Raising multilingual children Tetsu’s way Tetsu Yung, North American Polyglot Symposium, Montreal, July 24, 2016

Illustration: Eric Belisle (ericbelisle.blogspot.jp)

Agenda • About Tetsu • Importance of starting early • OPOL and CLAP • Ronnie

Photo by Renee Chan Photography

Birth/Taiwan Years

• Taiwanese father, Japanese mother

• Born in Hong Kong, moved to Taiwan at age 1

• American elementary school, Taiwanese nanny, Weekends at grandparents

• Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese, Hakka, English

Quebec Years

• Moved to Quebec, Canada for high school

• Lived with Taiwanese aunt and Quebecer uncle

• University language courses, Trips to South America and Europe

• French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese

Japan/Taiwan Years

• Moved to Japan after PhD to work in Asia

• Wanted to strengthen Japanese and Mandarin

Quebec Years

• Back to Quebec with wife and 2 children

• Organizing NAPS!

Tetsu’s language history

Exposure to 5 languages by age 6

5 more languages by age 20

Fluent Today English French

Japanese Mandarin Spanish

The importance of starting early

• Learn multiple languages like a

native speaker

• Self-consciousness and self-esteem

• Brain benefits

• Opportunity costs

Illustration: Eric Belisle (ericbelisle.blogspot.jp)

The importance of starting early: 1. Learn multiple languages like a native speaker

Reference: http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia＿kuhl＿the＿linguistic_genius_of_babies

Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic Genius of Babies

The importance of starting early: 1. Learn multiple languages like a native speaker

Reference: https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies

The importance of starting early: 1. Learn multiple languages like a native speaker

Results of extended exposure to various languages at young age: •Keep ears “open” later in life •Good Accents

– Confidence, Social integration, Trustworthiness (cognitive fluency)

Ref: http://sanmu1225.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-179.html?sp

Japanese Brit English Am English French German Italian Spanish Russian Chinese

Language Passbands Frequency (Hz)

The importance of starting early: 2. Self-consciousness and self-esteem

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily. -Thomas Szasz

The importance of starting early: 3. Brain benefits

Monolingual Multilingual Note

Grey matter density

+ +++ The younger the additional languages were acquired, the denser the grey matter

Resistance to mental decline

+ +++

Learning in general

+ +++

Complex thinking and creativity

+ +++

Communication skills

+ +++

The importance of starting early: 4. Opportunity costs

Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later.

-Dana Stewart Scott

Bus Taxi

Costs 1$ 11$

Time 1 h 5 min 5 min

You teach, and your hourly wage is 50$ What is opportunity cost of taking a bus to work? => $40

Learn as child Learn as adult

Costs ? ?

Time ? ?

What is opportunity cost of not learning as a child? Considerations?

OPOL and CLAP

What is OPOL?

One Parent One Language

One Person One Language

What is CLAP?

Contextual Language Acquisition Philosophy http://language-tetsu.blogspot.jp/2010/03/contextual-language-acquisition.html

Ronnie

Nagasaki, May 2016

Ronnie’s Core OPOL Staff

Japanese Mandarin

English Currently TV/DVD

Looking for exchange student, another au

pair, etc.

French Day care

Spanish

Ronnie wishes happy Chinese new year to all in 5 languages

Mandarin: 新年快樂！ (Xin nian kuai le!) Japanese: 明けましておめでとう！ (Akemashite Omedeto!) English: Happy New Year! French: Bonne Année! Spanish: Feliz año nuevo!

Feb. 14, 2016

https://youtu.be/svpUf6kRuGU

Birth/Japan

• Born in Nagasaki, Japan on July 13, 2012

• Japanese and Mandarin

Taiwan

• Moved to Taiwan on Feb. 22, 2014 (19 months)

• Strengthened Mandarin through family/friends

• American daycare in Tianmu, Taipei

• English

Quebec

• Moved to Quebec on July 24, 2015 (36 months)

• French daycare

• Mexican au pair

• French and Spanish

Ronnie’s language history

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: Oct. 2014, 27 month-old Ronnie learns to identify simple colors.

https://youtu.be/9q4k7iiahic

Recognizing inputs and demonstrating outputs

Scenario: Oct. 2014, 27 month-old Ronnie learns to identify body parts.

https://youtu.be/wfSwwZKue5c

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Worried about Code-Switching?

Scenario: Jan 2015, 30 month-old Ronnie is singing… “hello Reindeer… hello snowman… hello Santa… (then…)”

I want bala taberu!

https://youtu.be/wSLusQ2oq0M

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: Mar. 2015, 32 month-old Ronnie learns to tell time in 3 languages

Ronnie starts to distinguish the languages in which he is being asked.

https://youtu.be/QDMl880qTII

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: Aug. 14, 2015, 1 week after Mexican au pair Angelica started living with us

https://youtu.be/YH7tUMdknxg

37 month-old Ronnie starts counting numbers in Spanish in only 7 days!

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: Oct. 2015, 2 months after Mexican au pair Angelica started living with us. 39 month-old Ronnie is playing hide and seek with Angelica. Yuko (mom) is on skype from Japan. Tetsu is holding the camera.

https://youtu.be/0rz_fR9p0aU

Language channels are established in Ronnie’s brain

Give your children the gift of the world

Illustration: Eric Belisle (ericbelisle.blogspot.jp)

To all parents out there

1. Know that you have what it takes to raise multilingual children. 2. Know that your children have what it takes to become multilingual.

Q&A www.multilinguannaire.com

asktetsu@gmail.com Twitter: @asktetsu YouTube: asktetsu

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U47EGBI https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00P35J6N4

Backup

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Learn languages while doing something you love

Scenario: Mar. 2015, 32 month-old Ronnie loves rollerblading. So Tetsu teaches him colors in different languages while rollerblading.

https://youtu.be/417C5BksLuk

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: Oct. 2015, 40 month-old Ronnie counts to 15 in 5 languages.

https://youtu.be/ZgDkHsCqkqs

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: July 2016, 48 month-old Ronnie plays with francophone friend.

https://youtu.be/ckJK3pi7eTI

Applications of OPOL and CLAP in Ronnie’s life

Scenario: June 2015, 35 month-old Ronnie reads Percy correctly

https://www.facebook.com/tetsu.yung/videos/10155592146070462/

Scenario: Oct 2015, 39 month-old Ronnie is strict with Angelica. https://www.facebook.com/PampersToPolyglot/posts/708642545936354

Scenario: July 2015, 30 month-old Ronnie teaches aunt with perfect Mandarin pronounciation

•https://youtu.be/JVEyA3Ik6hg/

Ronnie is strict with accents