Is it a good or a bad idea to learn a foreign language from the first grade?

In my country English is forced taught from Kinder garten. The government did it so we can have Job opportunities abroad. That caused this mindset "if you cant speak English you are dumb" That sounds cruel but it became a mindset in my country. bright side yes we got Job opportunities, American Call centers moved here and they were outsourcing people here. The bad side, I rarely see people who speaks "pure tagalog Language" They mix a bit of English on their conversations and others completely refuse to speak Tagalog,

hi porcospino. i think it makes a lot of sense if a child gets to learn a new language since they can incorporate the new language early on in their lives and they can become good at speaking this new language. i don't see any problem if a child learns a new language at school since the native language that they have is used in their daily life. my daughter speaks well using our native language and she speaks english well for her age. she also knows a couple of spanish words ans phrases. anyway, i'm sure as long as children get to use the language/languages that are taught to them they can readily adapt and learn these languages easily. cheers and happy mylotting!!!

There's 2 ways to look at this idea..is the learning of the new language purely for educational and/or vocational reasons for later in life,or will the child be growing up as an immigrant in another country where the language they'll be learning won't be the language spoken at home by the Parents? Here in Northern Ireland,I know Parents who are working here, originally from Eastern European countries, who are making their home here and will have had at least one child born here. While the Child's mother language will be culturally important to them so as to remain in contact with extended family,Grandparents, and presumably going on family holidays,They'll need the language of their new home too..Young Children will pick up language much faster than their parents' Generation did or will at an adult stage of life and will pick up a local accent too.. So,if the learning of the language is a necessity,then it's important..if it's not,then it can have a lesser priority.

Hi, Porcospino! I think that this is a very good idea. I began to learn French one year before beginning the school. We had an Institute for foreign languages where many kids were starting to learn at the age of 6 and this continues even now. Then, because my country was part of the former Soviet block, the Russian was included in the school programs starting from the 3th grade. Years ago I had to learn also English because it is a must now. But this is nothing compared to Finland, as I've heard. There little kids begin to learn more than one foreign language at early age. Specialists say that it's easier to learn a language when you are a kid and this doesn't harm the knowledge of your mother tongue. I'm a proof of this because we have a Cyrillic alphabet. I learned to write in my Bulgarian and in French with the Latin letters without problems. So follow the example of the Finnish is the best I think. Good night!

Hi porcospino, It is the same situation in India too. During my times We had our mother tongue as medium of instruction in primary school and English in secondary school and further university studies but now a days the medium of instruction right from nursery level is English although the schools with mother tongue as medium of instruction up to secondary school level are available many opt for English as the medium. As far as I am concerned I feel the medium of instruction at primary level should be once own mother tongue and not any other foreign language. This is because a child can think and visualize better in once mother tongue than in foreign language. It also helps the child to understand once culture and heritage better. While we were well versed with our history and mythology, our children who learnt in English medium lack this knowledge. Children tend to adopt foreign culture in preference to its own which is not a good sign for the development of a country.

My mom and dad have been teaching me English since I was... hmm. A day old, I guess. Though it isn't our native language, it's a show of intelligence in our country and my parents thought it would be a great idea to give me a head start but that isn't uncommon here. A lot of parents talk to their kids in English. This is just me typing out my thoughts but I think it's a great idea. English is the most spoken language. Most books, research articles, etc are written in English making it a very handy tool to have in your knowledge base. If you plan on visiting a foreign country it would help to know English if you can't speak that country's language because there's bound to be someone near by who could understand you. I don't think English would hinder their learning of their native language because they're surrounded by it. People around them would be speaking Danish, their mom and dad would still converse in Danish. They live in a country that mostly speaks Danish. So where am I going with this? I mean: They cannot-not learn Danish as long as they live in Denmark(?), a country that has built its foundations on that language, even if it weren't taught in schools (not saying that it shouldn't). People should not forget about their culture but they should also be open to new things because this is an ever changing world and theres nothing we could do but adapt.

Since English has played a main role here, so it is quite important to learn it when you are little. Since little children can learn the foreign language faster. If they can master it when they are little, at least they don't have to study hard for it when they grow up. I love China

i think kids should learn both languages as soon as possible. i have a first grandchild thats half mexican. she learned both from even earlier. now she can speak both fluently at 30 yrs yet shes been speaking both since 4 yrs old and writing both by 3rd grade .

