Dreaming in Hindi “If you speak English, you have one world, if you speak Navajo, you have another world” (Rich 7). Being multilingual creates more opportunities, and in a sense, truly unveils a whole new world. Author Katherine Russell Rich discovers a brand new world when she decides to go to India to learn Hindi. Rich begins her dive into Hindi at a later age than educators normally recommend. A specific main idea she presents in Dreaming in Hindi is that there is a small period of time in an individual’s life where they can master a secondary language and it is not being taken advantage of properly in the United States.
To begin with, Rich makes an argument that there is a specific period of time when people can pick up new languages and it is being neglected. Research shows that children only have until the age of five to quickly absorb a second language (Schmid At what age is it easiest to learn a second language?). If children were encouraged more to learn new languages during kindergarten or even elementary school, it would be much easier to enhance these languages later in life. It’s not that people don’t want to learn new languages; it’s just that government …show more content…
Spanish was taught during my Kindergarten year once a week after school. The words we learned during those times have stuck with me through my entire life, yet what I learned when I took Spanish classes in middle school and high school is completely wiped from my memory. My personal experience with learning a new language is why I back up Rich when she discusses the problems with trying to master a language after the age of five. Secondary languages should be taken more seriously by the United States government when deciding what should be taught to all ages in public schools. Other countries have been teaching secondary languages, usually English, for years, yet the United States doesn’t and I think that needs to
To begin with, Rich makes an argument that there is a specific period of time when people can pick up new languages and it is being neglected. Research shows that children only have until the age of five to quickly absorb a second language (Schmid At what age is it easiest to learn a second language?). If children were encouraged more to learn new languages during kindergarten or even elementary school, it would be much easier to enhance these languages later in life. It’s not that people don’t want to learn new languages; it’s just that government …show more content…
Spanish was taught during my Kindergarten year once a week after school. The words we learned during those times have stuck with me through my entire life, yet what I learned when I took Spanish classes in middle school and high school is completely wiped from my memory. My personal experience with learning a new language is why I back up Rich when she discusses the problems with trying to master a language after the age of five. Secondary languages should be taken more seriously by the United States government when deciding what should be taught to all ages in public schools. Other countries have been teaching secondary languages, usually English, for years, yet the United States doesn’t and I think that needs to