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Unlike adults, children pick up a foreign language easily. My children speak very good English - after only a few months of struggle - wheather mine is still improving - slowly thou. If you live in an English spoken country and you want to succeed in your career, it's a must that you can speak a good English from an early age - preferably. It's very frustrating went people stare at you because of your accent or when you can't express yourself as you would like to. We've lived in UK for over five years so all that I've said is from my experience.
Lili Picincu, England

Bilingual education is a great idea I wish would work. Unfortunately, it has failed and hurt minorities from getting ahead economically. Scrapping bilingual education is the best choice.
Brigham Ricks, California

Most of the time in most of the cases it doesn't work. Many times it creates a lot of problems. It might work if the parents come from different countries and the family lives in one of them. For example the father comes from England the mother from Italy and they live in England. Then the children appear to be familiar to both cultures and their overall bilingual education to be more or less successful.
G. Athanassoulis, Greece

There is no known single best system for education. The trouble with defining whether a system works or does not work depends on the emphasis one places on the role of the parents in bringing up their children. In this modern time too much is left to an education system alone.
M. Pillay, Netherlands

Learning another language at an early age it is the best way to go. Children at an early age have the capacity to do so. The brain area responsible for language acquisition begins at an early age. Besides, the benefits of knowing another language are countless. We live in a democratic and free country, and parents have the right to choose which way they want to go. Spanish is now being spoken in a lot of countries. Here in the USA it is like a second language. So I would have to say that it is important to know it. Whereas English is a very important language and it is spoken all over the world, so Spanish is being spoken in many different countries.
Maru, USA

Yes. It worked for my parents, for me and it is working for my children, who are fluent in English and French. It won't happen overnight. Some children will become fluent after many years at school. And it's not for every child. Some will always struggle with another language while others will learn it without effort. But I believe it works for most children if you apply the right formula.
First, a bilingual education programme must be developed to meet one precise goal: to have children, by the time they graduate, fluent in BOTH languages AND having received a good education in all other subjects. Bilingual education is not the same as teaching a second language from first grade. You must immerse kids in both languages, with all the support they need, especially when their parents cannot speak one of the languages. As an American, allow me to explain my point further using US examples. If you have an Hispanic child coming out of a bilingual programme barely knowing English, you don't have a true bilingual programme. You have harmed that kid. Similarly, you also harm an Hispanic child whose parents barely speak English and who performs poorly in an English-only school. You have penalised him when it comes to subjects such as maths, science, history or geography. A bilingual education should allow him to excel in those subjects if they are taught in Spanish, while he gradually becomes fluent in English.
Second, keep politics out of it: real bilingual education will not make you a bad US citizen. How can you be a bad US citizen if you speak fluent Spanish and English, and received a good education in other subjects? Let us focus on the real issue that is we must improve the poor education given in many of our public school systems, not the fact that education itself is bilingual.
Ghassan Kozah, US

I live in the province of Quebec - the French-speaking region of Canada. In Quebec, all immigrants are forced to send their children to French schools. The reason for all this is that the French speaking majority of the province of Quebec has consistently supported a separatist provincial government. Over the past 22 years a collection of far-reaching "Language Laws" have been enacted severely restricting access to English schools. They feel that the only way they can protect the French Language in North America (there are only about 6-7 million French speakers in Quebec, surrounded by nearly 250 million English) is to ban all other languages - but most especially "English." In order to ensure themselves a job in Quebec, virtually all English students choose "French Immersion" programmes in their English schools. Now, French schools on the other hand do not offer "English Immersion Programmes". The result is that upon graduation, only 30% of French students claim to be bilingual while over 80% of English students claim the same. Now, as with any business, the secret to success is expanding your market. But it is pretty well accepted in French Quebec that, in order to climb the corporate ladder in Quebec, you HAVE to be able to speak English. The United States is a huge potential market for any company, especially for one that is right next door. The result of the different school systems is that a much higher proportion of English people are in executive positions than in proportion to the population that is English. I am married to a French Canadian and we have two children. My children speak both languages. My wife is fluently bilingual and I am "functionally bilingual" and we speak English to each other at home. I was born in England and came to Quebec when I was eight, three years before the first language laws were enacted. I am not allowed to send my children to an English school. I have lived in Quebec for 25 years now and I have met and known many bilingual (and unilingual - both French and English) people. I have found that the lack of understanding generated through the inability of two co-habitating cultures to communicate provokes suspicion and hatred on both sides. It is my opinion that a substantial knowledge of another language helps you to understand the people who use that langauge. It has been my experience that most "bilingual" people are not truly "fluent" in either of the languages that they claim to speak. The words they speak or the reports that they write use a "degraded English"; gramatically correct, for the most part, but lacking in content and simplistic. However, this does not appear to be the case for people who are exposed to two languages from birth. I have found that these people are truly fluent in either language being limited only by the amount of education they receive in each language. It is only the people who learn another language later on in life that tend to fail to master the subtleties of either language.
John Wainwright, Canada

