Date:	2006-01-28 17:30
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	contemplative

I was thinking about a wacky hippy sociolinguistically bent child care program this morning, and thought I might as well scribble it down.

I can remember talking to this really shifty gentleman in Quebec who had coined the French word asternelle (az-ter-nelle): a child's playpen gone planisphere and I really liked the word. The idea of having an exploritium for children was very neat and very feasible; so last night when I saw an ad for a Greek / Latin tutor who cost $25/hr the gears really started to grind! We all know children learn, or should I say absorb, languages without the slightest of efforts. This ability has always amazed me and I would like to see some sort of fusion between an asternelle and a language tutor. Having a babysitter come and speak in different language with one's child would probably be beneficial for the baby as they'd pick up more than having solely bilingual parents.

Come to think of it ~ a cabby mentioned something like this to me a little while ago. The cabby's son spoke six languages because his parents made a point of shifting him around between uncles, and aunts etc. All of those languages were various African dialects, so I assumed they'd all be pretty similar, but what would be the results of a similar program if it were done with the Big Six? Has anyone raised a kid to speak Chinese, English, Hindustani, Spanish, Russian and Arabic?