| This is the matter that my family has to struggle with, because there is a kindergarten baby in my home. Surprisingly, I have a younger brother aged three years old this year. Thus, my family really needs to and wants to know whether it is really necessary to teach English from kindergarten or not. Nowadays, my baby brother is going to a church kindergarten nearby our house and they are teaching many things to him including English. It's a very common knowledge that it is always better teaching foreign language in early years.
However, my parents decided not to push my brother to learn English by force. It's my parents' knowledge that they have gained from my sister and my experiences. It's not useful or effective if the kid doesn't want to learn or understand why he/she needs to learn it. Even though my sister and I learned English when we were 3rd grade in elementary, we are good at English because now we understand the importance of speaking ability in English. When I began to learn English, it was very stressful and even painful because I had to compete with others all the time. I don't want my baby brother to experience those tough times that I had once. I strongly believe that kindergarten students need to focus learning Korean first, because it's their mother language and it's the foundation of all studies of their lives.
But still, there is an English class in kindergarten and a few days ago, the teacher gave us a textbook and CDs. My baby brother loves to play the CDs because it has many different types of English songs with funny dances. Everyday my family listens to it and even I could memorize some of those songs and dances. Sometimes, my baby brother shouts something that sounds like English for us. But still, I don't think it is an effective way or necessary to teach babies in English.
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Does my baby brother need to learn English? (200700121 Ko Yoon Jin)
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1. What I like about this piece of writing is that I was able to understand all the feeling of yours about your younger brother. It was so clear that you are against the early education of languages. Your suggestion that unless the children do not like to learn the foreign languages, it is never really effective to teach languages, were so strong and clear that I was moved, although I am for the idea. In addition, your stressful experience learning English was so realistic that I was also able to feel yours. Lastly, your essay was really natural that I had no difficulty reading it. I always admire writings and essays that flow naturally because flow is the first consideration of deciding good writings for me.
2. Your main point seems that it is not so effective to teach foreign languages when the kids are young.
You are saying in the essay that it is the time for children to learn their Korean perfectly, not other languages.
3. These particular words or lines struck me as powerful:
1) “This is the matter that my family has to struggle with, because there is a kindergarten baby in my home.” => This structure was really interesting for me because I have never used this type of sentence structure. My sentences are always too simple, such as ‘Because of this problem, my family was really worried and confused.’
2) “However, my parents decided not to push my brother to learn English by force.” In this sentence, my favorite part was ‘by force’. The reason why I love this is that the meaning of the whole sentence became really clear.
3)” it is always better teaching foreign language in early years.” => This was also one of my favorite parts. I would love to use this kind of sentence, starting with ‘it is always ~er to’. In my opinion, this structure shows that what I am saying now is a myth that I want to criticize very well.
4. Talking about a thing that would be better to be added is your opinion about the time that people should start teaching their children languages. As you know, there are kind of age limit that normal people can learn language very effectively, like native speakers. Therefore, I do not think that you would think that it is always possible to start learning language and it is just great if kids do not start learning foreign languages not in their childhood.
This is the matter that my family has to struggle with, because there is a kindergarten baby in my home. Surprisingly, I have a younger brother aged three years old this year. Thus, my family really needs to and wants to know whether it is really necessary to teach English from kindergarten or not. Nowadays, my baby brother is going to a church kindergarten nearby our house and they are teaching many things to him including English. It's a very common knowledge that it is always better teaching foreign language in early years.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my parents decided not to push my brother to learn English by force. It's my parents' knowledge that they have gained from my sister and my experiences. It's not useful or effective if the kid doesn't want to learn or understand why he/she needs to learn it. Even though my sister and I learned English when we were 3rd grade in elementary, we are good at English because now we understand the importance of speaking ability in English. When I began to learn English, it was very stressful and even painful because I had to compete with others all the time. I don't want my baby brother to experience those tough times that I had once. I strongly believe that kindergarten students need to focus learning Korean first, because it's their mother language and it's the foundation of all studies of their lives. If he really wants to learn foriegn languages such as Japanese or English which I could teach, I will definately do my best to fulfill his desire to learn more and more.
But still, there is an English class in kindergarten and a few days ago, the teacher gave us a textbook and CDs. My baby brother loves to play the CDs because it has many different types of English songs with funny dances. Everyday my family listens to it and even I could memorize some of those songs and dances.
Sometimes, my baby brother shouts something that sounds like English for us. But still, I don't think it is an effective way or necessary to teach babies in English.