Learning language learning from bilingual countries
It seems some people will learn another language only at a gun point; only necessity and self-induced motivation make them learn. But teaching classes in another language in early grades may also help, if they can put enough language footprint in pupil’s brain that may last forever even though it may remain passive knowledge.
I luckily lived in two (almost) bilingual countries; Canada especially in New Brunswick that is officially only a bilingual province and also Belgium where politics of the separation is getting messy. In both places, many people find that bilingual education is labor and useless not pleasure since they are not fluent even after many years of learning in school. Or frankly many people do not see any use of another language in their life. This is particularly true for anglophones, which is a term not so commonly used out side of Canada.
I need to check how people think about this in Belgium. Belgium is officially bilingual… No. Officially trilingual. Dutch, French and not English but, guess, German. (I assume Belgium got German part for the compensation for the war, but I may totally wrong.) Many Flanders think English is more useful than French. But as I said many times I think Belgian’s English skill is less than that of Dutch, Swedish, Danes though I never been to these countries. Many Flanders people in big shops will speak perfect English even though I doubt they can engage in a deep complex discussion in English on the spot; speaking English is still labor for many people here since Flanders are proudly Dutch speaking after all, after years of long language discrimination and trivialization by French-Belgians.
Any case, it is wise to speak English at shops in Flanders than in French. Many times I heard clerks were saying that their English is better than their French. These people understand it but just cannot say much in French.
And if you speak German, you may kick out from a shop since generally people here may not have good impression of German because of the wars. You will not, of course but you may get a hug by a few right wing Flanders separatists who had corroborated with German during the WWII… There is very complicated history behind this and I will cover this in more detail. I am not sure what will happen to the German part if Belgium separates. I assume it will come with Flanders.
http://thelinguist.blogs.com/how_to_learn_english_and/2010/05/french-immersion-in-canada—does-it-work.html#comments
I am citing comments and please see the originals.
“As a Canadian who does not live in Quebec of NB I find Found French to be a total waste of my time.” Continue Reading
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