[etni] Re: [FWD: Re: It's not haval, it's a shame]
- From: michele ben <benfam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 17:33:45 +0200
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I second Erlich's reply. I have been rather consistent in speaking to my kids
in English. Their father speaks to them in Hebrew. But everything that has to
do with school is usually discussed in Hebrew. I try not to mix languages, but
sometimes I do I suppose. My daughter, who is quite learning disabled and
almost certainly wouldn't have acquired English had I not spoken to her in
English, is totally fluent - accent and all. Furthermore, her vocabulary is
broad and she never makes a grammatical error. She speaks to me and to her
brother in English. My son usually answers her in Hebrew. He usually answers
me in Hebrew although I usually speak to him in English. But when he speaks to
my parents or sisters, he speaks in English. Funnily enough, neither of my
kids speak to their English teachers in English. My son's teacher still doubts
my claim that his English is fluent. So, my personal experience shows that
inconsistency in language use doesn't necessarily create a problem with
language acquisition. In terms of Hebrew, both my kids have large vocabularies
and excellent grammatical skills. I find that when I speak to other parents,
their experience is similar.
In terms of language acquisition, my kids separated the languages in two
very different ways. My daughter mixed the languages, applying one language's
grammar to the other (agalots for supermarket trollies is one interesting error
that I remember.) She gradually sorted out the languages. Her first try at
separating them was to speak Hebrew to adults and English to children. I think
she tried that because she saw me speak English to her and Hebrew to her dad.
When she realized that that classification didn't work, she eventually got the
languages separated. My son did something different. At first he spoke only
English to everyone, including to his monolingual Hebrew speaking mitapelet and
to his father who addressed him only in Hebrew. This went on for quite a while
and then he switched to only Hebrew. After about two years of only Hebrew I
started worrying that his English had disappeared. Lo and behold, it soon
reappeared, separate from the Hebrew, intact and grammatically accurate but
with an odd accent.
I think that language acquisition is individual and it's not necessarily
helpful to be dogmatic about a bilingual home's approach to communication.
Michele Ben
ask@xxxxxxxx wrote:
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>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [etni] It's not haval, it's a shame
> From: "Ehrlich Family" <ehrlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> >
> > It's not haval, it's a shame
> > Haaretz - March 11, 2005
> > Only three Hebrew words are allowed to be spoken in the Kohn household
> > in Ra'anana: Imma [mother], Abba [father] and Shabbat [Sabbath]. Aside
> > from these minor concessions, all communication is in English. "We
> > speak 100 percent pure English with no mixing," says American-born
> > speech and language therapist Margaret Kohn. "We don't go to the
> > makolet [grocery store] to buy lechem [bread], and we don't say pass me
> > the bakbook [bottle]."
> > According to Kohn, who lectured to a group of mostly Anglo parents at
> > Hod-Hasharon library on Monday evening, native English-speakers are the
> > worst offenders in Israel of what she views as a highly damaging
> > practice: mixing their native language with Hebrew.
> > Indeed, the statements made during the evening by audience members bore
> > out her point: "I speak English to my children and my husband speaks
> > Ivrit [Hebrew]"; "My daughter is starting gan hova [kindergarten];" and
> > "Our metapelet [nanny] speaks Hebrew to our children."
> > (To read the whole article, go to - www.etni.org/news/nothaval.htm )
>
> I read the article. Those who get the Jerusalem Post will have read
> the article by the speech professionals two weeks ago. I believe that
> that article contradicts the one written by this "professional" Mixing
> languages in not a problem. The child who has used "limchoking"
> has learned the English grammar perfectly and has used a word he
> just did not know in English and made it English. Most of our children
> who live almost entirely in Hebrew speaking environments will not go
> around speaking English on a native speaker level even if "Her" child
> did so.
>
> Each of our children is an individual. Some of them learn languages
> better than others. Teaching a musical instrument at an early age and
> practicing it early will not make all children virtuosos.
>
> My mother and many of her peers grew up in homes where only
> Yiddish was spoken. There was no mixing of the languages. To
> this day my mother cannot speak Yiddish. At all.
>
> I read English books to my children every day. I have three who
> speak English and two who do not. The difference? How much
> contact the children had with friends. The more social the child, the
> LESS English he spoke.
>
> Just food for thought. I hate articles that make parents and for
> that matter, teachers, feel guilty about their practises.
>
> I think you may continue saying "Makolet" since that is what it
> is called here.
>
> It's late. Layla Tov!
>
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