[etni] Re: It's not haval, it's a shame
- From: "Adele Raemer and Laurie Levy" <raemer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 08:27:25 +0200
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Seems to me that this is taking linguistic snobbery to new limits.
All of us who make the concerted effort to speak to our children in our L1
should be commended, and our children only benefit from it. If we
occasionally mix our languages, I have no doubt that it causes no harm.
It seems to me that whether a child absorbs the parent's L1 (say, English)
as his/her second L1 has to do with: 1. whether one parent speaks in
English or both, (in which case, it seems from my experience that it is
easier and more likely for the child to acquire an additional L1) and 2.
something to do with the child's own personality rather than with the
question of do we mix our languages or keep them pure.
Adele
----- Original Message -----
From: <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 9:50 AM
Subject: [etni] It's not haval, it's a shame
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>
> (To read the whole article, go to - www.etni.org/news/nothaval.htm )
>
> 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 )
>
>
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