[/quote][quote=foster]Well actually it is pretty easy for kids under 14. Going from Spanish to English is not that huge of a leap. A complex beast. Hardly. My stepdaughter spoke zero English when she came to the USA at age 9. Her native language was Spanish. She was fluent in English a year later and now at 14 she speaks better English than most adults who were born in the USA. It’s has a lot to do with the parent(s),the school of choice, and the child’s friends. It can be done. Saying Spanish kids aren’t learning English faster because language is a complex beast is a cop-out. [/quote]
Is she around family that speaks English? If so, your step-daughter has an advantage that most immigrants do not.
Do you think she would have learned as well if she went home every night to a Spanish speaking family in a Spanish speaking area with Spanish speaking neighbors? Most first-generation immigrants learn English in school — the usual grammar, vocab, etc — but when they go home they have no one to speak English to, so it’s a whole different ballgame.
My point is that it’s the second generation that makes the jump to using English as a first language.
Lets try this experiment, especially for those of you who have never traveled. Imagine uprooting your life and moving to say, I dunno, Italy. You don’t know a lick of Italian. How long do you think it would take you to be fluent in Italian? Would you ever be? Chances are you’d find English speakers to congregate with, simply because it’s easier and more comfortable. You’d have English-speaking friends, go to English-speaking bars/restaurants. Would you speak Italian with your English-speaking friends? Probably not. But if you had kids while in Italy, their first language would be Italian and they’d probably look down on you for speaking English to your friends in Italy.
You never know your second language as well as your first. What I’ve found:
1) Immigrant – mainly speaks native language, knows a few words/phrases of the new language to get by.
2) 1st generation – Learns how to properly comprehend/speak 2nd language, but still uses the family’s native language when around group #1
3) 2nd generation – Knows the new language as their first, speaks very little of their grandparent’s language.
