No language barriers
April 24, 2008 by Sherry Osborne
Filed under Parenting
Image details: Brother and sister running outdoors served by picapp.com
It always amazes me to see how kids will overcome just about anything to play with each other, no matter what obstacles there may be.
We live in a predominantly French area but my oldest doesn’t know much beyond how to say hello, thanks, please, and other common courtesies. She doesn’t understand long sentences, especially if they’re said quickly – French immersion starts next year so that will help. But in the meantime I have seen her play with French kids countless times. They didn’t understand much of what she said, and she didn’t understand them, but it never seemed to matter much.
Today we were about to leave the park when a mother and her two daughters arrived. They spoke Spanish and the older girl seemed to speak a decent amount of English, and the mother too. The youngest didn’t speak any other than hello. My oldest knows a bit of Spanish from Dora but that’s about it. Same thing, they played just fine, using gestures and patience. And they had a blast.
The mother and I fumbled through a bit of conversation, with her looking for the English words and me desperately trying to remember Spanish class over a decade ago. We kept at it because we were both genuinely interested in conversing. It turns out they just arrived from Venezuela last week. We made a play date for tomorrow at the park again after my oldest gets home from school and then we’ll see about next week since her kids start school then.
I’m excited for the chance to pick up some Spanish again but I probably would have hesitated more (out of shyness, not arrogance) if I hadn’t seen our kids all playing happily together.
Hey, if they can do it so can we!
It is wonderful how young children don’t see differing languages as a barrier to communicating with one another! And better still, when they are young can just throw themselves into picking up a second language without feeling self-conscious about it in the same way that adults and older children do. I always feel it is a crying shame that in many (especially English-speaking) countries, we wait until 11-12yrs of age before teaching foreign languages. It seems like we are missing out by not taking advantage of those years when our children are most open to acquiring language skills. It sounds like your kids are in a great environment to be surrounded by not only French but also Spanish, I’m sure that exposure to the language will stand the in good stead in the future!