for children?Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

In principle I agree. But I fear (perhaps irrationally) that in learning two languages in a country where, frankly, this is quite unusual he might be considered to be "behind" in English.I fear (again - perhaps irrationally) that when he starts school although he will be advantaged in many ways by having Spanish as well as English that in the "system" this will count for little. In fact if his English is not at the same level as everyone else who only has one language to learn I fear (perhaps irrationally) that he will be considered "behind" and treated as such.I never truly knew what irrational fear was until I became a parent so I am quite willing to admit this may all be part of that. But irrational or not I do worry. Even though I think he ultimately has an advantage that is phenomenolly worth having.Do you get what I am saying (even if you think I am wrong to worry).....?

Cheers Mod. I feel better already But I still have that silly itch where I can see the day that he comes back from a 6 week summer in Argentina and starts back at school in Brixton and has forgotten his English completely thus invoking the ridicule of his peers.My wife thinks I am a worrisome fool... I should probably just listen to her. She is invariably right.

I think we all broadly agree on that. But are there disadvantages to being brought up in a bilingual environemnt in a predominantly monolingual culture? Is there a danger of "being left behind" in the primary tongue? Or am I just a monolingual dad with too much time to worry on his hands?Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

"y'all". "queue".How bizzarrely Americanly British!! Cool.

In our case he is going to have to learn both to some extent. Me and my side of his family are monolingually English speaking all the way.Her (with her as the obvious exception) side of the family are equally monolingually Spanish speaking. So to communicate with both sides of his family he will need to speak both. In fact he is almost certainly going to be called upon to translate between the different sides of his family at some point!!So far the signs are good. He has already started talking to his mum in Spanish and then coming to tell me in English what it is she wants me to do

That is sooooooo true!!!When my mum (his gran - obviously) starts trying to use Spanish words he gets deeply annoyed with her "No Spanish for you grandma!! For me and my mummy. That's not nice. Stop it please"Maybe I should be worrying more about his levels of bossiness instead of any difficulties learning two languages might result in...

I suspect that when all is said and done that will be the main reason he ends up speaking Spanish come post teenagehood. If I wasn't already married to an Argie girl I might well be have more "impetus" to try and learn the language myself for exactly that reason It might be a struggle maintaining his bilingualism in the preceding years. But grandparents and uncles etc. on that side of the world (plus his regular trips to family in Madrid) will no doubt keep him versed enough in the meantime. Once he discovers the "pulling power" and world of opportunity that two languages allows him I suspect that your insightful reasoning may match his own conclusions.Now all I need to worry about is how to get him to support England rather than Argentina in the next world cup..........

On a more serious note...Did you ever feel that your own bilingualism disadvataged you at school?Do you consider English or Spanish as your "first" language? Or are both equal?On a completely opposite of serious note..... Do you ever do comedy in Spanish............?Have you ever seen Eddie Izzard? Atheistic transvestite comedian who regularly breaks into French/German/whatever in front of English speaking audiences. Not my favourite British comedian by any stretch of the imagination. But kinda relevant to the topic and more widely the EvC forum to some degree. Here are some links for when you are bored.Eddie on bilingualism (and pot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzDbNFDdP4Eddie on religion (even though he breaks into German at one point - just to keep the bilingual theme going on) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ope-1Zb5t-kWhether you like his stuff or not the topics at least seem highly relevant to you personally Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

Hah! Fortunately his only source of footballing knowledge at this early stage in his development is ME!! It is the single area of unadultered indoctrination and prejudice that I insist upon. Without alternatives, impurities or compromise. Objective rational assessment of the superiority of the relative merits of any alternative is not an option he will be afforded.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

It changes all the time. But currently:Ross Noble - (Surreal Improvisation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJ-q03JnQkFrankie Boyle (Harsh Scotsman) http://properlaughs.com/...-at-the-apollo-191208-part-3-of-3?David Mitchell (Poshboy English twat who doesn't take himself at all seriously) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkObvXY24tkJack Dee (Lives down the road from me and discussing the area that I used to work in until recenetly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVqzx3BfnQFinally a really short and relatively shallow but funny one from Russel Howard http://odeo.com/...relationships-scare-Mock-the-Week-BBC-Two That is well interesting!! Why is that? Simply linguistic differences? Or more cultural? Never! I'll see your asshole (so to speak) and raise you a pompous wanker. Anything you can do I can do better. And I don't even have the excuse of testing people's comedy boundaries for professional research to use as an excuse for my behaviour.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

Really?I have no official stats to hand but I would be amazed if more than a very tiny percentage of Brits speak any German at all beyond the ability to order beer and sauerkraut. Many might have a smattering of poorly learnt French from long forgotten lessons at school but not much else. We are notoriously monolingual. French certainly was, and I think still is, the most commonly taught second language in school. But the number of people genuinely bilinigual even in that is pathetically low. German is probably second to that in terms of officially taught languages.Again purely anecdotally I would guess that the majority of Brits who do speak a second language do so as a result of being descended from immigrants in their recent ancestry. Thus Hindi, Swahili and other languages associated with ex British colonies are probably widely spoken. But my anecdotal "evidence" is inevitably biased by the part of the country in which I live.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

Notoriously so. To an extent it is one of those "class" things. The more educated and "middle class" will probably "have a go" at speaking the language so as not to seem presumptious and rude. But in any practical sense they will still basically rely on others speaking English to a large extent. At the extreme opposite end of the spectrum a certain sort of belligerent pride in making no effort whatsoever can be found. These are undoubtably stereotypes. But ones with some truth to them IMHO.AbE - The stereotype of American tourists I think is somewhere in between. There is no hand-wringing, feeble minded token gesture attempt to speak the language and no belligerent refusal to compromise. Just a complete assumption that everyone will speak English and an almost bemused impatient indignance at the situation if this is not the case. No. Anything not in English would generally be subtitled.Is it true that in the US some British, Australian and other accented but English speaking films are subtitled? I find that quite funny.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

This was so spot on. Nearly everything he said had me pointing at the screen and yelling "Yes. Exactly. That's me!! That's me" Easily my favourite. Christ! That crowd WTF? As for the comedy... crude, harsh insulting... I loved it!! Mrs Straggler (watching over my shoulder) hated it. So thumbs up all round.BTW: The first clip was shot in Aus. from the accent. You obviously have a problem with accents When I listened I thought he was very funny. But there was something annoyingly distracting about his mannerisms. I am being too picky. This was OK. I like the subject matter. But this was my least favorite of your links.So, Doctor Onifre (Phd), professor of comedic studies at the university of harsh crowds and holder of the Perez chair of international humour - What do my choices say about my psychology and personality defects? A language without humour laden sarcasm.......? How does that work? I would be speechless 90% of the time (and just intentionally insulting the other 10) I was going to just reply to your entire post with a simple "fuck you" and see what happens. But I thought better of it. Coward? Yep.

I find it bewildering that a language can exist where sarcasm isn't just a natural part of humour. "The lowest form of wit" as the saying goes. And whilst slapstick can be funny I would suggest it is an inherently less sophisticated form of humour.I will try out your joke on my son at some point. Although I expect I will get hist stock phrase standard reply to anything he doesn't understand at the moment. Namely "Why did you say that for?". Usually, I think (call me paranoid if you will), laden with a subtle but deeply sarcastic undertone Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.