Minority Languages

[Unkotare]

For some reason, all of the emails we get from our youngest son's kindergarten teacher include a translation in Portuguese. While there used to be a large Portuguese population in Boston many generations ago, today not so much. About 20 years ago there was a large influx of Brazilian immigrants, but that has flattened out considerably. I've been wondering about this, and whadayaknow but today my little guy comes home and tells me a new student joined the class who speaks Portuguese. He couldn't tell me if she is from Brazil or Portugal (he's only 6) - or I assume Angola or Cape Verde. I tried, but he seemed more interested in going out to play than learning some Portuguese.

I just found it interesting.

 

[Unkotare]

Speaking of minority languages:

One of my students whose first language is Haitian Creole is going to join the Latin club next week. Another student in the same class is working on starting an Arabic club. They are both highly intelligent and really great students. Their parents also attend the adult English classes we offer after school for free. Involved families = great students.

 

[Unkotare]

Why does this OP foreigner still refer to the Spanish as natives ?

I know they are a dreadful lot if you ever have to mix with any , but I gather they try their best as an emerging tribe .

This poster never did explain what that nonsense was supposed to mean.

 

[BrokeLoser]

Speaking of minority languages:

One of my students whose first language is Haitian Creole is going to join the Latin club next week. Another student in the same class is working on starting an Arabic club. They are both highly intelligent and really great students. Their parents also attend the adult English classes we offer after school for free. Involved families = great students.

Congratulations on acting as an agent and facilitator for those invading our nation, that’s really awesome, you should be real proud of yourself.
My daughter, who is an educator here in Mexifornia refuses to teach at a public school because she is a good, real core American who will not be complicit with the invaders. She believes language should be taught in homes by parents, she says taxpayers should never be burdened by unwelcome invaders and or their children whom they stole citizenships for. She says she refuses to dumb herself down and pretend these children are here with consent from the people.
She says Plyler v. Doe is just another fucking of the American people and another gross misinterpretation never intended by our framers…she hopes this Trump SCOTUS revisits the Plyler ruling and trashes it like they did Roe.

iamwhatiseem
jotathought
luiza

 

[ThirdTerm]

You need to make sure that you teach them good American English, which most students expect from ESL courses. Accented English, which is strongly influenced by the pronunciation used in a different language, often confuses ESL students and stymies their progress. Ohtani's former interpreter spoke really good California English despite his gambling addiction.

 

[Unkotare]

Congratulations on acting as an agent and facilitator for those invading our nation, ...

That makes absolutely no sense, loser. Even for you.

 

[Unkotare]

In case anyone is curious, they also teach ESL at private schools.

 

[Unkotare]

...Accented English, which is strongly influenced by the pronunciation used in a different language, often confuses ESL students and stymies their progress. .....

No it doesn't.

 

[Moonglow]

No, it doesn't mean what you think. The vast majority of students in my ESL classes are native Spanish speakers, but not all. I have students who speak French, Portuguese, Khmer, Vietnamese, Arabic, Pashtu, Igbo, and others. Now, there we have quite a few teachers at school who speak at least some Spanish, but speakers of these other languages get less language support than their Spanish speaking peers. I feel as if these students, especially if they are at a beginner level, are more isolated than their peers. I can communicate in a number of languages, but not all, and if I have a student in class from a particularly minority language I try to make time to learn enough of it to support the student to whatever extent I can. I remember some years ago there was a student originally from Ethiopia who was very much a beginner and very intimidated by the experience of adapting to a very different culture, language, etc. And all this in a very inner city school district where the great majority of students were Spanish speakers. She was not my student, but I offered to stay after school for extra help. To facilitate this, I took the time to learn as much Amharic as I could in a reasonable amount of time. Not much, but enough to help and more importantly make her feel a little less isolated. This confidence helped her to get more out of her classes during the school day. Don't get me wrong, there is no need to speak even one word of a student's L1 in order to teach them English, but even a word here or there can have a supportive psychological effect. Just as some people here seem to forget there are more "races" in the world than just black or white, there are more languages than just English or Spanish.

You could try pointing.

 

[BrokeLoser]

That makes absolutely no sense, loser. Even for you.

Because you don’t want it to? Because you can’t rationally defend your bullshit?

 

[Unkotare]

You could try pointing.

Don't you have anyone in your life who cares about you enough to tell you you're NOT funny?

 

[Unkotare]

Because you don’t want it to? ...

Because it doesn't. In any way.

 

[Moonglow]

Yes, four dogs.

Don't you have anyone in your life who cares about you enough to tell you you're NOT funny?

Tried pantomiming or hand gestures and silhouettes

 

[Unkotare]

It seems that LOSER doesn't know what TPS is, or how the State Department has facilitated the resettlement of many Afghani refugees in recent years. Aw well, cowardly idiots will be cowardly idiots.

 

[ScorpioRising007]

No, it doesn't mean what you think. The vast majority of students in my ESL classes are native Spanish speakers, but not all. I have students who speak French, Portuguese, Khmer, Vietnamese, Arabic, Pashtu, Igbo, and others. Now, there we have quite a few teachers at school who speak at least some Spanish, but speakers of these other languages get less language support than their Spanish speaking peers. I feel as if these students, especially if they are at a beginner level, are more isolated than their peers. I can communicate in a number of languages, but not all, and if I have a student in class from a particularly minority language I try to make time to learn enough of it to support the student to whatever extent I can. I remember some years ago there was a student originally from Ethiopia who was very much a beginner and very intimidated by the experience of adapting to a very different culture, language, etc. And all this in a very inner city school district where the great majority of students were Spanish speakers. She was not my student, but I offered to stay after school for extra help. To facilitate this, I took the time to learn as much Amharic as I could in a reasonable amount of time. Not much, but enough to help and more importantly make her feel a little less isolated. This confidence helped her to get more out of her classes during the school day. Don't get me wrong, there is no need to speak even one word of a student's L1 in order to teach them English, but even a word here or there can have a supportive psychological effect. Just as some people here seem to forget there are more "races" in the world than just black or white, there are more languages than just English or Spanish.

Yeah true most people learn just Spanish, French, German, English. The less popular languages are not offered as much at colleges or high schools to study and not as many people know them. I have a relative who took 2 years of Russian in college, I think he got like D's in it. He said it was the toughest language for him to try to learn. He had no problem with learning Spanish, but learning Russian was a nightmare he said. I am sure that is the way for many of the less popular languages, we have less familiarity with it and so it is so much harder for people to learn.