| uld be amazed of how many children and | | | | At around age 2, your child enters the |
| youngsters speak one or two foreign languages | | | | "vocabulary explosion" period. During this period |
| fluently, especially those leaving in a non-English | | | | that lasts around 1 year, he gathers new words |
| country. English is obviously extremely easy to | | | | like a vacuum cleaner. Obviously, the main |
| learn, since children have contact with it all the | | | | vocabulary will be of his first language, but if you |
| time, through media, video games, the Internet, | | | | allow him to play with some toys that use a |
| toys and so forth. However, a child can easily | | | | foreign language, especially toys that use images |
| learn a secondary foreign language, or if his | | | | correlated to words (flashcards for example) will |
| mother tongue is English, a main foreign language. | | | | also give him a heads up on this new language, |
| It has been proven that we have the best | | | | even though he might not distinctively know |
| assimilative skills during our young years and it's | | | | which is which at first. It's important that he uses |
| then that we should try to build up on learning a | | | | these words, he memorizes them and he's |
| foreign language. | | | | familiar with them. This will be extremely useful |
| Obviously, if you're reading this you've probably | | | | later on when he'll start the actual study of the |
| passed that "perfect language learning age", but if | | | | foreign language you're trying to teach. |
| you have children of your own, it might be a | | | | At kindergarten age, your kid will already be |
| good idea to give them the chance to start up on | | | | fluently speaking his mother tongue (maybe the |
| a foreign language while they are still at their | | | | languages of both parents in a bilingual home) so |
| learning best. It's important to know that with | | | | some parents choose to find him a specific |
| each passing year, his ability to assimilate | | | | kindergarten that focuses on a foreign language. |
| information naturally gradually decreases, because | | | | You'll undoubtedly find kindergartens that teach in |
| he starts gathering up on day-by-day information | | | | Spanish, French, German or English (for non-English |
| which fills up the free spots so to speak. It has | | | | parents of course) for natives of these languages |
| been argued that the best period to introduce a | | | | or simply for parents that want to teach these |
| foreign language to a child is in his first year of life. | | | | languages to their children from a young age. If |
| Bilingual families (where parents have different | | | | possible, try making sure that the teacher/s of |
| nationalities, or when both parents are of the | | | | these kindergartens are native speakers or are |
| same nationality but live abroad their home | | | | well-versed in that particular language, or your kid |
| country) use this technique reflexively, since the | | | | might end up learning it with the teacher's |
| child "picks up" on both languages at the same | | | | grammatical flaws, pronunciation mistakes, chaotic |
| time. | | | | accents and so forth. |