Thread: Spanish instruction for kindergarteners

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Children are capable of learning both. By kindergarten, they should be speaking already.

We can dig in our heels and say we don't want to learn Spanish - but if your children are going to be in the US, there is a very good chance they will need to know Spanish at some point in time. It will be very beneficial to them.

Children can certainly learn two languages, but why simply Spanish? I would hazard a guess that if the US wasn't being overrun by people who didn't want to learn English there would be little push to learn it. People have taken Spanish in school for generations, but it wasn't considered a career maker or breaker, nor an essential tool for getting through one's everyday life. It was usually considered one of the easiest languages to learn, and that's probably why so many kids elected to take it--and then promptly forgot it.

I maintain that it's unlikely to be a future career booster for anyone who isn't in a relatively low income or healthcare job. If I had children who wanted to take it, they would have my full support, but I wouldn't present it as something that would give them a competitive edge. Besides, it is not easy to stay fluent in a language unless you speak or read it frequently---and at least somewhat immerse yourself in that culture. I say this as someone who knows three languages--and not nearly as well as I used to.

My kids are barely pre-teens, yet they each have decided on the language they'd like to pursue, in addition to English. Two want to learn German, one wants to learn Spanish, and another wants to learn French.

See? You can learn a foreign language OTHER than Spanish and still be in the realistic job market. In fact, German and French might even give opportunities that Spanish won't.

My children are also already learning ASL. I hope they will all become proficient enough to include that on their resumes too.

NO language OTHER than ENGLISH should be used for PRIMARY instruction in OUR country!

Our youngest is 5 and can count to 10 and some teen nimbers in spanish and say many other words as well but it was not a paid educational requirement nor is it expected The schools in American at age of 5 6 7 up till high school have no business telling the parents what language they are going to teach our children and never should we ever have to pay for any other language lesson in public school.
A privet curriculum is a different storey all together. But then those children are learn Latin...

Has anybody turned on the tv and wathed cartoons lately? I turned on "Dora the explorer" the other day and it was teaching spanish I changed the channel to another cartoon and the same thing was going on. Poor kids must be so confused.

Children can certainly learn two languages, but why simply Spanish? I would hazard a guess that if the US wasn't being overrun by people who didn't want to learn English there would be little push to learn it. People have taken Spanish in school for generations, but it wasn't considered a career maker or breaker, nor an essential tool for getting through one's everyday life. It was usually considered one of the easiest languages to learn, and that's probably why so many kids elected to take it--and then promptly forgot it.




The fact is - 'our country IS being overrun by people who don't know English'. That is the fact - we may change it to some degree - but I doubt if we will change it completely.

I don't know about 'electing' to take it. It is the only foreign language taught in the high school my children attended. This is Texas and knowing how to speak Spanish has been a good thing for a long time - it is pretty scary now not to know the language. They didn't 'forget it', they just weren't taught conversational Spanish.

Once again, if your children are going to stay in the US and hope to work - and not just menial jobs - LE, teaching, government jobs, banks, medical field, legal field, and on and on, then Spanish will be a boost.

If someone wants to allow their children to decide what language they want to learn, that's fine - but if you want your children to be on a level playing field with the illegals and anchor babies - you would be wise to suggest they learn Spanish. Believe me, the anchor babies are not going to be busboys - they are going to be professionals and competing for the jobs your children want.

Once again, we can dig in our heels and protest 'it doesn't matter' or that it would only affect lower paying jobs - but that's just not the case. We can allow the frustration and anger over the situation to color our decisions or we can do what is best for the children.

We don't have to like it - but we had better heed it.

nntrixie wrote-
Believe me, the anchor babies are not going to be busboys - they are going to be professionals and competing for the jobs your children want.

I am not sure about that ,the drop out rate is something like 57% for Latino students-at least in my area.Also in my area some local schools are doing immersion language programs in-GERMAN-starting in kindergarten.Which I think is great because,they will be able to compete on a global level.

I do tend to agree with you on letting-if they want to- your kids learn spanish,why not give them ALL the advantages you can.
In my area northern Va. we have a lot of jobs ads that say bilingual but, it is mostly service industy jobs.I have been seeing quite a few ads wanting mandarin speakers as well.

I agree with the other posters who say WE SHOULD NOT PAY FOR IT-DEMAND the school system provide it for free!

The thing that REALLY makes me wonder is-what about all the poor LEGAL immigrants who learn English to be citizens,then have the same disadvantage as the rest of us -having Spanish pushed on us.

They may be dropping out at a high rate, but that still leaves a lot that will be given - and I mean given - a free shot at a college education and then perferential treatment when job hunting, based on minority status - and being bilingual as well, will be a formidable thing.

We will have for the next few decades a lot of Spanish speaking people in this country. What will happen after that, I don't know. Suppose even the anchor babies refuse to speak English. Unless things change, no one is going to make them.

Once again, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world - think about that.

I'm not saying Spanish is the only language that will help - but it is the one that will help the most in the US - for the next few decades. Also, right now, it would be the easiest for children to learn as there will be more opportunities to use it. Maybe a few areas would be different - but overall, Spanish would be the main one.

Also, think about this, we are flooded with Spanish speaking people - even those who can speak English, don't when they are together. Things are going to get even more tense - whether we get the right government or not. Wouldn't you like your children to understand what that bunch of young men were saying? It might be a matter of survival.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Once again, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world - think about that.

No, Chinese is second. Spanish is third.

The two predominant languages used in the business world are English and French, with Mandarin Chinese coming in third.

Too many variations of Spanish to make it as a business language.