Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources What language would you take?

GS9 took an afterschool enrichment class in Spanish last year, this year he did French. I thought I'd start him on Latin this summer, and got the course for him. But in the last few weeks he discovered Greek mythology, has most of them memorized and is moving on to the classics of Greek mythology. He also started looking up Greek letters and language on the net, so I've been looking at Greek for this summer.

Nikita,

It is for repeat customers so no... no special code. Sorry. And the scary thing is I missed the email. It was a friend that I introduced to Muzzy who mentioned the deal by accident last night. Thank Goodness since it expired at midnight last night. The stars aligned for me on that one! I would have been peeved if I missed that one.

OHGrandma,

That is really exciting. It is even more special when they discover it on their own.

I took French in high school, and have rarely found it useful. However, if you learn French, Spanish or Italian, you can more easily decipher any of the other of those three because they are related. That is, of course, providing you can actually remember any of it twenty years later. I would recommend Chinese for the very young, based on my limited experience with my DD2 and the show "Ni Hao Kai-Lan"--she is picking up the inflections perfectly, which comes a lot harder as you get older. Same with Japanese. I have a patriotic aversion to teaching my kids Chinese on the basis that they will need it in the future--that speaks ill for the future of our country--but I suppose I'll probably get over it.

Did you find anything fun for Greek, OHGranny? I've been looking out some funny little bits and pieces for Greek for the lads--once they learned the alphabet, they've been having fun leaving each other messages "in code" (English words but in Greek letters). There's a fun old textbook for littles online called "Greek for Little Scholars" (Philotechnic Institute 1866). We've also been learning a Delphic maxim per week for a little while (Be yourself; Love friendship; Pursue honour, etc.). Since they're nearly all imperatives, it simplifies the grammar! I found a lot of other cool stuff at the Greek Teachers' Corner ( www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/grkteach.html ). (The Hokey-Pokey in Greek, anyone?)

I've been using the Leslie Collins Edwards "Reading Course in Homeric Greek" for myself--I've been feeling a bit brain-dead this year and wanted to try something new to shake up the synapses a little, so I'm nibbling through a little bit of the Odyssey in Greek, with lots of help from the textbook and some stuff online. I think mostly people start with Koine or Attic (for both of which there are many more materials available--Koine looks to have the most stuff aimed directly at young people), but I thought that since what I really want to do is to be able to read a little of Homer, I might as well do Epic instead. I can't remember how old your grandson is, but this book, although a university text, is very clear, and has been reasonably smooth sailing (on the wine-dark sea...) so far--maybe he'd like it, too? There's another Homeric Greek book by Clyde Pharr, which I think is available online, that uses the Iliad, and a British text, published by Duckworth, that also does the Odyssey.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts!

peace
minnie

PS, Well, now that I've also learned to read English, I see that your grandson is 9!

Minnie, we have a few sites bookmarked at his logon. I don't think any are the ones you've recommended, so we'll look at those, too. Friday he found a site where you can type in your name and it gives the greek spelling. He wrote down his and several of his friends. I think he has plans on using it as a way to send secret messages, haha, that's fine, whatever inspires him to learn!

I thought we'd go with Koine since that's the greek which was used by writers of New Testament scriptures. The majority of people I know who can read greek learned Koine. A homeschool course that many recommend is http://www.opentexture.com/products/greek/yearone/

I took French, and I only use it to decipher Spanish now.

Since Spanish is taught here extremely early, I would vote for Chinese or Japanese.

Heck re-read some of my posts - I should re-take ENGLISH!

Is it National Self Deprecation Day yet?

Wow I wish my kids had language offered in elementary school!

I teach Second Language Acquisition and I really don't think it matters what language a child learns. The important factor is motivation, which could come from the language itself, the teacher, the method, the opportunities to speak, anything. If you're looking at an hour a week, your child will be learning about the language, but won't get much of a base. If it's a summer course, do the one that's the most fun (right level, everything), but remember that to keep it up, they will need some way to continue exposure. I'd look into finding an ESL conversation partner from a local college who would trade English conversation for their own language.

BTW, I took German when I was young, used it to help the future mother-in-law of a friend who married a German navigate in the US for a week. Then I learned French fluently and I use it all the time because I am motivated to do so.

There are some cool brain studies coming out about the different ways children store L2 compared to adults.

My DS6 is taking Chinese, his choice.