I love confusing little kids

[Atropine Mama]

I found Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead on cable this morning and put it on. After telling them there was no way I was changing it to cartoons, all three boys settled in to watch it. Hooked, totally. Asking questions, the whole bit. I'm putting existential confusion in their gourds before they even hit numbered grades! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Fuck Blue's Clues, they need to learn how to count 79 heads in a row! :lol:

[Limper]

Awsome movie!

[Varaj]

Damn record that shit!

Now is a good time for silly child story.

My 5 year old wanted to watch a Halo movie. So he asked me to make Halo 4 a movie.
I told him I'm really don't know how to make a movie.
He points to the pile of burnt DVDs with hand written titles.
"Don't you just write the name of the movie on the dvd to make it?"

[Name Lips]

Damn record that shit!

Now is a good time for silly child story.

My 5 year old wanted to watch a Halo movie. So he asked me to make Halo 4 a movie.
I told him I'm really don't know how to make a movie.
He points to the pile of burnt DVDs with hand written titles.
"Don't you just write the name of the movie on the dvd to make it?"

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=569

[Atropine Mama]

Damn record that shit!

I tried, but we're missing the first 5 or 10 minutes. It's at the top of the Netflix queue now.

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=569

For a five year old? :what:

'Cockbiting fucktard' was oldest daughter's favorite cuss phrase for a good year, I don't think first grade teachers would be very appreciative of my son bringing that one to class.

[Varaj]

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=569

I don't let him watch Red vs Blue (but do have them all)

[Atropine Mama]

OH GODS THE WONDER PETS ARE FRYING MY BRAIN

The baby animal they're "saving" this morning is a blowfish and all I can think of is my favorite sex toy catalog! (Linkie NSFW, peoples!) (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

:hissy:

[Limper]

My solution to horrible kids shows was to buy a lot of documentries on dinosaurs and such.

At 3 my boy has a grasp on evolution and other biology subjects AND I'm not crying myself to sleep as my brain cells scream and die from Kid Programing.

Find what they like and are interested in and FEED it the little sponges get smarter and you do as well.

[Atropine Mama]

My solution to horrible kids shows was to buy a lot of documentries on dinosaurs and such.

At 3 my boy has a grasp on evolution and other biology subjects AND I'm not crying myself to sleep as my brain cells scream and die from Kid Programing.

Find what they like and are interested in and FEED it the little sponges get smarter and you do as well.

It's the Malcolm Gladwell "10,000 hours of practice to make an expert" theory. Who has more available time to put in those kind of hours towards expertise, than kids?

Most people don't think of kids as being capable of that kind of processing, unless they're "special" or something. I think most people underestimate the little buggers.

[The Winslow]

The baby animal they're "saving" this morning is a blowfish and all I can think of is my favorite sex toy catalog! (Linkie NSFW, peoples!) (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/)

I've never been blown by a fish. Doesn't really seem appealing.

Though it's probably better than by a torch.

[Megamieuwsel]

my favorite sex toy catalog! (Linkie NSFW, peoples!) (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/)

And here I was expecting pics of Varaj in handcuffs....
And a pink tutu...

[shiningbrow]

Children are as smart or smarter than we are... they're just less experienced. They quickly come up to speed, given the opportunity. :)

I get a warm and fuzzy feeling thinking of Bella watching Stoppard plays with three small children. It must be nice to have someone to warp!

[Pigs in Space]

Convince them their conciousness resides in their little finger and then threaten to cut it off.

No wait, that's discipline.

[Harry]

Every time I see the title of this thread, I think of things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HvpRvvfc04

[Snatch]

OH GODS THE WONDER PETS ARE FRYING MY BRAIN

The baby animal they're "saving" this morning is a blowfish and all I can think of is my favorite sex toy catalog! (Linkie NSFW, peoples!) (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

:hissy:

Just wait for when they save the rabbit.

[Cat of Ulthar]

It's the Malcolm Gladwell "10,000 hours of practice to make an expert" theory. Who has more available time to put in those kind of hours towards expertise, than kids?

Most people don't think of kids as being capable of that kind of processing, unless they're "special" or something. I think most people underestimate the little buggers.