I studied in USA for about 5 years, and what I found was that bilingual education has caused segregation not only in the educational area, but also in the workplace. I have also noted that people who were tought in bilingual education have been left behind in almost all the areas of the society.
Verónica Armagnac González, Mexico

I was brought up in India speaking Kashmiri at home and English and Hindi at school from 1st grade without any difficulty at all. Mind you, there are millions of fellow Indians like me!. Of course, I have to speak Spanish at work, now - no problemas!.
Ashu Wali, USA

My eight-year-old son is receiving his education at a Gaelic medium unit on the Isle of Lewis. He has certainly not been held back and without any formal teaching of English reading skills - only Scottish Gaelic at this stage - he is able to read in both languages very well. Each language provides a rich source of religious and cultural experience. He is doubly endowed.
Roddy Maclean, Scotland

So here I am in California where the voting populace has just decided it doesn't agree with the current education system. My department consists of one American, one Brit, two Indians and a Japanese person. The American speaks French, Italian, German, Spanish and English, the Indians and the Japanese person each speak several languages and I speak English and broken (badly) French. This is quite typical of the company's ethnic mix and many of the people I deal with are either Chinese or Indian (half or more!). The thing is that they all speak English as the language of high technology; if you cannot make yourself understood in English you cannot function in the high technology field.
This brings us to the crux of the problem. The failure here is not in teaching people an extra language, it is in allowing them to get through school without ever having had to learn the language of their country. This situation is like the American school in Iran. It allowed people to learn in English without ever having to bother learning Arabic which did not then allow them to function in society. I learned French for five years and, because it was unnecessary for me, I never applied myself and thus I can barely follow a conversation. If you want to earn a decent living in the US you had better be able to speak the language of the country. Allowing people to leave school without good English is unhelpful and could be seen as discrimination - how better to exclude the minorities from society?
Chris Hann, USA

My school education was in England, at prep and public school, where we were taught French and Latin. I have never regretted this education, because I find that even having three languages (one albeit, ancient), the challenge of learning a new language is not nearly as demanding. I am married now to a Lithuanian, and learning her language. I know many people who speak many more languages than I do, and they tell me that once you have mastered at least two languages, it is a lot easier to acquire more. I also believe that a person who has many languages, has many souls. A unilingual education must surely be reserved for the culturally blinkered.
Richard Dyason, Australia (UK citizen)

I'm completely in favour of bilingual education, because it gives you the great opportunity to see the world from a privileged window and it means that you can understand different cultures. I've understood them, thanks to my old and skilful teacher.
Licia Taddei, Italy

Like it or not, English is the unofficial language of the United States. In order to succeed, you HAVE to learn English fluently and kids in school will learn English if they want to. People say that to learn a foreign language, you have to practice it over and over and speak it every opportunity you can. This is why students go to foreign countries to help with their comprehension of the language they're trying to learn. Immersion does work. If you are given instruction in your native language, it will take much longer to learn English than if you were forced to learn it.
No one is saying you must stop speaking your native tongue. It is wonderful to be able to speak more than one language. But get real. Learn the language of your chosen country or stop whining about it and expecting people to cater to you. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that English is spoken here. Ever since the beginning of this country, immigrants knew they had to learn English if they wanted to better themselves and they willingly did so because they wanted to be "real Americans" and to succeed. Even the Native Americans (whose country we stole) learned English in order to communicate with us. Did they have bilingual education? Doubtful. I'd say, be grateful you only have to learn English. You could be learning a much harder and more intricate language like Cherokee!
Jeanie A, USA

My experience shows that bilingual students get better grades in school, compared to those who speak just one language.
Sumant Sathe, India

