# Learning a new language as a family?



## FenderPriest (Dec 28, 2011)

My wife and I have floated the idea around of learning a language as a family for the last few months. I'm curious if anybody else has done this? Our little one is small - not even 18 months old - but we'd like to have a culture in our home that's bilingual in two living languages. We plan to do some form of classical education, so the Latin and/or Greek will come at some point, but we're interested in living languages. I've thought that German or French would be fun; German because lots of philosophy and theology's written in it, or French because it's the language of love! and because it's what Latin turned in to.

Anyhow, this is still in process for us but I'd be interested to know if anybody else has done this and what you've learned along the way if you have!

Thanks!


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## Curt (Dec 28, 2011)

Why not Spanish? Then you can communicate in the US.


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## rookie (Dec 28, 2011)

French is a tough one to learn (I am French primarily) as there are many, many grammar rules and so on. German apparently is even tougher...However, that being said, if ever I can get rid of some projects here, I plan on taking a 3rd one. I would love to take either Spanish (Italian, Portugese) or German.....If you do take French, and become fluent in it, realize that Spanish, Italian and Portugese will come fairly easy...since they all derived from Latin.....


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## fishingpipe (Dec 28, 2011)

I am teaching the kids Spanish on the homeschool. Lots of Latin in there, too. Plus, as Curt mentioned, it comes in handy in the USA. I use it often at work. I recommend it!


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## Rufus (Dec 28, 2011)

Thomas Jefferson was fluent in Greek, Latin, and French by age 9, so yes it can be done.


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## rookie (Dec 28, 2011)

Rufus said:


> Thomas Jefferson was fluent in Greek, Latin, and French by age 9, so yes it can be done.



With that knowledge, I wonder if he was prideful?


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## FenderPriest (Dec 28, 2011)

Curt said:


> Why not Spanish? Then you can communicate in the US.


Eh, I know. I lived in Puerto Rico for 3 years, so I know a little - enough to know I'm being cussed at! Spanish may be more useful, but for whatever reason, in my mind, not quiet as fun. I know that's biased, but that's how it is right now for me...

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rookie said:


> With that knowledge, I wonder if he was prideful?


One could just as easily be prideful about not knowing as many languages. Besides, not only was that standard issue for that day, but Jonathan Edwards certainly was more fluent and more brilliant than Jefferson, but by the Lord's grace, not as prideful. (Not to mention the impressive language abilities of E.J. Young and other Westminster founders...)


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## Brother John (Dec 28, 2011)

I am learning Greek for seminary and my sons, 6 and 4, have begun to learn the greek alphabet on their own initiative. They are both excited about learning the Hebrew alphabet next!


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## lynnie (Dec 28, 2011)

Many colleges here in NJ accept sign language as the language requirement. A lot of my daughter's friends are learning it and she is a whiz at age 15. I wish I had learned it, it is so handy to be able to communicate from a distance silently, like across a crowded room. She spends hours on ASLPro.com. Sign language is fun, too.


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## Rufus (Dec 28, 2011)

rookie said:


> Rufus said:
> 
> 
> > Thomas Jefferson was fluent in Greek, Latin, and French by age 9, so yes it can be done.
> ...



In many ways he might have been, I've never read into his life so I can't say, I do know he was a fairly quiet man and believed he lacked oratory skills.


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## O'GodHowGreatThouArt (Dec 28, 2011)

I would focus on Spanish and the biblical languages unless you know family whose native tongue is something different.


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## CharlieJ (Dec 29, 2011)

Jacob, let me know what opportunities you find near you. In some cities there are organizations that offer family classes. You're in West Chester and I'm living on West Chester Pike, probably about 25 minutes east. I'm in the process of learning both French and German (I also do Latin and Greek studies). So far, I've been studying on my own, but I'm in the market for private tutoring or a small class situation. If you find something, I may be interested in joining with you, unless you're interested in family only.

By the way, check your local library's online resources. Some of them offer free subscriptions to programs such as Mango Languages. Don't waste money on Rosetta Stone. Pimsleur is good for audio learning.


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## elnwood (Dec 30, 2011)

Unless you and are your children are in total immersion situations regularly with native speakers of your target language, I wouldn't bother. It would be nigh impossible to attain fluency. At best, you can hope for being able to speak a comprehensible "gringo-ized" foreign language, and even then, your children would probably pick up bad habits of a second language speaker.

I don't mean to be a downer. It is possible, but you'd have to completely revamp the way you live your lives -- move to a more ethnic neighborhood, take immersion learning classes, hire a tutor, go to cultural events regularly, speak it exclusively at home, etc. If your interest is merely academic, I don't think you'll be able to sustain it.


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## CharlieJ (Dec 30, 2011)

Don, in terms of speaking, that may be true, but not in terms of reading. Even being able to read French and/or German would be a very useful skill. They might become decent listeners as well, which is not without uses.


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## Somerset (Dec 30, 2011)

Since joining the PB I'm having to learn US English.

On a serious note, I agree that you will not be able to become fluent but anything is better than nothing. I was able to do quite a bit in Poland with less than 100 words as well as giving several Poles a chance for a good laugh.


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## JBaldwin (Dec 30, 2011)

I think it's a worthy effort, though I agree it would be beneficial to find someone who speaks the language as his first language to come in and help out with pronunciation and grammar. When I was in high school and studying German, we had a few folks in our church who were from Germany who would let us practice our German on them. 

I lived a summer with an American missionary family in France who was trying to speak French in the home, and they really struggled with it and never acheived their goal. My suggestion would be to designate certain times each day where no one would be allowed to speak English. 

As far as which language, learning a latin-based language like French of Spanish is more useful than German unless you plan on being around German-speaking people.


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## elnwood (Dec 30, 2011)

CharlieJ said:


> Don, in terms of speaking, that may be true, but not in terms of reading. Even being able to read French and/or German would be a very useful skill. They might become decent listeners as well, which is not without uses.



True, but my impression from the OP was that they wanted to have a bilingual-speaking household, above and beyond reading knowledge, such as they would get from Latin and Greek.



FenderPriest said:


> we'd like to have a culture in our home that's bilingual in two living languages. We plan to do some form of classical education, so the Latin and/or Greek will come at some point, but we're interested in living languages.


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## iLoveAutumn (Jan 3, 2012)

I started learning Italian for fun. I introduced it to my daughter as a home-schooling subject when she was 16 (this year). She does it a little begrudgingly, and I wish I'd been interested in Italian when she was younger and started with her then because for children under 5, learning a new language is easier then than when they are older. I think it is a wonderful idea to learn a second language, and one of the benefits I have found is that it has taught me SO much more about my own language! With the internet, you can always find someone to practise with on Skype or another such chat.


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## semperreformata (Jan 5, 2012)

I like the thought of this. LORD willing when I have kids I would love to do this.


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