Coltrane,

Geez! When I look at Arabic I choke on it because it looks so hard. It's weord, my former Spanish teacher was an African American Muslim. He Spoke Spanish with no problem. Arabic on the other hand, that's another story. He said he's been a Muslim for 4 years and learning the language is about the kill him. and I do agree with him. I almost became a Muslim years ago and trying to understand Arabic made me cry because I thought that I would never get it. I couldn't really get in depoth with it because my mother objected to the religion and abandoned it

My goal now is to become fluent in Spanish. I can somewhat write it far better that I can Speak it, but I'm not ready to do that either. My goal is to become both. Not far as there is a Latin American Association not far from me and they offered conversational Spanish, buit I'm not sur eif was for the corporate people or for anybody. I love Spanish with all my heart. I thought about doing an experiment by goimg in a Spanish restauarant and order some food to see how far I've gotten with it. Eventually I also would like to study French. I also hear that language is pretty hard to master as well . But it's funny, I was looking at the Portuguese language and it seems that it don't look all that disimilar from Spanish. I thought that My boyfriend who has a Portuguese background would know, oddly, hisfolks didn't teach him about the language. He only the language of the people of Mali and that was French and Arabic. , I tried a little( Just a little bitty bit)of it with him and it still seems like torture to me. maybe one day.....

One of my resolutions is to learn IGBO next yeafr. I ging to enrow in a course and then tell me parents to speak 100% at all times. Then I'm going to Nigeria for a couple of weeks, and wil instruct everyone to speak 100% igbo

More than 80% of Arabs speak broken Arabic. they have problems mastering the language.

CeeCee wrote:

Hi Cashmoney

have you enrolled on an ibgo course yet? i'm yoruba and it is my aim at some point to learn my language. i grew up in foster care and was never fostered by africans let alone nigerians so never had the opportuntiy to learn.what really is my concernthough that if i have children i'll have little to offer them by way of their native culture and launuage to me is so crucila to your culture and living it, alsoi really want to learn though because by the time i'm thrity i want to have travelled west africa, more specifically southern nigeria and benin, so i'll also need to learn some french. i also want to learn brazillian portuges becaue i'll travel brazil at some point as well.

keep us posted on how your ibgo lessons are going

I speak tgrynia(Eritrean language), Dutch, German(it really sounds like Dutch), a lil French and English

But then again, most Dutch people speak more than 1 language. When I was at high school I found it really unfair that Ducth students had to learn all these languages, while German/Fremsh students hardly did the same. I guess its because of the fact that Dutch language isnt as important as Frensh or English

CashMoney wrote: [line]

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I speak English and Japanese......and my son's speak both as well. I see it just as important that he speak English in this country he whould be able to speak the language that makes up part of his blood............*shrugz*

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...so we can walk through shops and talk about people and smile at them........like non-English speaking people do us. ha ha ha. I remember one time in Tokyo this Japanese guy was TALKING ABOUT ME AND A FRIEND OF MINE...how he thinks he should kick our asses for stealing his *cough* women (LOL stealing HIS women)........LOL......as I got off I said... to him.....

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"You should watch what you say......people are listening"....WOOOOOOOOOOO the look on his face......PRICELESS.

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PaRrIs

Parris,

I agree with you. I'm an American and I believe that if the parents know the language or the husband/wife know a language, I think that you should share it with your children. I also feel that the earlier you speak that language to them the more fluent they will become as adults. My siblings and I had a dispute about about this a few weeks back. I've learned Spanish, I'mLearning Frenchand know a little Portuguese and German, but not as Good as Spanish and French. My nephews are 3, 5, and 6. Just recently, I decided to teach them some Spanish because it's a language that I'm more familiar with, it's easier , there is a heavy Spanish population here where I live and mainly they asked could they learn it. My siblings got angry with this because they felt that they were too young to learn it, feel that I'm forcing it on them and that it many confuse them. But think about this: with the exception of one of my nephews, two of my nephews are already taking 6 classes. Besides, were not in class, that is they activity that they like doing. Beside think aboutthe dozens of immigrants who come, in my case, the states. Many of their kids are born and raised here , but their parents still teach them their language from birth, This is why I see nothing with what I'm doing.

Again, THEY ASKED to learn Spanish. I didn't come to them with it.I do no believe in forcing a kid to do something that they are not interested in, nor do I get angry with them for it. They just happen to see me study some Spanish and they were interested in it. Why not teach them something that will help them out in their teenage /adult lives? They want me to stop teaching it. As I told them, I declined their offer. To me when you do that, you're taking their education away from them. I cannot and I refuse to. I just think about htose days where many African-Americans died just to have the right to leran how to read and learn something. I found what they said to be very insulting and i'm not taking that away from them.

I know how to speak Spanish and French the best, but as I said Spanish is far easier to learn currently, I'm teaching them what their instrutors are teaching them in English only I teach them in Spanish, the numbers, alpahabets, some Spanish words and phrases. As they get older, I will teach them more of it and I will encourage to further their fluency in it by taking a good Spanish Class. I also have plans to go to more Spanish oriented things to further help my Spanish.

PS TO EVERYBODY WHO KNOW A LANGUAGE: If you have the time, patience and know how. If you have children , nieces/nephews or if you have a love for being around kids please educate them whether it's a foreign language or some other academic related subject. Don't keep what you know to yourself. In the Black community, we talk about the lack of good education in our schools. You cannot always count on other people to educate your kids. People and other authority figure must do their part in helping them and the kids must have a desire to learn it and not settle for less.