Bilingual education creates more problems than it solves. The language of the schools must be the same as the media, police, courts, and rescue. To teach otherwise is to invite problems. In a household where a foreign language is spoken regularly by adults, there is little incentive to teach a child anything beyond rudimentary skills in another language. Reasons for this are obvious. Adults are less open to change; adults may not wish to teach incorrect grammar to their children out of concern or embarrassment; there may be a fear of loss of culture. For generations, foreigners have been coming to America and learning English in school. To accommodate foreign language students in their native tongue does them and the general populace a disservice, and leaves these students at a disadvantage with their peers.
Joe Grant, USA

Bilingual education helps children in understanding two different cultures and hence gives them the advantage of mingling with people of these two cultures.
Rejita, India

I came to study in a boarding school in the UK when I was 14. There were quite a few Hong Kong Chinese in that school as well. On the first day of school, the headmaster called me into his room and gave me a lecture on the merits of talking in English with the locals, rather than Chinese with the students from Hong Kong. At the time I did not understand his real intentions and thought it was just another kind of racism, but nevertheless took his advice with circumspection. Since then, however, I have discovered how quickly my English could improve by doing so. I could barely utter a word when I first came, but now I can speak English fluently.
People are more adaptable than they think they are. If you are immersed in another language you simply have no choice but to learn it, otherwise you will not survive. This is the situation you will be facing when you move to another country, and I do not think it is in the interest of anybody to "soften the blow" for the immigrants by introducing bilingual education. It merely gives them excuses not to learn the new language properly.
Andy Yu, Hong Kong (studying in the UK)

I think the concept of bilingual education should be more properly defined. I have two daughters. They go to English schools but we speak Spanish at home. I do not think this is a disadvantage to them, rather the contrary. But I am a Basque and in the Basque Country there is a bilingual system of education. Schools or curricula are in Basque, Spanish or both. This is an extremely complex issue and all evaluation will have to take account of the environment and other circumstances.
Iñigo Gurruchaga, UK

Bilingual (or even multilingual) education does work, but what is practised in California was bilingual education. Integration is best served by teaching children in the language they are most likely to need the most, and so giving them the best chance in life.
I live in The Netherlands, where many people can speak at least three foreign languages (English, French and German), and so can I. Fortunately, I was taught in Dutch, since this is still the most efficient and effective language in this country. I have a lot of English-speaking friends, who have a really hard time learning any Dutch, since everyone they try to address in Dutch will switch to English as soon as they have said anything.
What I'm trying to say is: children in America that are not taught in English are actually being robbed of a fair chance in life. It makes you wonder if people actually want these Hispanic children to succeed.
Kees Beerepoot, The Netherlands

Yes. Bilingual education works as teaching in more than one language can be very beneficial. No education works if teachers are not properly trained, schools not properly funded and classes not given the materials.
James Scobbie, Chile

Yikes! Why would anyone think that bilingual education does not work? It costs more, yes, and maybe this is the real reason some authorities don't like it. Ontario, Canada makes French Emerson available to parents who want their English-speaking children to go to school in a French-only environment. It is very popular because it works.
Roy Maher, Canada

While not against the principle of people being taught to be multi-lingual (this is possibly great education in the mechanics of language), I do have a problem with people being taught a language because it is deemed to be their 'native' language. First and foremost I think if people are going to live in an English speaking country, they must be taught how to speak and write good English. Simply allowing them to 'pick it up gradually' does them no good what so ever. By all means teach them other languages as well, but for God's sake don't segregate them on the grounds of their native language. This is far more racist than teaching them just English.
Martin, UK

When I was in school, along with learning the English language, we had to learn the local vernacular and our national language. But our medium of instruction was English which actually enables me to overcome a lot of awkward situations.
Srimal, USA

As a parent of school-age children in California this is my experience with " bilingual" education. Spanish speaking children attend the same schools as my children; however, the Spanish speaking children are segregated in a Spanish-speaking environment. This segregation is both physical (classrooms , playgrounds-their preference) and social, as the majority of the Spanish-speaking children are bussed in from other communities. Finally, there was no requirement to move into mainstream education tracks within a specified period of time. This is not bilingual education. This is a perpetuation of monolingual isolation. The ability to speak multiple languages is a wonderful gift; however, the ability to speak a common language is essential to full immersion into any society. All we are trying to insure, in California, is the opportunity for all of our children to learn a common language. In the United States that language is English. If anyone believes this is not true, please review the plight of our neighbour to the north, Canada. While I believe many of the of the self-appointed Spanish speaking activists are good people, I question their motives for insisting on continuing a system that perpetuates linguistic isolation. Is it possible they fear a loss of control and dependency of the people they purport to represent?
Greg Worden, San Diego, CA, USA

