A split tongue, a fuller mind
I am jealous of my daughter.
Not just because she gets to spend a lot of time with my wife... But, because she is going to be dual mother-tongued and speak English and Finnish natively. This is a huge advantage that I wish I held. Many think about the job opportunities, the potential to more easily travel or perhaps, find information from a wider range of sources but, there is more to it than that.
By the time we are three, we have developed about 85% of the brain structure which goes on largely unchanged once built. Yes, more information can be added but, the way it s added is going to be determined by the foundation laid. A lot of people struggle in various areas not because they are disinterested, or unintelligent but, that they are largely incapable of approaching some areas in the way they are presented. This is a large part of the problem with one-size-fits-all schooling where there is a massive advantage provided those who have the right mindset.
Interesting word isn't it? Mindset. This is the foundation and some tasks for some people are very difficult to perform because the mental tools they possess don't fit the job. The problem is of course that a school system can't discover let alone allow for all gradations of mental structure to create an environment to maximise individual talent. But, that is another post perhaps.
What I am thinking about at the moment though is because we can never truly know another's mind, we do not really know what differences speaking multiple languages as a mother tongue provides. There must be difference because it builds a different neural network. Sure, we can look at the symptoms of it, the benefits or drawbacks but, it is incredibly difficult to see how they come about.
We know that language structure changes the way we see the world for example how languages with no future tense are better financial savers but, how does this affect thoughts. How does a multiple language person see the world in comparison to a singular?
It is a lot like Nagel's paper, What is it like to be a bat? where being able to truly understand the position is impossible without being the position. And, since once in the position it is impossible to leave it, it is impossible to get accurate feedback as the view is what has always been known.
My parents had the chance to teach us multiple languages but chose not to for various reasons they had at the time but, neither of them would have really understood just how beneficial it would have been. Yes, it is more difficult and time consuming for parents and often, children who learn multiple languages take longer to become proficient (not with my daughter, she is ahead) but, once the languages have settled (by threeish) the children are on track for more opportunity.
What if the opportunity isn't in the speaking of the languages though, what if the opportunity comes from the structure of the brain and, how they see the world? Two languages might be like having two eyes, it creates a 3D field by having slightly different perspectives of the same thing, thereby creating better depth of vision making location and distance measurement much more accurate.
Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to truly understand the difference? Of course, one can learn languages (easier when the re are multiple mother tongues) and try to mimic the conditions however, it will only be mimicry and is unlikely to reach the same heights as the structure of the brain by that point is less malleable. The future risk to the benefits of this are going to be advancements in translation technology too.
People will be able to communicate directly without having to change from mother tongue and even though there will be massive advantages in communication, what will be lost? People generally look at the advantages of technology that makes their lives easier without factoring in the competitive cognitive artifact effect costs. Many don't realise that the effort to learn in one area provides the infrastructure to learn in another. Replacing the need to learn can drastically reduce ability to learn in a seemingly unrelated task. If you imagine that childhood games provide the hand-eye coordination skills for adult hunting, removing the games will reduce the chance of future survival.
We see this happening in many areas already as we rely more and more on technology to provide service under the guise that it frees up mental resources but, it could actually be costing future potential. We just don't really know how far ranging the costs will be as essentially, everything is connected. Every opportunity has a cost.
For me, it is a no-brainer, or perhaps to put it better, a fuller-brainer, to teach our daughter dual mother tongues even if it wasn't necessary as it sets a stronger foundation for the future. there may be costs to it but, the benefits outweigh them in my opinion. Not everyone has the opportunity to teach dual languages in the home but if they do, people should seriously consider making the effort. If nothing else, it helps children better connect and understand where their parents and history comes from. But with their changed perspective, they could also see something in the world that the rest of us missed.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
That's interesting. Finnish doesn't have a future tense, I guess Finns also are bit tight when it comes to money in general, at least so I feel like.
I'm not sure if the "way" brain absorbs information is set to stone in the early years completely. Human brain is plastic by nature throughout lifetime, so in principle nothing is set to stone, but it is indeed much harder to learn new patterns to replace the potentially fallible old ones than to get it right on the first try. In practice though people don't learn that much new things and don't get the advantage of neuro-plasticity because they aren't challenged enough.
Though in human development there are phases that if "failed" they cannot be developed to their full potential anymore later, so I would imagine there's also some aspect of brain function that cannot be developed to the full potential later.
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I also think it would be wise to offer both languages in the home. I meet so many bi/tri lingual people, the best have started early, they are generally smart, and seemingly more aware of themselves and the world. I suspect picking up a third language at school would be easier for them too.
