Are We Really Monolingual?Singapore Bilingual Fund Proposed - $100 MillionBilingual Education in IllinoisDual-language immersion programs growing in popularityUS Citizenship Test in Chinese!Learning Chinese SOS : Help! My Child is Mixing Up English and Chinese | Learning Chinese Language Materials for Kids

Are We Really Monolingual?

Are We Really Monolingual? - NY Times

Good question - the census asks what language do you speak at home? 20% say a language other than English. The challenge is many only speak English at home, but may be fluent in another language and use it at work and such.

Labels: bilingualism

Singapore Bilingual Fund Proposed - $100 Million

The reason is an increase in the number of English only households (6 in 10 pupils primary students in 2010), and he sees bilingualalism as a competitive advantage for Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew proposes S$100m bilingualism fund - Channel News Asia
The exchange rate is .76 US Dollar to a Singapore dollar

Labels: bilingualism

Bilingual Education in Illinois

Bilingual Education if done right can be wonderful and result in a child fluent in both their native language, as well as English. When bilingual education is done badly, the child is not fluent in either language. In California a proposition was passed getting rid of most bilingual education because the majority of voters felt the students were not learning English.
Illinois to require bilingual preschool programs for students who don't speak English - chicagotribune.com

Labels: Bilingual History in the US, bilingualism

Dual-language immersion programs growing in popularity

Dual-language immersion programs growing in popularity - LA Times

I have heard about more dual language programs, per the article there is now more than a 1000 nationwide. Looks like the article is re-fighting the Proposition 227 fight (my complaint against bilingual education pre Prop 227 was it was not truly bilingual).

I am surprised that Glendale in California offers German, Japanese, and Italien, but not Chinese. Glendale has a large Armenian population and is home to some great restaurants. Porto's (Cuban) is a favorite of mine.

Labels: bilingualism

US Citizenship Test in Chinese!

Interesting the languages that the US citizenship tests are available in. If your over 65 you can take the test with the help of a translator or in your native language.

Other languages include Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Labels: bilingual education, bilingualism

Learning Chinese SOS : Help! My Child is Mixing Up English and Chinese

A friend of mine expressed concern the other day about her 5 year old child inserting Chinese words into English. Sometimes, the order of her English sentences are topsy-turvy, noticeably the proper order if she was speaking Chinese.
Many parents are concerned that learning 2 languages at the same time may lead to confusion and lack of proficiency. Actually, mixing words and grammar (code mixing) is perfectly normal in the early stages of learning a language. If it says anything, it signals that the child HAS learned something. The child now knows what a certain thing is called in Chinese, or is familiar with the correct order of a sentence.

Anyway, the big picture of learning to become bilingual is that it is a long process. Kids will grow out of code mixing as they become more proficient at the 2 languages.

So I told my friend to not worry about the mix-ups. The important thing is that the child is learning. There are a lot of things that we don’t perfect immediately when we start learning a skill. Languages are the same. What is needed is continuous guidance and validation from parents, so that a child will be inspired to learn through the years.

Labels: bilingualism, Learning Chinese

Wednesday, January 18, 2012