The other Romance languages will be easier to pick up when she knows French. I would pick an Asian language, either Mandarin, Japanese, or Korean. Depending who’s around, it might be hard to get in practice and start slipping.
Also, just as a note, we had a family friend who spoke no Mandarin and went to China for a couple of years and now has a pretty good mastery of the language. So, even if they don’t learn it now, it’s not impossible to pick it up through immersion later in life.
Yeah, I have a friend that went there for a couple of years too and said once you get immersed, it is a pretty logical language, at least the spoken aspect. Pronunciation and palatalization can be difficult for him, but the grammar and sentence structure he said was not too bad once you understand the rules.
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 10-11-2018 at 11:57 PM.
I am going to go off the board here and I am going to say Croation/Serbian. If you or your family is from that part of the world originally I can no better or more valuable gift than for you and daughter learning a language that has a root in your background.
This will also allow your daughter the ability to travel back to whatever part of the former Yugoslavia your family may be originally from and learn even more about the history and the language. This also opens up the door to a potential duel citizenship situation and the ability to study/work there and other places in Europe if that is something she would be interested in future.
The experience culturally, educationally, internationally along with some work experience is very valuable to employers in Canada in my opinion.
Learning another language is great but unless you utilize it on a regular basis or use it in a business environment, you can lose it or forget a lot of it. I know a lot of people who took French lessons or may speak their parents mother tongue (mines Greek) but wouldn't be able do their jobs in their second language because of a lack of practice and use.
Sorry about the long post, either way congrats and best of luck!!
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to curves2000 For This Useful Post:
Yup Mandarin is a good one to learn as China will be a huge influence when she's older and will be the super power. The other way to go is to have her pick up a language that once fluent in, allows her to pick up other languages easily because they're so similar. I can't remember for sure but I think Spanish is the one that is similar to multiple different languages.
I grew up in French immersion and am still fluent in it. But I can only think of 2 places in the world I have been where it's actually been useful for me. For me #2 would definitely have to be Spanish. Pretty much all of The Americans from Canada down, you will find it useful. Huge Spanish populations in various places around the world. If I could go back in time (and when I have kids) it would be Spanish as a second language I would choose.
Russian is another one I can think of, in particular in Europe. Seems to me that Russian speakers are everywhere I've been in Europe. Many restaurants have russian speaking staff and menus. I hear it almost everywhere I go in Europe.
The Following User Says Thank You to Huntingwhale For This Useful Post:
Yeah, I am thinking about future career opportunities.
I plan on growing her up bilingual (French and English). We speak English at home, and you can easily get by with either in the Ottawa/Gatineau area. I think both will be like "first languages" to her. But I would like her to learn something else that might be useful in the future. Children are like sponges when it comes to languages. If she doesn't have a knack for it, I won't force it, but I want to nurture the opportunity as much as possible.
you have to decide who is taking over the world and if the new overlords will speak Arabic, Russian or mandrin.
I'm wondering if one new language might be enough at the moment. You might just end up with her speaking some horrible creole of whatever she's learning. I also wonder if music might be a way to develop language skills. There's a lot of research into that. And it's way more fun than most language courses. But I do think you're on the right track with Romance languages. I found, as most people do, they become easier to learn once you get one in the bag. It's almost just a matter of vocabulary after the first one or two. Just keep it fun and not confusing or she'll hate language learning.
We chose Spanish for our kids and wouldn't change a think if we had to do it over again.
French is good if you have ambitions for a government job. Mandarin etc. has advantages but also real drawbacks and limitations. We just thought Spanish offered the best advantage for someone growing up in North America. Second biggest language (I think) in the US so a definite advantage for moving there, plus all of Central and South America (save Brazil) and the potential there.
Plus it's a very beautiful language to hear and speak.
spanish for sure, many countries speak it, especially since we live in the americas. plus knoing spanish can branch into some basic understanding of the other romance languages (french, italian)
japanese never carried value and neither will mandarin
__________________
Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
I am going to go off the board here and I am going to say Croation/Serbian. If you or your family is from that part of the world originally I can no better or more valuable gift than for you and daughter learning a language that has a root in your background.
This will also allow your daughter the ability to travel back to whatever part of the former Yugoslavia your family may be originally from and learn even more about the history and the language. This also opens up the door to a potential duel citizenship situation and the ability to study/work there and other places in Europe if that is something she would be interested in future.
The experience culturally, educationally, internationally along with some work experience is very valuable to employers in Canada in my opinion.
Learning another language is great but unless you utilize it on a regular basis or use it in a business environment, you can lose it or forget a lot of it. I know a lot of people who took French lessons or may speak their parents mother tongue (mines Greek) but wouldn't be able do their jobs in their second language because of a lack of practice and use.
Sorry about the long post, either way congrats and best of luck!!
A Serbian Film would likely be even better without subtitles.
