Iceman wrote on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:04:47 -0700:
I ??>>
??>> What would make you think I didn't mean it in a
??>> _functional_ sense? They speak fluently with their father
??>> in one language, with their mother in another, and with
??>> most other people in English...
I have two friends from the Phillipines whose native languages
were mutually unintelligible. They switched to Tagalog to talk
to each other and then English when they came to the US. They
felt, as nostalgic Phillipinos, that their kids should know
Tagalog so they successfully taught them to understand it but
they could never get the kids to speak it. They'd say things to
the kids in Tagalog but got replies in English. Kids want to fit
in and that's the best incentive to learning a language.
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
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