Polyglots

[TeachingMyToddlers]

It's never too late to begin teaching your child or yourself!

Wendy Vo, child prodigy of music and language
https://www.youtube.com/user/minhvo1


3 years old polyglot (in training)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NADA9wPty74


Teen Polyglot Speaks 23 Different Languages
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/teen-polyglot-speaks-23-d_n_1380780.html


And an impressive list of adults:
http://wolflilt.com/polyglots/

[Skylark]

Very nice!

I just wanted to encourage those who are on the fence about additional languages.

Our kids understand and speak 5 different languages (to different degrees). I understand quite a few and my husband in fluent in 3 and understands 5.

We never managed following 1 parent-1 language approach. Our life was just too busy. And we did not have some sophisticated system of teaching the kids languages either. With 3 kids it was no feasible to follow strict schedules or language routines, even though we wanted to originally.

LR was our life saver, and we supplemented with games, videos. songs and reading in different languages

We just did what we could, and we are happy with the results

They are exposed to Spanish and English in their daily lives. We use LR in English and Mandarin. Watch videos, listen to songs and read books in Russian.

All 3 of our LOs are very early talkers ( multiple languages did not delay their speech!), in fact our baby was actively saying his first VERY CLEAR words in Russian at 6 months ( 6 separate words) and his first English words at 7 months. He is 8 months today and understand Russian and English equally well. Recognizes quite a few Mandarin characters and he was not exposed to any Spanish yet 

Another myth -- is that children would be confused with the languages. If that would be a common occurrence it would have most likely happen in our situation, where we did not follow OPOL approach. However both of our oldest ones would reply in the language they are approached, and if they have a hard time with saying smth in that language, they would say "Mommy how would you say that in Spanish"

I dont think they are geniuses, as there are a lot of children in this forum who are doing exact same thing and learning many different languages, because they were given an opportunity to do so. I simply want to encourage those who are just considering exposing their children to new languages. I think it is definitely worth it, and you will see many benefits. Every new language gives an access to a new culture with its treasures, and so so worth it!

My 3 year old, who was exposed to more languages from birth then his 4.5 year old sister, also has a better diction and pronunciation, which I partly attribute to training tongue and ear in many different languages and sounds.

[MamaOfWill]

Very good testimony Skylark, I'm also a firm believer in the idea that any language exercise or exposure is great for the all round  language development of our little ones.

We've only focused on teaching Wilhelm 2 languages, and mildly exposed him to 2 others.  He speaks well in his two main languages, and only says a couple of words in the other two.  In our case, our boy boy started saying a few words around 6 months too, but went completely silent around 8 months and only started talking again when he was 20 months old.  Now at 2.5 years, his language is well ahead of average.

My little bits of exposure to the other 2 languages payed off, because all of a sudden, he's very interested in learning those languages now.

One place where I'm not sure if it's just his age (other kids do this too) or his bilingualism, but if he hears new words, even words I make up in games we play, he'll remember those new words days later, without it being repeated.  I don't really know how special this is, but it amazes me and I wonder if it's all the language exposure I've given him (through reading, singing and talking to him tons and tons from my pregnancy days.)

We also did one parent one language (I suppose having only 2 languages made this easy) but we were very casual about it.  If we read a book to him we would stick to the language of the book, and later when he started to talk, we would stick to the language he chose to speak.

[Tamsyn]

Oh wow!  I guess I better get cracking.  That's amazing.  Honestly I didn't even know the word polyglot until this post, but I've been looking into it.  The following video was very interesting.  He talks about the 10,000 hours to mastery that we have discussed, but also introduced  the Pareto principle, which says that you can get 80% of the results in 20% of the time.  If 10,000 hours will give you a mastery of a language, like a native speaker, 2,000 hours will help you reach basic fluency, to be able to speak a language quite well.  2,000 hours is much less intimidating!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/3Kzjn7kCAtU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/3Kzjn7kCAtU&rel=1</a>

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I probably should have made language more of a priority earlier on, but we had other fish to fry, you know? Now we're at a place where it's more feasible and it's inspiring to see other kids doing it, to see that it really is possible. I think back to those studies about the brains of new york city taxi cabs and wish someone would scan these kids' brains and tell me what they find!  I bet their language areas of the brain are just off the charts.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Honestly I didn't even know the word polyglot until this post,

I can relate! I first heard the term "perfect pitch" on this forum and said to myself "what the heck is THAT!?" and immediately hit google. I even wrote it off completely initially because not having a background in music, I was "sure" there was no way I would ever be able to give that gift to my kids (read: zero confidence to teach music). Well, that was a couple of years ago and times have changed! Now my kids aren't fluent in anything other than english at the moment, but we dabble in several languages and are getting more structured with two of them. So I am not writing anything off just yet! 

Oh, and I would totally consider little Ella (AAngeles' daughter) to be a polyglot. I'm sure #2 will turn out to speak the same number of languages or even more!

[Tamsyn]

We've been watching "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego" (http://www.amazon.com/Where-Earth-Carmen-Sandiego-Complete/dp/B006WNSHUY).  One of the main characters is a polyglot, Zach, and he uses this skill to talk with people all over the world.  His older sister, shown chasing Carmen on the cover, really depends on him.  It's one of many things I really like about the series, and the kids really like it.  They watch it during their recreational viewing times.  They show maps, describe cultures, and learn about history and archeology.  When they travel, they go through a tunnel where the computer tells them facts about where they are going, with pictures.  For $6, it was a no brainer for us. 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Tamsyn,

How ironic, I JUST had that in my cart yesterday and didn't buy it. So I figured it was a sign reading your post and I should! haha Sooooo since I was already buying, I picked up the liberty's kids presale for $9.99, along with 2 japanese videos and a latin dvd and accompanying flashcards.  The kids are in need of new DVD materials so it's *justified,* right? Just think of all the money I save each month by forgoing cable! 

[Tamsyn]

Hey, it's better than SpongeBob.  Go for it!  (we don't have cable either)  We got the Liberty Kids presale too- I'm excited to see it.  I gave a Carmen Sandiego movie to my mom (my youngest sibling is , and she was excited to have it.  I watched this show when I was in high school.      There is also a bonus movie, "The Secret Garden".  They watched it while we had to do something else so I haven't seen it, but the music sounded great. 

[Tamsyn]

    My youngest sibling is 8.  It turned 8 ) into . 

[Kimba15]

I was totally surprised tge other day by Anneliese we saw a motorbike she pointed Look Mummy a motorbike and then went to say its Le moto in French.

LR where would I be without you!

Time to get cracking into other languages.

[Korrale4kq]

Haha Tamsyn, your youngest sibling is shady.

I have been debating about getting Carmen Sandiego. I have never seen the show but I loved the video game when I was little I learnt so much about the world with it.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

See, I don't remember the cartoon. I remember the GAME SHOW version which I enjoyed? (with that fun a cappella group!) But I assumed it will be relatively educational to promote geography and culture....if not, I am only out six bucks. I can live with that!

[Tamsyn]

Sorry for letting Carmen Sandiego steal this thread.  She's know to do that.  I certainly watched the gameshow more than the cartoon version.  There's also "Where is Time is Carmen Sandiego", which I loved as a youth and don't care much for now.  There are many episodes of the cartoon on YouTube to give you a feel for what it is- although I don't like to promote illegal uploads.  Let's call this a commercial or a sampling.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_P4U4bi4mWQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/_P4U4bi4mWQ&rel=1</a>

[Korrale4kq]

I had no idea there was even a Game show.

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