#語言學習活動分享
#臺北
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最近認識到了一個單字：polyglot，a.會使用數種語言的；n. 精通通數國語言的人。
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當初會讓小布開始第二外語是因為她的英文已經到了一個程度了，再下去，只會覺得無聊且浪費時間，所以選了西語，西語學到一半，偶然間接觸到了德語，小布覺得有趣又簡單，所以接著學了德語，現在學法語也是因為我覺得小布西語到了一個程度，可以再接另一種語言了，歐洲語系都有相通的地方，其實我覺得學起來並沒有想像中的那麼困難。
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很多人問我，小布同時學那麼多種語言不會搞混嗎?每次對於這個問題，我都覺得疑惑，也很難回答🤔。
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小布對於語言不會搞混，但有時在講A語言時，會順口講出B語言，就像我們國、臺語會交雜著講，甚至出現臺灣國語，你覺得這是搞混嗎?不算吧! 你覺得這會讓你的國語講不好，還是臺語講不好嗎? 也不會吧!因為你都懂它的意思，只是順口講出而己，也是因為有環境，所以你不會覺得你會搞混。
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上網找了polyglot，看到了一個網站，網站上面有個詞「語言習得」。
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「語言習得」是人與生俱來的能力，只要有語言的環境、不需要刻意人為的教學，每個人都能自然而然學會生活環境中的語言。網站上簡單幾的句話，講出了小布接觸語言的方法及我的觀念。
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也有很多朋友問我會不會讓小布去檢定語言程度?每次被問到這個問題，都想問：「你會去檢定中文程度嗎? 」除非真的需要，不然我不會花錢讓小布去檢定，不用錢的可以🤣🤣🤣。
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我會從小布跟老師的對話中，了解她的程度到哪，如果語言真的內化了，它就只會是你生活中的一個小小工具而己，不是會講就很厲害了，講出什麼樣的內容才是重點。
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多語習得的活動我非常的有興趣，重點是不限年齡及語言程度，多跟不同的人聊天會比一直盯著學習書還要來得效果加倍，除了學習到語言之外，也學習到社交😍。
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小時候我常跟小布阿公去飯局、去吃喜宴，去到非常的厭惡，因為太多了。但慢慢的發現，小時候跟著大人活動的這些過程，長大後都變成成長過程中不可缺少的養分，因為看得多、接觸得多，思考方面也會有所不同。
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多語習得的活動在臺北每個星期三晚上都有，可進他們的社團看，星期三的語言桌都差不多，中、英、日是基本桌，其他語言就不一定，但對於我們來說，不管怎樣，西、德、法一定會有一桌，這就是學多語的好處🤣🤣，而且還有泰語捏~😍😘。
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多語習得學習網
http://polyglot.tw/
多語習得QA
http://polyglot.tw/multilingual/index.php?page=qa
多語交換社團
https://www.facebook.com/groups/multiple.languageexchange
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[美國文化觀察]

川普前幾天說, 以後的移民要在移民美國時, 就要會說英文. 經濟學人這篇文章講的挺好: 其實移民移居美國後, 早晚都會說英文的.

在我身上其實也應證了這說法. 旅居美國十幾年, 雖然平常有跟此地的台灣同胞保持互動, 但因為身處在美語環境, 也為了生存下去, 所以我漸漸地習慣說英文, 聽英文歌, 看美國電視, 看原文書. 我也很清楚地意識到, 自己的母語(中文)能力在退化中. 所以我前幾年開始接英翻中的case, 而兩年前也開始藉著寫中文個股分析與開部落格來彌補這問題. 很多時候不是我故意在秀英文, 而是我真的不知道該用甚麼中文字來表達意思了, 或是我覺得用英文能夠更傳神地表達我的想法.

