Trilingual kids who will never be tongue-tied
It’s not just bilingualism that has been in the news lately – here is an article from the Irish Times of April 10, about children with three, or even more, languages:
“You’d think speaking three languages would be confusing for kids, but don’t underestimate their ability to absorb…
…For English speakers in particular, it’s easy to be lazy when it
comes to learning other languages, and, as any mature student knows, it
is hard work, so if your children have the opportunity to imbibe other
languages when they are young my advice is take advantage of their good
fortune. After all: Tús maith leath na hoibre. It will broaden their
minds, expand their horizons and provide a lifetime of pleasure.”
The article gives first-person, anecdotal and research evidence that
children with multiple languages not only experience no difficulty but
even thrive in their complex linguistic environment.
Here is the story of IVA POCOCK
You’d think speaking three languages would be confusing for kids, but don’t underestimate their ability to absorb
MY
FIRST experience of trilingual children was living in Sri Lanka in
2005, where many of the kids I met spoke Tamil, Sinhala and English. I
was astounded when I realised that they could also read and write in
these languages, a feat requiring knowledge of three completely
different scripts – the Roman alphabet, Tamil script with more than 200
letters, and Sinhalese which has more than 50 characters.