Damn right! I don't have kids but I'm a language teacher. If I see how much effort it takes to teach an adult a language compared to a kid... Kids are fucking geniuses (genii?). They are learning things *all the time*, we just don't notice. They are playing in the sandbox? They are learning about comparative volume of containers, hardness of dry sand vs. wet sand, that sand sticks to sunscreen but not if you leave the sunscreen to sink in for a bit, that sand stings when it comes in your eye, that it does not taste nice, etc. etc.. They learn about the world they are living in, the behaviour expected, the language(s) spoken... They take it all in with amazing speed. Chuck in some dinosaurs or an extra language and they will just take that in as well.

I have always had the idea that if I had kids, I would raise them heptalingual, as an experiment; one language for every day of the week. It is a good thing I don't have kids I expect.

[The Winslow]

I have always had the idea that if I had kids, I would raise them heptalingual, as an experiment; one language for every day of the week.

:lovestruck:

[Cat of Ulthar]

:lovestruck:

It seems the Winslow and I need to breed... :plotting:

[Radu]

Zomg! My sanity! :tongue:

[Cat of Ulthar]

The Cartographer just objected. :( No love for science.

[shiningbrow]

I have always had the idea that if I had kids, I would raise them heptalingual, as an experiment; one language for every day of the week. It is a good thing I don't have kids I expect.
Cat, they should allow you to breed if you choose. Those kids will probably be amazing.

One of my favorite professors of all time was raised in France by an art historian father (French native) and a physician mother (Russian native). They spoke a different language in his house every day of the week. By the time I studied with him, he had mastered several others, including classic arabic and chinese as well, for a total of 12 languages. He was one of the smartest, funniest men I've ever known with a huge breadth of knowledge combined with genuine human warmth that I have found very rare in academia. He took the class out to dinner after our seminar at the end of the term, ordering from the menu in chinese. There are very few people who have inspired me to think,"I want to be just like him when I grow up!" But he was one of them.

[Varaj]

Damn right! I don't have kids but I'm a language teacher. If I see how much effort it takes to teach an adult a language compared to a kid... Kids are fucking geniuses (genii?). They are learning things *all the time*, we just don't notice. They are playing in the sandbox? They are learning about comparative volume of containers, hardness of dry sand vs. wet sand, that sand sticks to sunscreen but not if you leave the sunscreen to sink in for a bit, that sand stings when it comes in your eye, that it does not taste nice, etc. etc.. They learn about the world they are living in, the behaviour expected, the language(s) spoken... They take it all in with amazing speed. Chuck in some dinosaurs or an extra language and they will just take that in as well.

I have always had the idea that if I had kids, I would raise them heptalingual, as an experiment; one language for every day of the week. It is a good thing I don't have kids I expect.


Kids learning a language faster than adults is one of those common myths. All the research I've seen on it suggests that it isn't really the case. Language acquisition rates are almost the same for adults and children.

[Brynja]

cite?

[Varaj]

cite?


http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/myths.html
with cites to the actual research papers.

[Brynja]

ty.

delicious information!!

NOMNOMNOM

[shiningbrow]

That's an interesting study, but I don't think it deals with children who are raised multilingually, but rather it deals with children who speak one native language and who acquire subsequent tongues. I think Cat was describing a scenario where her children would natively acquire multiple language. As for the acquisition of secondary or subsequent languages, I have a friend who raised her daughter to speak English and Arabic in the US. She is a native arabic speaker, and always spoke to her daughter in arabic from infancy, but the child refused to respond in anything other than english. Now that they have relocated to Lebanon, (when the child was about 10) the daughter is able to speak arabic fluently, but it took some adjustment.

I grew up in an english speaking household and had to work hard to learn languages, although I found it much easier after mastering the first of the secondary languages. After 4 years of spanish, each subsequent romance language was relatively easy, but German and Greek were much harder. I have to work to retain them, though.

[Varaj]

That's an interesting study, but I don't think it deals with children who are raised multilingually, but rather it deals with children who speak one native language and who acquire subsequent tongues. I think Cat was describing a scenario where her children would natively acquire multiple language. As for the acquisition of secondary or subsequent languages, I have a friend who raised her daughter to speak English and Arabic in the US. She is a native arabic speaker, and always spoke to her daughter in arabic from infancy, but the child refused to respond in anything other than english. Now that they have relocated to Lebanon, (when the child was about 10) the daughter is able to speak arabic fluently, but it took some adjustment.

