{"id":1499,"date":"2015-10-14T18:58:49","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T18:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/?p=1499"},"modified":"2019-11-17T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T14:29:59","slug":"planting-the-language-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/planting-the-language-seed\/","title":{"rendered":"Planting the Language Seed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scrabble-921255_1920.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1500\" src=\"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scrabble-921255_1920.jpg\" alt=\"Smart Coos-scrabble\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1069\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>by: Sam Lefalher White<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Planting the Language Seed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was born in Paris, to an American mother and a French father. Soon afterward&nbsp;my mother and I moved to the midwestern United States, where English became, of&nbsp;course, my predominant language of immersion for many years.<br \/>\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9289218266222230\" data-ad-slot=\"2581675933\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><br \/>\nFrom the very beginning&nbsp;my mother persisted in speaking to me both in English and, to my chagrin and frustration,&nbsp;in French. When my father and I fell out of touch, my mother doubled her efforts. As&nbsp;anyone who understands the dynamics of raising a bilingual child knows, this, for a single&nbsp;parent, was no small feat. And I, for my part, didn\u2019t make her job any easier.<\/p>\n<p>As I grew into my later single\u00ad digits and my English evolved and matured, it was&nbsp;annoying to me that my mother continued speaking to me in French. My English was&nbsp;clearly better than what few French phrases I knew; it was more complete and articulate.&nbsp;It was infuriating to me, then, when she switched to a language that made it more difficult&nbsp;for me to communicate. English was the frontrunner, miles and miles ahead of French in&nbsp;the language race of my childhood. Why didn\u2019t she just abandon her efforts and speak&nbsp;only English to me? Why struggle against the current? Why did she persist?<\/p>\n<p>Years later I took a year of French in high school. It was easier for me than for&nbsp;anyone else in the class and I sped through the curriculum. Then I took some French at&nbsp;university and had a similar experience. Pronunciations and vocabulary came to me&nbsp;faster, and stayed with me effortlessly. The grammar of the language then made more&nbsp;sense, because I wasn\u2019t bogged down by it\u2019s fundamental and aesthetic qualities. When I&nbsp;studied abroad in Belgium, French flooded into and out of me at a rate I hadn\u2019t thought&nbsp;possible. Native speakers were impressed with my accent, even as my grasp of the&nbsp;language itself was improving.<\/p>\n<p>It took me many years to appreciate that by insisting I hear French from a young&nbsp;age, my mother had endowed me with a subtle, yet powerful gift: a readiness for, and&nbsp;love of languages. This love extended far beyond French and English. Eventually I chose&nbsp;to study Arabic, a vast departure, linguistically speaking, from either of the other&nbsp;languages I knew. And yet, the same principles apply to learning any language, so I felt&nbsp;more equipped than many of my peers, more adaptable to the throes of new, unvocalized&nbsp;sounds and wildly different grammatical structures. While I certainly can\u2019t say that&nbsp;learning Arabic was easy or simple, I can say that I felt naturally prepared for the task.&nbsp;Something in me had been made ready, and I suspect I know by whom.<\/p>\n<p>My mother understood the importance of multilingualism. She knew, after years&nbsp;of studying languages, traveling and living abroad, and embarking on a career of&nbsp;language study and acquisition in higher education, that introducing her child to a second&nbsp;language early would give him a leg up in the world. She knew that even if she couldn\u2019t&nbsp;raise me to be truly bilingual\u2014if she could just plant the seed of linguistic diversity, then it&nbsp;might later grow. She knew that if she exposed me to another language but didn\u2019t force&nbsp;me to speak it, than I would be able to make the choice myself. She knew\u2014as I believe&nbsp;and always will\u2014that it\u2019s never too late to learn a new language, but you might as well get started now.<\/p>\n<p><em>At Smart Coos we believe there\u2019s no time like the present. Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/smartcoos.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SmartCoos.com<\/a> today for&nbsp;more information on raising your child to be multilingual. And check out <a href=\"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">our blog<\/a>&nbsp;for more accounts, stories and advice from multilingual families in the Smart Coos community.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Because bright futures begin now.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9289218266222230\" data-ad-slot=\"2581675933\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by: Sam Lefalher White Planting the Language Seed I was born in Paris, to an American mother and a French father. Soon afterward&nbsp;my mother and I moved to the midwestern United States, where English became, of&nbsp;course, my predominant language of immersion for many years. From the very beginning&nbsp;my mother persisted in speaking to me both [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-language-inspirations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartcoos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}