Here in the Philippines, we learn English and our mother language, Filipino almost simultaneously, starting from Nursery even. The problem is that Philippines has hundreds of dialects. In my case, we speak Visayan, which is very different from Filipino. There is no subject Visayan in our curriculum so we are forced to learn the language through our daily interactions. We do have very deep words that modern-day people no longer use or understand and that's where the difficulty lies. Majority of us here, speak in a mixed way. Part Visayan, part English, part Filipino. I don't know where this all leads to. ANyway, in answer to your question, I believe it's good to start learning a language early, but there has to be a time of the day when appreciation for own language is reinforced.

Hi, Porcospino, Living in Quebec, I was taught French as a second language from the moment I started school, and while I did not always like it, I understand the benefit that it has had for me. I am glad that I spent all of my elementary and secondary school years learning French, because it meant that I was able to take things very slowly and ensured that I had grasped each step before I moved on to the next one. Now, my only stumbling block in French is my own nerves--my spoken French is certainly enough to get me through a conversation, but I spend so much time thinking about saying things properly that I sometimes mess them up out of nervousness! My written French, however, is much better. I don't think parents should wait to teach their children a second language. I know that if I were to try to start learning French now, I would never attain the proficiency with it that I currently enjoy. For one thing, children simply have the time to learn a new language, while adults do not! Also, as many others have already mentioned, children grasp new languages much more easily than adults. Even better, studies have shown that learning more than one language can actually make a child more intelligent. That said, I do not, however, condone these parents who start showing their infants "Baby Einstein" videos, trying to teach them Mandarin and Italian from the moment they are old enough to hold their heads up on their own, hoping that these languages will give the children an edge in life. It does no good to teach a child a few words of a language and then move on to another. It is much more important to ensure that the child becomes fluent in one language before moving on to the next. Otherwise, what's the point? You can't have a conversation just by knowing the names of a few objects!

Of course it is ok, at that age, their brains are fully capable of storing and understanding all of the information presented. They can learn more than 3 language at a time actually! Without any problem to mix them out! Those raised in paralinguistic families are a clear of example of that. It must me noted though, that children should by no means tried to be taught through the same methods than adults. That's just the dumbest thing you can so! A good method, for example, is montessori's. Have a look on it and discover how amazing it is!

Children are able to grasp languages easily more than adults do. It is better to start teaching children another language when they are younger like we do in my country. Schools also use the English medium of teaching from the first grades. English is our second language and the children who are taught at an early age become more proficient. We use our own language in daily conversation, so the children will learn it at the same they are learning another language.

hi there, i have tried many, of course i tried to learn from only near to learn different langauges and its good to learn different languages but the really issue is not to let the kids forge their real language everyone should not forget their own language its not nice or beauty to that, as each one should have other learnings but mother tongue is the best for sure, good lucks

Its a good thing to start the children early. Because you never know when they are going to need it. I don't think it's a bad idea at all. I understand the concern that the chilren won't learn their mother toungue as well but if theyre parents speak the mother toungue then its something they will grow up with. I personally dont think as a parent I would worry.

I belive the younger they are the faster they learn other languages. Most africans grow you learning anywhere from 5-7 and sometimes more languages all at the same time. In early childhood.

Better to teach at the early age if you want your kid to speak foreign languages

I would not think it´s a good idea to teach another language with grammar and all that, but it could help children if they were exposed to another language by listening to songs or even learning them.

Well I would say that it might be a good idea. Such a thing was not offered when I was that young and when I attempted to learn a foreign language, it was an absolute fiasco. I think that it is easier to train yourself in something when you are younger. That is another reason why it is good to start reading as soon as possible, as it is a much steeper climb the older that you can get. It is a fascinating idea, but I can see why some people might have problems. Of course, I really do think that the younger that people start learning these things, the easier it is to grasp. Then again, grasping your first language might take prominence for other reason and if children are struggling to grasp that, I just can imagine how hard it is to grasp a second language.

I was born thinking English was my primary language and it was quite difficult for me to find playmates because of it. However, when it comes to teaching English, I am not against it simply because most things being taught in the current curriculum are in English and it's hard for people to translate English text books to the local dialect. So far, learning the English language for me had been a better experience since I had an advantage when it came to writing and expressing myself in it. And no, I don't think it's a bad idea. However, I believe that everybody should learn their own dialect, as well.

Hello Porcospino. I like your question. Yes, my opinion is that is a very good idea to learn more languages from very early age. We like adults lost our abilities to listen to others like very young people. All the time we try to judge, to think about a language. Children can absorb a language. That is the faster way to learn a language. Knowing more than one language is a very good nowadays. I wish to be able to learn more languages. Finally, yes, I agree to teach English at very young age. For little children I think is better to have a very fun, easier English class, just audio, listening. I hate to study, to teach or to practice grammar, rules, so on. So, I believe for children will be great to, to speak, to listen to, without rules. Good luck!