Your English = Your kid's English?

It was almost certain that the previous article was going to be the last and everything was going to be either audio or video BUT given recent inspiration, this just has to be written down!

After this reading, we hope to show you (again) just how important you are in terms of your influence on your child/children and more specifically, their "second language acquisition". For starters, let's look at their first, native tongue. Most of us parents tend not to worry much about how inadequate our first language is. After all, it could be all we've got. If the parents are well-educated, well-spoken, and well-aware of the development of their children, it is no surprise that their children are more influenced by them. The reason for "more" is that kids are influenced regardless of the conditions of their parents. However, there are ways to increase the effect. Among the four branches of language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, the former two are most connected with parenting because it is less likely for our children to read what we wrote if we write at all. Although we may not be as concerned about our children's first language as we are about their second and even when we were conscious of how poorly we spoke, we could still rely on public school education to make up for the lack. But is it the same issue outside of their mother tongue?

Needless to say, we could see how anxious parents are by the amount of business growing under the fear of losing to others, more clearly, to the children of others. Here at [Free The Language], we've always been an advocate of being the teacher of your own children. Being a teacher does not necessarily mean teaching as a job. In fact, teaching is never a job unless it's a business discussion. Every parent is the first and life-long teacher of their children. There's no explanation needed. It's just plain simple. Children are the great mimics of us, at least until they grow out of us. From infancy, what we do is what they'll learn. Hence, we cannot stress any more than we could on this. Teach your kids!

Teaching your kids English doesn't require a teaching certificate. It doesn't even require experience. You simply need to offer what you already have because anything is more than they've learned. While different families may have various gaps, rest assured because if you're reading thus far, it would be a waste NOT to help them yourselves. If you're Google Translating this whole piece, chances are that your English isn't that bad either. Trust us. Think about English as a concept, an attitude, a way of living. Or better yet, don't think about English being another language. It's yours!

With all the nagging out of the way, let's focus on our educational experiment. Ari is a 1-year-old baby. Being a mix of Taiwanese and Korean, he is guaranteed to be exposed to at least 4 languages throughout his childhood, English, Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese. To fill in on the background, Ari's father is an English-speaking Taiwanese who believes there's no need to focus on the local languages because they will be taught inevitably. However, Ari's father isn't a native English speaker. How would this affect Ari as he develops his language skills? That is a question that no one could answer except the future.

Ari started showing interest in storybooks at exactly 1 year old. To be fair, his parents did have books ready and would read/show him from time to time. He now understands concepts such as "story time", "make a classroom", "gaga("snack" in Korean)" and others. They are still merely more like guesses or memory but as this goes on, Ari will most certainly learn both English and Korean without a problem. This is how he will develop his "mother tongues" as he is a multilingual person by birth.

The question is not how many languages can Ari/your child learn. The question is how well he can learn. Let's recall the early paragraphs. Can we depend on the public education of a Chinese-speaking nation to help Ari with his "foreign mother tongues"? Ari's case is obviously important but know that he is simply a case of demonstration to you all because we are all leaning towards a multilingual society. Even without the 2030 Bilingual Policy, this future will take place and Chinese will not be the only language people speak here. At the moment, people speak Chinese and know some English. 5 to 10 years later, starting from our youngest youths, they will make a difference for the decades to come. Therefore, take Ari as a case study, and let's get back to the question on can parents be enough for our children when we're not native speakers and the school system isn't enough.

You may be thinking, "well, that's why we hire tutors or send kids to cram schools". Our response to that is this, "...and how effective is that method?" If the only good education is a more expensive one, then it isn't education at all. Good teachers deserve good pay indeed but this is not the issue at hand. We've seen tens of thousands of students going through the same strategy trying to learn English the way their parents think they should at the cost of the equivalent of having another child and their childhood. We also provide language training but to be honest, outsourcing education is a gamble; your chance of winning is low.

An answer is needed since you've read this far and an answer you shall be given. The answer is yes. We the parents ARE indeed enough for our children IF we don't take the easy path and think something could be done once and for all. The answer is co-learning, to learn, grow together, and become independent learners. Learning is a journey that never ends. We don't stop when we graduate; we are limitless when we graduate. This is a notion that is neglected by many. We don't learn just to do the job; we learn to do the job and it keeps us learning more.

Just to recap, the best way to learn is still to teach. The best way for your kids to learn anything is still good parenting. The best way to learn English is definitely to keep speaking it! That said, a good learner doesn't stop at speaking. There are depths that only reading and writing could reach and that is one of the main reasons for this article.

Happy Lunar New Year, my dearest readers.

#education