ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Learning a language or two is one thing but knowing that the world is bigger that the USA and that we can learn and share with other countries is an other. For Americans, America is gods country and we know best. We are the savior, the problem solver of the world. This line of thought does not fair well with the rest of the world - in the East or or in Europe.
We need to get away from this idea, - not saying that we have to stop loving our country, and instead realize that we all (world) have skills, ideas that are equal to ours.
We have to stop put ourselves above others and truly embrace the world's diversity.
We are neighbors to three countries (Mexico, Canada and Russia) and what do we teach our children about them... They have a great cultual history, speak spanish, french and russian............ I would think that would be a nice place to start.

Our Early Age Learning Centers in Bucks County Pa at A Child's World Early Age Education start teaching children varied ways of communication from the time their first year of life. Our youngest minds learn how to communicate with sign language before they verbally communicate. This gives them a sense of control and confidence at a very early age. Toddler through kindergarten students are introduced to varied foreign languages. Spanish is taught in all classrooms along with Chinese and Korean depending on the school location. Children love the diversity and are learning new words without discrimination of a reliance on their native language. Different languages activate different areas in the brain and increase the development of neural connections and intellectual potential. The benefits of learning several languages are numerous and invaluable in a child's development of emotional, social, physical, and cognitive skills.

I couldn't agree more with the idea of teaching young children multi-languages or foreign languages. This has been my dream plan (now hanging in the air). Early ages are best to learn and master several languages. I believe that in today's fast-paced society and its fast changing modern technology, multicultural or social-cultural neighborhoods are growing too and our children are certainly be exposed to a variety of language in the workplace, and in daily social encounters. To be competitive in this fast-paced modern world of today and tomorrow, exposing children to more than one language from their early years of age has enormous advantage to children and the society. In today's world having ability to speak several languages maximize your opportunities and potential. Comminication skills and languages have ability to provide rich understanding-US for axample, is the most diverse population in the world and we know that language becomes a unifier; yet US has not seized the opportunity to embrace the need for its people to have the ability to study more than one language (English) from early years of age. As we prepare our children for today's fast-paced society and for tomorrow's challenges, the young children's educators should be aware of these challenges and focus on techniques that intends to reshape the world of education and literacy for our young children at their very early years of age. Recognizing the diversity of today's families in relation to the changes happening in our today's societies, educators need not to encourage but to introduce the study and teaching of multilanguages in homes, schools, and in the work place-ability to speak multilanguages is a valuable asset.

There is no valid reason not to start the teaching of second languages in pre-school. In my school in Haiti, before the earthquake, the younger children starting with the 3 year old class had half an hour of Spanish and one and a half hour of English every week. Right after the earthquake, many of them went to the United Sates and the Dominican Republic. Some kids did so well that even in the Dominican Republic at least one of the them was the best student in the class and many kids ended up guiding their parents once they crossed the border. The younger they were the faster they adjusted to the new system. I am saying even in the Dominicac Republic because in Port-au-Prince, we are so exposed the the American culture and so many kids have relatives abroad that it is not unusual for some city kids to be fairly fluent in everyday English. And the young kids who attend good schools and live in good conditions in Haiti usually do well when they transfer to the American system. Since then, I have slightly changed my language policy. Now in the lower grades they have one hour of English instead of one and a half hour and one hour of Spanish instead of half an hour. Because of the 6th grade official exam which does not include second languages, we reduce the time spent on second languages in 5th and 6th grade to focuse more on exam content. Starting in seventh grade, they once more have at least two hours of foreign languages which is required from seventh grade on in the official curriculum. They do all of that in addition to having to study both French and Haitian Creole at school.