Yes, it works!! I have read a book about Japanese parents bringing up their child speaking to it in English, Spanish and Japanese. Mother always talk to kid in Spanish, father always talk English and grandmother always talk Japanese. The kid speaks all three languages as his first language!
Venice, Australia

In Wales, some Schools teach English as a second language. I believe that this is dangerous as children who lack the ability to use English to its full potential, will be disadvantaged for a great deal of their lives.
Rhidian Jones, Wales

I voted for proposition 227 because the bilingual system as implemented here simply does not work. The replacement system, language immersion for a year, has proven effective, regardless of the language being taught. I've seen first hand the failure of the California education system when it comes to non-English speaking children. The persons who were against the proposition were either incredibly naive or wished to keep the minorities at a disadvantage.
Ross Wentworth, San Francisco, California, USA

In England there is very little opportunity or inclination to practice other languages. In other countries this is not so. I am English but live in Colombia, my wife speaks perfect English, product of a bilingual school. We speak English at home and my three-year old daughter is ALREADY bilingual. However, I believe that in schools it is excessive to reduce the local language to second place.
Anthony Bradbury, Colombia

I have repeatedly seen the Spanish speaking population being second class economically because they can't speak the language of commerce. Is it racist to wish they had a better life?
Frank, Harris-Smith USA (California)

As an American who married a Brazilian national, it is tough in the beginning to learn English. But I think that with time these children in California will learn quickly through their English speaking friends. My sister-in-law came over when she was 8 years old and knew absolutely NO English. Now it is several years later and she has some difficulty remembering her Portugese. They still speak Portugese in the home, but both the parents and the children speak English. Don't sell these bilingual children short. They are a lot smarter than the teachers give them credit for.
Becky, Rodrigues USA

It does not work. Students' English standard was vey bad even all text books were in English. I think it was because there was seldom opportunity for us using English in daily life. It was used in reading and writing for course work. Compared to Singapore where students can use English in daily life. They are better than us. For our mother tongue, Chinese, the standard was even worst than English. Our government will force schools using Chinese teaching in coming years.
Andrew, Hong Kong

I received bilingual education (English/Spanish) and I find it an advantage for international business. Our problem in America is not bilingual education but poor bilingual education. Monolingual education is in big trouble also. It has nothing to do with other languages but some racists like to blame others for the failures.
Ivan Lopez, USA

I think separate languages cause division and nationalistic thinking, particularly among kids. A single language is a much better unifying force.
Ray Marsh, Australia

I am ashamed; perhaps Californians have been around too long to remember that we (the United States) are a nation of immigrants. For years throughout the country, classes were taught, sermons were preached, and business was conducted in a wide variety of languages. Bilingual education works; the mere fact that English is the predominant language in the US (and, for that matter, the world's lingua franca) is because of bilingual education. On a side note, bilingual education affects mainly those of Latin American descent; however, it has increasingly been used for recent immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Europe. In addition, in Lafayette Parish in Louisiana (where the French colonists of "Acadia" were moved after England took over Newfoundland), both French and English are used (in roughly equal proportions) in the school day, not so much as an aid to students who don't speak English very well, but as a means of preserving the French culture.
Jim Redmond, USA

In Malaysia, we had to study two languages, Malay as first language and English as the 2nd language. Note, I was previously from the convent school. In an independent school, the students would have to know at least 3 languages, be they good or bad at it. At home, I would speak my dialect, which is Hokkien. In the streets of my hometown, we would use Cantonese for trade and conversation with strangers. A stranger or visitor especially if he/she is a Chinese, could be spotted immediately by his/her awkwardness of the dialect, or not using it at all. I felt comfortable then. Now in Singapore, I felt somewhat pushed aside among those who speak Mandarin. If society around you is able to accept your 'handicap' and help you on the way, we would stand to benefit from both sides. We understand people not just by their culture, also verbally. However, there must be a medium in which both parties speaks. Who has the patience for sign language nowadays? This further highlight the need to know more languages when young.
P L, Singapore

I was brought up in the Belgian Congo of Welsh parents. From birth I was taught to speak Lingala, Swahili, French, English and even a little Welsh. I don't remember being confused as a child, not as I grew up. Most people in central Europe and in parts of Africa speak at least three languages. What is the USA becoming? Afraid of human abilitities? How odd, for the most powerful country in the world!
Ioan Davies, Japan

