Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

Do your kids make noises in 5 different ways? LOL

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I could also suggest Spanish to you it is more widely used than French. Look at the
South Americas and also the united states it is very much a well used language and if
your daughter is comfortable with French she will adapt to it easily as it has the
same grammatical rules. "Russell Driver" <[email protected]> wrote in message [ur-
l="news:[email protected]. au"]news:newscache$byr12h$fy2$1@ma-
ggie.netlink.com.au[/url]...
    > <Steve &amp>; "Family" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > >
    > > Hi,
    > >
    > > In the interest of my children I was wondering what other langauges the Perthians
    > > learn at school. My oldest daughter (age 5) is currently learning French (and she
    > > is very good for her age).
    > >
    > >
    > > Thankyou
    > >
    > > Steve Heading to Perth
    > Japanese seems a good bet, my daughter has elected for it in year 8.
    > Russell
    > --
    > Luck is when the paths of opportunity and preparation cross.

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I may be way off here.. but I'd say learn what you "love/like"... seriously.

I had French rammed down my throat in school... and I hated it, so I did not learn. Now later in life I speak Malay besides my native language.. Welsh, plus a bit of token Cantonese, and some Indian dialects (spoken)
Half the battle of learning a language is to actually like the language, which might sound funny, but it's so true.
For me it was Malay.. I love the language, the sound, so I learnt... In other words don't force kids to learn a language just because you want them to. let them pick the language.... and children will always learn faster than any adult at a new language


Good luck

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I totally agree. I gave up on learning written Chinese (I can speak Mandarin and Cantonese sufficiently well) as I hated the memorization associated with it.

Out of curiosity, where did you manage to learn Malay? I know certain languages are taught to adults out of the formal schooling system (Alliance Francaise for French and so on), so I'm wondering if there's a Malay equivalent.

Peter

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

Surely sarcasm isn't beneath you. I suppose you have you never heard of the Four
Yorkshiremen? Checkout http://ww-
w.montypython.net/scripts/4york.php and you may see the implied joke. Some
people just hate being out done.

Now when my daughter was born she didn't so much cough and cry but burst into song
with perfect renditions of Neighbours and Home and Away! Within weeks she could
recite and translate all the entries to the 1997 Eurovision song contest. Aren't
children amazing!

--

Pugwash


"lizzie" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by Sumatra:
    > > My girl is 5 months old and is already speaking five (5) languages.
    > >
    > >
    > I bet Lord Professor Robert Winston would like to know about this child?!!!!!!
    > My kids could only make baby noises at 5 months old, but we liked to think we could
    > hear the odd word (but that's being wishful)
    > Lizzie
    > --
    > lizzie
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

In Singapore and malaysia, Self taught by traveling in and out of the country of Malaysia. I used to live in Singapore.
Indonesian is almost the same as the Malaysian language - if you can speak indonesian, you can speak Malay, and vice versa. There are Indonesian lessons here in Australia - I don't know if they "formally" teach it to school children though, they may do.

cheers

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

Ceri,

Nice to know that there are some among us who appreciate Asian languages :)

If you ever feel the need to practise your Malay, feel free to send me a private message.

Cheers,
Peter

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

As Australia is part of Asia not Europe, far more schools offer Indonesian or Japenese. Japanese is such a difficult language that most give up so I have met very few kids here who study languages (Queensland). Unless the Parents are bi-lingual, most leave school without any second language, seems a great loss of opportunity. The only European language I have heard of offered here is Italian.

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I would think not many people would agree with you when you say "Australia is part of Asia".

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

This discussion is nice but a bit ...e.e.. naive, I'd say. One thing really bad in Au is a language education (and it's their, Australians, opinion - of those who cares). The general attitude is why bother if you always can find a native. So the fact that kids study some foreign language at school does not imply any result, so if any of cares - please prepare to spend time, money, efforts etc. And good luck!

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I think even in Britain the same thing can be said, unless your parents speak a second language. When I came out of school in Britain, I could only speak English (although I did learn French, but that went in one ear and out the other, I hated it)
It's only later in life that I learnt and still learning Welsh, partly because I felt I should know my own language.
Malay, although not fluent (but I can get by with it... spoken mostly, my spelling is shot), was learnt due to me travelling.. actually, I started learning it after one particular day trip into Malaysia. I stopped at a little coffee shop" kopi tiam" to order a cup of coffee, and I wanted milk in it, lol... The lady couldn't speak a word of English, so I ended up trying to mimic a cow! ... it was comical, some stupid white expat mimicking a cow (me). Anyway after that , I never did forget the word for milk, and that was the beginning of my learning path. Actually, thinking about it, the first words I learnt besides "toilet" "food" and "water" "Danger" etc etc were the swear words:)


P.S ptlabs (peter)
Apa Khabar anda hari ini?

Terima kashi :) but my spelling is none too hot, ... I hope I spelt that correctly!, I know spoken , more than I do written.... my spelling is dreadful, I tend to forget the correct spelling after not using/seeing it for such a long time being out of the country(5 years)

Selamat :)

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

> Actually, thinking about it, the first words I learnt besides "toilet"
> "food" and "water" "Danger" etc etc were the swear words:)

Important words indeed. Malay swear words aren't very artistic though, maybe because I never bothered to use them. I have vocabulary for swearing in 3 other languages other than Malay/Indonesian, you see.


> P.S ptlabs (peter)
> Apa Khabar anda hari ini?

Khabar baik, terima kasih. (I'm fine, thank you). If you want to have some fun with Malay spelling, we can do it away from this forum :)

Cheers,
Peter

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

Hi,
Why wouldn't you let her choose ? You could offer her the choice, for instance you could show her a world map, tell her some basics about asian, european or other culture, Show her the different alphabets...

Cheers,
En tous cas pour sur, le fracais c'est sympa ;)

Myriam

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

I've never had to use the swear words either - but I seem to remember the swear words first of any language :D

cheers

Re: What is a good second language to learn ?
 

"dotty" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > As Australia is part of Asia not Europe, far more schools offer Indonesian or
    > Japenese. Japanese is such a difficult language that most give up so I have met
    > very few kids here who study languages (Queensland).

Compared to continental Europe, I agree. Compared to the UK and US, not really...
English speakers world over are pretty relaxed when it comes to learning second
languages. Some parts of America have quite a few people learning Spanish (and I
guess Welsh in Wales ;-)).

Japanese is not "such a difficult language" at all. Spoken Japanese is quite simple
to understand and incredibly easy to pronounce (every consonant is followed by a
vowel, and every vowel is pronounced only one way - unlike English where words which
appear to be pronounced one way, in fact can be pronounced other ways). It's also
far less difficult, compared with English, which much of the world learns as a second
language, in terms of grammar, scale, and variety of structure. The difficult part
of Japanese is learning the Chinese character set, kanji. Hiragana and Katakana can
be learnt within a few weeks.

    > Unless the Parents are bi-lingual, most leave school without any second language,
    > seems a great loss of opportunity. The only European language I have heard of
    > offered here is Italian.

French and German are also offered in high schools and some primary schools. In
fact, a state school on the Gold Coast offers a French Immersion program which
places the kids in French Maths, Science, Language etc. classes. I studied French
in high school...

Chris

    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com