Linguistic diversity should be discouraged

[Fireball]

My next door neighbor constantly brags that his 22 month old is learning three languages.  I dunno.  When the kid gets mad he screams unintelligible nonsense like every other 22 month old I’ve ever known. I guess I’m not seeing it.  *shrugs*

He's swearing in baby-talk in three languages. What's the issue!?

[Silver]

Watching an episode of The Simpsons. There was a flyer that flew into Moe's face. It read, "Learn French, swear like an angel".

[Seraphina]

My ex-husband spoke 4 languages - French, Arabic, Berber and English. The first 3 he learned in school while growing up. I thought that was a plus, not a negative. He was able to communicate with a wide range of people, especially when we lived in Europe. I don't see any positive outcomes in discouraging linguistic multiplicity.

-Teresa

[AFTT47]

When I was in school in India, I was taught 4 languages: English, Hindi, Kannada and Sanskrit. If that's not bad enough, I spoke a fifth language, Malayalam, at home. It would've been far better if India had just one language; then I may have been able to master it as well as I did English. While nothing can be done about the existence of multiple languages in India or the world, it is surely possible to actively discourage linguistic multiplicity at least at the national level. For example, the federal government can decide to teach a maximum of 2 languages at school. I shudder to think how much time I could have saved if I didn't have to learn all those additional languages.

Thoughts?

I see both sides of this argument. Personally, I only speak English although at different times in my life, I had rudimentary skills in Spanish and Japanese. I lost interest in both when the need vanished.

From a practical standpoint, I embrace the utility of a single language. There's enough useful bits of knowledge and skills to master without cluttering up one's limited memory capacity with redundant languages. On the other hand, it is said that a culture survives only as long as its language survives.

I favor the practical - which is easy when you are American and learned the dominant language of the world by default. I respect those that learn English as a second language because it's an inconsistent mess.

One of my funnier memories is of a Japanese woman I once worked with who developed a very good command of English inside of two years. Once, when she was under the influence of alcohol, she expressed her frustration of trying to understand the concept of, "shit." She ranted, "There's good shit, bad shit, fucking shit - I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!"

I would really hate to have to learn English as a second language because it really is a mess. Kudos to all who have done so.

[Minimalist]

My next door neighbor constantly brags that his 22 month old is learning three languages.  I dunno.  When the kid gets mad he screams unintelligible nonsense like every other 22 month old I’ve ever known. I guess I’m not seeing it.  *shrugs*

Could grow up to be a preacher!

[The Grand Nudger]

I think that time is killing languages fast enough all by itself.  No need to help it along.

[Joods]

I think that as long as kids are willing to learn, the options should be open. My daughter taught herself how to read and write Korean. She's currently in her second year of German. I've taught her a bit of sign language and English is her native language. Being multilingual will open up many doors for her in the future. I don't see that as a problem.

[I_am_not_mafia]

A major regret of mine is that my parents did not teach me German when I was growing up. If they had then I could have made a success of living in Germany rather than be forced to move back to a fast sinking ship because of Brexit and an authoritarian government.

My only hope now is that Scotland can get its independence.

It was annoying having to spend time learning a language rather than learn all the other skills I normally do. But on the other hand, most people don't spend their time improving themselves. Secondly, different languages gives you different ways to think about things.

[J a c k]

How could knowing more not be better? I don’t regret being bilingual. I regret not knowing yet another language. I don’t think my brain can handle another one at this point. I encourage my kids to practice both their languages, and my little one knows quite a bit of sign language. I hope they pick up another one.

[Amarok]

Inuit is my first language 

French is my second and the one use the most .

Sign is my third

Arabic is a fourth

German is a fifth

English is the last and the one i use the least