I regret not pushing more with the Spanish at school, and do get a little jealous of folks bringing out the fluent conversation in a group with mixed languages.
It seems so and even if not fluent, many are able to pick up basics of more spoken languages and get the pronunciation closer.
I wish that when I arrived in Finland I went to a class or two.
Our country is divided into 3 language areas. In school we then have to learn these three languages.
Is it common to learn 2 or me as a mother tongue?
In Romania, most of the children of my generations (85-95) were exposed to cable TV and Cartoon Network in particular from a very early age, before the channels were subtitled or dubbed. While we were not bilingual in the true sense, there were many children under the age of 10 who already were understanding and speaking OK in English. By the 5th grade, a lot of my friends could express fluently in English and even write, because the Internets came over and iRC and hacking tutorials were all the rage.
Another proof that education doesn't need to come from the regular places we would expect and that the children could teach themselves, despite being left in front of the TV's for hours (because the parents were working and the children were and are commonly left alone in the house from a young age at 5-7 year old). We actually filed a complaint (thousands of people) against the children TV stations like Cartoon Network getting a dubbing in Romanian, but the law requires it and no exception was made.
Makes you wonder if the TV is all that bad or not :D
I strayed a little from your subject but hopefully not too much.
I agree although, TV isn't the best at it. I predict that in the future, the classroom will be augmented and virtual reality and there will be no set place.
It is pretty easy to tell the countries that dub their TV broadcasts. I am hoping that streaming will roll this back for some people.
Close enough :D
Not all kids are able to benefit from living in a multi-lingual home equally. I know some Russian-Finnish kids who've grown up bilingual who do not have the level of command of either language that monolingual kids have. At university, I became acquainted with a guy who was trilingual. His parents spoke Finnish and Swedish and because of some special circumstances in his life (I don't recall what they were, I haven't talked to him in about 20 years) English became his third language. He told me he doesn't have full educated native level knowledge of any of them. The man is reasonably smart.
It's always a bit of a trade off. There is no free lunch. Kids don't pick up languages without putting in effort just as adults don't. As children, we can devote all of our time to learning basic things like language.
There is a difference between living in a multilingual home and learning the languages though. For example, my mother corrected her children's grammar from a very young age whereas other parents let things slide. The difference in spoken and written ability later is apparent.
As far as education in the home is concerned, it is still up to the parents to take an active role in the development of their children. It doesn't take much more effort for language but, there is more effort involved and in w world where easy is the common default, not all parents are suited to taking the responsibility.
The child has to be motivated to learn, too. It's impossible to force-feed a language to a child. Sometimes, a child only has one (fully or nearly fully bilingual) person, one of the parents, in their lives who speaks that language which is not the language of the country the family lives in. Also, different children have different levels of aptitude.
I had a chance of learning French coupled with my mother's tongue and English but my father felt it would deter my academic life, so I was exposed only to my mother's tongue till I was ten the rest is history really but the truth is when children are young, that's a plus factor in them learning how to speak multi languages
I am not sure what the perfect combination is but the earlier/more the better I would say. My father's mother tongue is Bengali but, he also spoke Malay, Hindi, some Mandarin, Cantonese and is very, very good in English. The reason they decided not to teach was 'we were in Australia' so, why learn something other than English? There were many other lessons we did learn though.
What can I say, nevertheless it's better to prune a child with the languages which deems fit foe him to learn even if it's the basica, no matter the country he lives in I think it would be like a legacy, better while he's young
Yeah. Interestingly, a baby under one makes all the noises to speak every language possible and the mother tongue spoken will dictate which remain. If one can introduce words from other languages to maintain the sounds, if the child wants to learn later, they have a much easier time with pronunciation.
Exactly Taraz, the younger they are, the easier to inculcate.
when you have the opportunity to understand a language at a tender age, it gives better understanding with even the intonations, Pronunciations and all of that and you dont get to forget that language forever.
I spoke 5 languages as a child. Fluent enough to hold conversations in all. When I got back to the U.S. I had to do some work on English. As the years gone by and the need for the other languages diminished I have lost the ability to speak in them. I am sure if the need ever arose I could pick it up again really fast.
I can't say whether it is the languages or the travel or even a combination of the two that has given the understanding of all the different cultures producing an insight that many will never achieve.
As far as teaching ones child a second language there is no negative side only positive.
It is definitely an advantage that it is a skill you will always have. I wish I had French or Spanish or something at least useful even if it is the basics. Finnish wouldn't be an obvious choice as it is fairly limited outside of Finland. However saying that it is still a second language.