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    #26
    Developing bilingual societies

    I'm a regular visitor of North Wales, Snowdonia to be precise and something that struck me is how widely spoken Welsh is by young people. I've come across full tables of them chatting away in Welsh and not one was out of its teens. There is maybe an element of "let's not have the bloody tourists understand us" but I doubt they would go to the palaver of speaking a language out of spite.

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      #27
      Developing bilingual societies

      Hmm, they are Welsh, MS...

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        #28
        Developing bilingual societies

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          #29
          It turns out that the cliché about raising a child bilingually really is true, and that the earlier one starts, the better, as a baby's brain is perfectly capable of absorbing multiple languages.

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            #30
            Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
            It turns out that the cliché about raising a child bilingually really is true, and that the earlier one starts, the better, as a baby's brain is perfectly capable of absorbing multiple languages.
            I've read contrary views. Well, not contrary—I'm not denying small children can pick up a second language. The question is whether a very small child can learn a language any better than, for example, a teenager.

            The only study the author quotes says that bilingual Canadian babies can distinguish between English and French.

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              #31
              Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
              It turns out that the cliché about raising a child bilingually really is true, and that the earlier one starts, the better, as a baby's brain is perfectly capable of absorbing multiple languages.
              Old news, no? I had to read "The Learning Brain" (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Br.../dp/1405124016) as part of my Diploma in language learning back in 2009 and there was pretty good evidence in that book that you basically "lock in" the ability to decipher different sounds and tones as the brain develops new nerve connections and tissue. So, direct, meaningful interaction with tonal sounds heard in languages like Thai or some a Moroccan dialect (Darija), sort of lets in recognition which is shut out after a certain age. So, as adults, we just don't hear these tones, whereas children exposed to them do.

              I remember ad hoc commenting once how his daughter effortlessly switches code depending on the parent she is speaking to. My daughter is forming sentences now in English and saying words in Portuguese, She counts from 1 to 10 in both languages and doesn't question it, nor the classic words "xixi" and "coco", totally interchangeable with "wee" and "poo". I think she just sees them as synonyms right now, just like saying "shut" or "closed", which she will switch between.

              Anyway, highly recommend "The Learning Brain", the chapter on adolescence and puberty is a real eye opener, highlighting the massive change in brain connectors going on at that time which would cause anyone to go mad for a couple of years.
              Last edited by steveeeeeeeee; 23-01-2020, 14:48.

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                #32
                Our son, now 16, has grown up speaking English, Spanish and German and is pretty efficient in all three. I'm sure it's easier for babies than older kids.

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                  #33
                  Meanwhile, in Scotland ...

                  https://twitter.com/TheScotsman/status/1220319195742818304

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                    #34
                    The exact same bollocks that some idiots here say about Catalan or Euskera.

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                      #35
                      The amount of bile some folk in Scotland (now mostly, but not exclusively Tory bastards- vile Nats like Wings over Scotland also play the dead language, waste of money card) have for Gaelic is shocking. And of course the now pisspoor Scotsman and Herald have been running click bait bullshit articles on it.

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                        #36
                        I was in an airport departure lounge queue a year or two ago next to a large group of lasses all slipping between Welsh and Scouse/North Walian as they chatted amongst themselves, which was fun.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by Moonlight shadow View Post

                          I'm a regular visitor of North Wales, Snowdonia to be precise and something that struck me is how widely spoken Welsh is by young people. I've come across full tables of them chatting away in Welsh and not one was out of its teens. There is maybe an element of "let's not have the bloody tourists understand us" but I doubt they would go to the palaver of speaking a language out of spite.
                          I know I'm replying to a rather old post but I wanted to say: exactly this. I was born in Caernarfon and regularly visited for holidays in the area, and then moved back at the age of 15 to spend 7 or so more years there. I don't speak Welsh but I never got the impression that people were doing so to hide something from me. They were speaking Welsh because it's their language and often (mostly for older folk) the one they feel most comfortable in. More or less exactly similar to people speaking Catalan in Vic, Olot or Girona.

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                            #38
                            This is why I much prefer Snowdonia to the Lakes btw, given the choice between not understanding a bunch of local teens having a giggle and hearing middle-class Southerners waffling about property prices and boutique spa, easy one...

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                              #39
                              According to the Annual Population Survey, 868,900 people aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh in the year ending 31 March 2018. Although the Annual Survey figures vary a little from year to year, the emerging trend is that the numbers seem to have been increasing gradually since 2008.
                              The Welsh Government has set a target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. That will be about a third of the population.

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