I grew up in an english speaking household and had to work hard to learn languages, although I found it much easier after mastering the first of the secondary languages. After 4 years of spanish, each subsequent romance language was relatively easy, but German and Greek were much harder. I have to work to retain them, though.

Takes the average adult about 6 month to learn a language by pure immersion. Takes a child longer. :)

Are you suggesting their is some biological lock mechanism that occurs in children after the first language is learned?

Or in short I'm not sure what your point is.

[The Winslow]

As far as I know, kids who are raised multilingual put all their native languages in the same brain area, while languages learned at a later date (including still during the childhood) get shuffled in another.

[shiningbrow]

Takes the average adult about 6 month to learn a language by pure immersion. Takes a child longer. :)

Are you suggesting their is some biological lock mechanism that occurs in children after the first language is learned?

Or in short I'm not sure what your point is.

I guess I'm agreeing with Winslow.

I'm not sure if there is a lock mechanism, but I do believe the brain changes as a very young child grows and learns. I also believe that there is a point in early childhood development at a prelanguage stage where children can learn two or three languages simultaneously just as easily as they can acquire one. After they have learned to talk, some languages are perhaps habituated if learned at the stage of language acquisition, and others, acquired later, require practice and deliberation to acquire. You have children, so perhaps you have greater insights into this, although I don't know if you are teaching your children other languages, or if you speak languages other than english natively.

I did not begin to acquire other languages until I was about 12, and I did well in my language class, but probably because I studied hard and enjoyed the class.

It's certainly easier for me to pick up languages when I'm in a place where I have no choice--where english isn't an option and the other language is all I hear (immersion). My initial struggles w/various languages (german, particularly) were helped enormously by spending extended periods in countries where those languages were spoken and speaking english was either not allowed or where opportunities were rare.

[Varaj]

As far as I know, kids who are raised multilingual put all their native languages in the same brain area, while languages learned at a later date (including still during the childhood) get shuffled in another.

I would like to see some for of citation for that.

Shiningbrow, do you have any research links to indicate there is any fundamental difference in language acquisition at those stages.

[Cat of Ulthar]

I found that one of the biggest hurdles for adults learning a second language is not the capability, but the willingness to accept the otherness of other languages. Edena learning French was a case in point. He kept on trying to make French behave like English.
And also I have seen difficulties with people who know for example Dutch, German and English trying to learn Arabic, because Arabic is so different in system than those three. It doesn't fit their conception of how languages should behave, and the older you are, the harder many people find it to change preconceptions.

A friend of mine's kid is being raised in English and Chinese, which I expect will give him an excellent basis for learning other languages in later life.

[Varaj]

I found that one of the biggest hurdles for adults learning a second language is not the capability, but the willingness to accept the otherness of other languages. Edena learning French was a case in point. He kept on trying to make French behave like English.
And also I have seen difficulties with people who know for example Dutch, German and English trying to learn Arabic, because Arabic is so different in system than those three. It doesn't fit their conception of how languages should behave, and the older you are, the harder many people find it to change preconceptions.

A friend of mine's kid is being raised in English and Chinese, which I expect will give him an excellent basis for learning other languages in later life.

I can certainly agree with that. It is a handicap for adults to learn many things not just languages. It is easy for adults to let pre-existing knowledge get in the way of learning something new. But you see the same thing with children as well, they just have less pre-existing knowledge. :)

[shiningbrow]

No research links. I'm no linguist. I just speak from the experience of knowing people who were raised speaking multiple languages from infancy. It seemed that they were able to acquire and speak many other languages with considerable ease compared to me. Even now, I feel like I manage to mangle most of the other languages I speak even those with comparative fluency.

I'm plowing through Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge at the moment and the fact that I'm able to put a sentence together at all is a miracle, as I feel like sitting in a corner drooling. I feel so humbled and stupid by comparison. Feel free to send me a dunce cap any time, and I'll be glad to wear it. :)

[The Winslow]

I would like to see some for of citation for that.

Sorry. It's stuff I have read several years ago.