I will get married to an English woman in a few months and I am myself French living in England. To us there is absolutely no doubt that we are going to raise our children in both languages. It is a great professional asset but it also opens one's mind to other cultures broadly. I got my job because I speak more languages than others. In the case of California, however, I think that the issue is much broader than just school teaching. English-speaking Americans are very concerned by the statistics that have revealed that Spanish is actually going to become the first spoken language in the country within a few years (I have forgotten the source, unfortunately).
Rodolphe Mortreuil, England

I have worked with people who are the result of bilingual education in California. These people are handicapped by their educational experience and can not function well in either English or Spanish. Many times I have had to explain to them what the document the state send them means. Bilingual education is good if you are looking a class of people to flip hamburgers or work on the loading dock of a warehouse.
Bill Howard, USA

Are they all NUTZ? It still doesn't work in Canada well ! Look at all the unrest and incivility it has caused here in some of the provinces! Does the Queen Spaek French in Parliament?
Karen Haig, Canada

My wife and I are both British but live in Brussels. Bilinigualism is a way of life here and works well. Our child will be brought up to speak both English and French, no doubt with also some Flemish. As regards education, we surely have a similar issue in the UK in Wales. There are still many people for whom Welsh is a first language, with English only being introduced in schools. The removal of bi-lingual education will only mean that some people are excluded from the full educational scope, whilst eventually it will force the standadisation of language and the disappearance of the smaller, local languages.
Chris Stone, Belgium

This is an area I've thought about and read about a lot. My wife in German, I am English and we live in French-speaking Switzerland. We both speak all three languages, with Dutch on top, each language learned by total immersion living in the country. How will this diversity affect our one-year-old twins? The answer is that they will have few difficulties with the multitude of languages and will benefit by the cultural insights and the ability to see things from the points of view and with the liguistic tools of three cultures. Apart from that, what the Californians call bilingual education is not bilingual. The children get Spanish at home, Spanish at school and learn English a few hours a week. This is not bilingual rather it's Spanish mother-tongue with school English tacked on after. The new system will be much more efficient- the pupils will get one year total immersion tuition in English and after that they will - generally- well equipped for a life in America. Real multiligualism adds richness - what the nepotistic Californian system does is take that away.
Tim Clayfield, Switzerland

Those of you agonising over your children's multilingual upbringing, try a WWW search for "bilingual families". You'll find lots of useful and reassuring material.
Louise, UK

My daughters had their early education in Italian and the experience of living in two languages when young made them both good language learners later on. They both did well at GCSE and A level: there is no sign of any weakness in non-language subjects. It seems likely that the extent to which mother tongue or bilingual education has a negative effect on learning is directly related to the social status of the first or 'first second' language. With regard to the Californian situation, Spanish has, I imagine, a relatively low social status there, which may have negative effects on performance or attainment - the same is probably true of Hindi or Gujerati in the UK.
Charles McCarthy, UK

My two year old son has Greek as his mother tongue and English from his father (a right mess at the moment). We plan to send him to a German kindergarten when he is three. We hope he can handle three languages at once - and unforunately there is only one way to find out. However, I cannot imagine a better basic education for a child in today's Europe than to be naturally fluent in two or more languages.
Andrew Chapple, Germany

I know that British people don't necessarily appreciate all the cultural background to this, but I feel that it is up to the family to teach the child Spanish language and heritage, and the school to teach English language and US heritage. (It won't confuse your baby, Ben!)
Louise, UK