"Rather than refusing to learn English, today’s immigrants actually abandon their first language much more readily than previous generations. German, the language spoken by the president’s ancestors, is a case in point. Germans arrived in America in big waves in the middle of the 19th century. Generations later, they were still speaking German at home; a small number were even monolingual in German despite being born in America. Only with America’s entry into the first world war did German-speakers drop their suddenly unpopular language.

Today the typical pattern is that the arriving generation speaks little English, or learns it imperfectly; the first children born in America are bilingual, but English-dominant, and their children hardly speak the heritage language. This is as true of Hispanics as it is of speakers of smaller languages—and all without a lecture from the White House."

以下是全文:
DONALD TRUMP’s young administration is adept at one particular manoeuvre. Whenever the president is having a terrible time in the press, for some embarrassing statement, interview or imbroglio, the White House announces a far-reaching policy designed to stoke up his nationalist base while infuriating his opponents. In February it was the proposed ban on visitors from seven mainly Muslim countries. Last month it was the announcement on Twitter that he would not let transgender soldiers serve in the military.

In each case, the new policy tends to hurt people who can be portrayed as threatening outsiders to ordinary Americans who work hard and pay their taxes. Yesterday’s announcement to back a months-old plan to overhaul America’s immigration rules falls in the same category. If implemented, it would reward applicants with sought-after job skills who already speak English, at the expense of low-skilled workers without language skills.

This may seem perfectly sensible: after all, skilled immigrants are a good thing. But as an ongoing shortage of farm workers in California shows, unskilled immigrants are just as crucial. Equally, it is a good thing if immigrants speak English. But they need not speak it before arrival: as it is impossible to participate fully in American life without speaking English, the incentive to learn it quickly is overwhelming.

The administration’s emphasis on English skills therefore harks back to an old myth that the linguistic make-up of America, which has been an English-dominant country for a long time, is changing: that the status of English is somehow threatened, especially by Spanish, but more generally by the notion that English is no longer needed in the economy.

The myth goes something like this: today’s immigrants want to come to America to isolate themselves into communities that do not speak English. American policy tacitly encourages this by not being tough enough in requiring English. In the past, immigrants happily learned English quickly; “my grandpa came here from the old country but he refused to speak his old language; he insisted on getting by in his broken English until he was fluent.” But today’s immigrants no longer do so, as multiculturalism has replaced the melting pot.
All of this is wrong. America began as a thin band of English colonies clinging to the eastern coast, vastly outnumbered by speakers of other languages. The foreign-born percentage of the population peaked not last year—the administration likes to talk of “unprecedented” numbers—but in 1890, when the share of foreign-born residents was at an all-time high of 14.8%. This proportion has risen again after declining in the mid-20th century (it stood at 12.9% in the 2010 census). America today has multilingual big cities with their voting instructions in Korean, Chinese and Russian.

Historically, this is the norm rather than the exception: the years from 1925 to 1965, when immigration was almost completely cut off, were unusual. But those born from the 1940s to the 1960s became used to the low numbers of foreign-born residents, regarding this state as normal. That in turn supported a belief that America has always naturally belonged completely to English.
For most of its history, America was precisely the “polyglot boardinghouse” Teddy Roosevelt once worried it would become. That history has turned out very well not just for America, but for English—the most successful language in the history of the world. Along with American power, English has spread around the globe. At home, wave after wave after wave of immigrants to America have not only learned English but forgotten the languages their parents brought with them.

Rather than refusing to learn English, today’s immigrants actually abandon their first language much more readily than previous generations. German, the language spoken by the president’s ancestors, is a case in point. Germans arrived in America in big waves in the middle of the 19th century. Generations later, they were still speaking German at home; a small number were even monolingual in German despite being born in America. Only with America’s entry into the first world war did German-speakers drop their suddenly unpopular language.

Today the typical pattern is that the arriving generation speaks little English, or learns it imperfectly; the first children born in America are bilingual, but English-dominant, and their children hardly speak the heritage language. This is as true of Hispanics as it is of speakers of smaller languages—and all without a lecture from the White House.