I am British born and have been living in France since 1981. My husband is a Swedish speaking Finn and our three children (aged 6,4,2) were all born in France. At home we speak English, French and Swedish. My two eldest children are both at a State School ("Maternelle" = pre-school) and we have experienced many difficulties. One teacher accused my son Thomas of not understanding anything she said and told me she "didn't know what to do with him". In fact, all my children understand French perfectly (we employ a French child minder) and in this case it was the teacher who was having difficulties understanding my son's rather mixed up franglais vocab. Another teacher asked me if I would mind talking only French to my children at home. Now my eldest son is to start primary school and I am frantically searching for a local school that teaches English within the regular curriculum. The best I have found is a private Catholic school 30 minutes drive from our home. None of the state schools teach English in primary. I will probably have to assume the responsibility of teaching my children to read and write in English myself. I have no formal teacher training and do not feel too confident about doing this. I have found very little literature on the subject and am interested in getting any practical advice on the DOs and DONTs. My husband's mother tongue is Swedish but he was learning Swedish, Finnish and English simultaneaously from the age of 7. His English is flawless and he now speaks German and French fluently also. In most Scandinavian countries English is taught succesfully from a very early age. This does not seem to interfere with the general standard of education nor does it create any problems of national identity. But for my children, should I do as their teachers suggest and leave them to learn to read and write in French first or should I push the other languages simultaneously and not back off (which is the advice from my paediatrician)? It's a dilemma and I do not feel at all confident about what to do. The ideal solution would be for my children to go to a private international school but apart from being very expensive I am not sure I want my children to grow up in what is often a very elitist environment where they may lose any sense of national identity they have, and turn in to "Euro Trash" tots who don't really know where they belong! Why is being bi(multi)lingual still considered as marginal in some countries (like UK and France) whereas in others like Belgium, Switzerland, Finland it is just a fact of life?
Penelope Ronnberg, France

It seems to work in Wales and Ireland, so why not America? Is it because no matter what the minority believe in this so-called 'land of the free', it is only the voices of the rich that gets the attention of the US local government these days. Think about it: It is the idea of one wealthy man who probably holds the belief, like many southern Americans, that only WASPs have any right to make money out of the land they stole, and that immigrants' lives should be made as hard as possible... or am I wrong? Like I said, it works in Wales (that's where I attend University) and Ireland and there are no language barriers there, so why America?
Paul Evans, UK

I have emmigrated to Toronto, Canada from Ukraine 4.5 years ago. People whose first language is English, are a minority here. And nothing awful happens. I wonder what is meant by kids not being able to "function properly in English" when these same kids grew up in California and were surrounded by the Hollywood culture in radio and TV, and immersed in English in everyday life outside of their homes and schools? I don't believe they can't communicate in English. I guess that concern about "functioning properly in English" is just an excuse for the Californian xenophobes to justify their suppression of cultural diversity. As well, a 61% vote is by no means "overwhelming"(?!) as you have stated on your Web page. I hope that by 2040, when Hispanic population becomes a majority in California, they won't ban English from schools (although they will have a good reason for this now).
Andriy Oliinyk, Canada

It is normal for Indonesian children to speak their 'mother' language (that means local language) at home and speak Indonesian language (that is national language) at school. So far there is no obvious problem.
D Darmawati, Indonesia

Bilingual education has been a long going (and very sucessful) effort in some parts of the world (refer for example to the long tradition of bilingual education in countries such as Egypt). I was brought up in a bilingual system (French and Arabic) without any problems at all. My daughter is now attending a bilingual school in California (French and English) and is also learning Arabic. My wife is a teacher in a bilingual system and a strong proponent of bilingual (or trilingual) education. The multilinguism seems to enhance the capabilities of a child rather than hurting him/her. The key factor here is to maintain a careful balance between the various languages and to stress the spirit (i.e., the cultural side rather than the technical side). A succesful bilingual education must go beyond the fact of "speaking" more than one language, it must lead to a deep understanding of the way people think in other cultures. With the increased exchanged between different countries (and cultures) in the world (European Union) and the mixing of people, it seems clear that bilingual education is becoming a necessity rather than an exception.
Farid Salama, California, USA

I started learning English when I was 4 years old. Now, I fluently speak French and Italian. Of course it works. Those who say "no", most probably have never had the opportunity of learning a second language. But most important of all, if this ban had been implemented in the Soviet Union I wouldn't have been surprised at all, but in the US?? God, what is going on?
Guillermo Martinez-Funes, Argentina

Back in high school, I read about my classmate, Karla Sandino, who came to this country from Nicaragua about 20 years ago. She went to a Spanish-speaking elementary school in Miami. She then later learned how to speak English very well. Whenever I heard her speak, her Spanish accent was not shown at all. Despite the problems, it still works.
Brian Hudson, United States Of America

I grew up speaking Spanish at home and English in school. In fact, learning many languages at a young age shouldn't be difficult at all. I would never say that a child can't learn two languages fluently at the same time. I definitely have my reservations about the learning English through immersion approach. It could very well discourage kids to drop out. I'm talking about those who are past that age where learning more than one language is easy.
Giselle Valenzuela, USA

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