'Am I wrong to be disgusted that my 5yo is learning Lithuanian?'

[scentednappyhag]

This is a status on my Facebook newsfeed this morning.
She goes on to say there's nothing wrong with learning French or Spanish, but she's 'notimpressed.com'.

AIBU to delete this person on the grounds that their inner arsehole is hanging out?

Learning any other language is a good thing. It makes more connections in the brain and helps with a greater understanding of how language ( any language, even your mother-tongue) actually works. Valuable stuff. I have long been disgusted that primaries haven't routinely taught another language from at least year 2. Thank god it's being introduced again; what language matters less. So your mate actually wants to make her kid dumber. I'd unfriendly her for that.

What is her background?

There are cultural reasons as to why some people don't like the Lithuania, my GM's friend (who was in concentration camps), Jewish family suffered and died at the hands of Lithuanians, so the family would still refuse to learn the language, tbh, rightly or wrongly.

That is seperate to possibly ever needing it and other languages are more usuful to know.

Surely if the children are in a UK school, they are fluent in English,so again, why make a decision based on this? What are the Lithuanian children learning whilst this is happening?

Why did you just not ask her?

Well, disgusted is a weird word to use in this circumstance, but I wouldn't have thought she was BU if she thought it was a waste of time.

Even if there are a lot of Lithuanian children at the school, Lithuanian is unlikely to be useful in the future for her child, isn't it (in comparison to how useful French might be).

Maybe the teacher is from Lithuania, or there are a high proportion of Lithuanian children in the school.

There have been several studies that have shown learning another language at a young age makes it easier to pick up a third or fourth language later on. It really doesn't matter what language you start with. I would assume that the language has some particular relevance to the class or school, and has not just been picked out of thin air, so it makes perfect sense to choose a language that the children can use on a daily basis.

DS(5) is fluent in English and Russian, as DW is from the Ukraine.

We weren't sure whether it'd be a good idea to bring him up as a bilingual child at first as we thought it might slow down his language development, but he absorbed both languages like a sponge and we think it's done him a lot of good development-wise.

I would defriend just for the use of 'notimpressed.com'!

my son's primary teaches Mandarin, Portuguese and i think it is Hindi (might be a different Indian one sorry!) You chose 2 of the 3 to learn. The reason for this is not because we have a large community of any of those where we live, but these, along with English are the major languages in the business world spoken - think China, Brazil and India which are all economic growth areas. French and German have been dropped.
FOr me there is great logic to this and at this age they pick it up so easily. I'm not sure i would be keen on Lithuanian - simply because i'm not sure of the merits it will bring later on
Why have they chosen Lithuanian?. If its to make life easier for local Lithuanians in this country then the emphasis should be on them learning english. Maybe Russian would be a more useful language to learn even?
That said, I think learning any second language is better than none. More often once you grasp the concept in one language others are easier to pick up and learn too.

GPWM, HappyHippy!

Why on earth are 5 yr olds learning Lithuanian at school?

Would be a colossal waste of time for my DC and I wouldn't be impressed either tbh

Ok just how much Lithuanian will a 5 year old soak up? Perhaps just enough to say hello to classmates and maybe a bit of counting - I very much doubt they'll do more that that.

I can understand people thinking it's a bit pointless, but it's the use of the word "disgusting" that I'd take issue with. Shows more about her attitude than the thing she's objecting too...

Oh and I agree with HappyHippyChick too...

What Jux said, with brass knobs on.

My guess is they're learning Lithuanian because the teacher knows some. If the teacher was more fluent in French, Spanish, Urdu or Japanese they'd learn a bit of that. It's not going to do them any harm, is it? They're going to learn a lot more at school that is arguably going to be of no use to them in future years (nursery rhymes, anyone? They're not exactly useful in the world of business). It's the learning to learn that's the most important thing.

Anyway, why assume they're learning Lithuanian instead of French, Spanish or other more (presumably) useful languages? Maybe they're learning it in addition. I should imagine French will be introduced further on in the curriculum (we learned it in Year 6 when I was a wee tot, a couple of centuries ago) so they are unlikely to miss out.

Delete. The use of 'disgusted' says it's not a stealth boast.

Is it in school though? Maybe it's a friend or a nanny or somesuch?

As for 'useful' - if we only learned 'useful' skills life would be very dull. Learning any language is a good thing - and the more you have the easier it gets.

While on the subject - I work a large international team (about 70 of us) and the only people here who don't speak at least one other langauge fluently are the British. That is not a good thing.

Work a? Work IN a. Maybe I should take some English lessons...

tell her to fuck off with the stealth boasting and then delete

I haven't read the other replies, so sorry if I'm repeating someone else's.

The younger someone learns a language, whatever language, the better. It switches on the ability to learn languages. It doesn't matter if it is Lithuanian, French or Cling-on.

Your FB is being ignorant and their "disgust" is sad.

Delete her for putting notimpressed.com.
Wot a knob.

It is very useful to the brain to learn any language. Once you have learned a second language it is MUCH easier to learn a second/third etc.It kind of opens up the brain to the possibility.

It's all good. I would love to speak Lithuanian!

I agree with others it's not the most useful language to learn but "disgusted" seems a very strange reaction.

x-post jayellebee!

on the basis that the DC is 5 - how much Lithuanian is actually being learnt? Suspect it may be like DD's school where they have a different language selected each half term (ot it might be term) and the children learn a few basic words e..g hello, goodbye, numbers, colours in it. They also learn a bit about the culture. The languages chosen are all languages spoken in the school.

So far she's covered: Spanish, Urdo, Arabic, Swahili, Polish, Afrikaans - just to name the ones I can remember. She also learnt a few words in Japanese when a non-English speaking Japanese boy started in her class.

I always thought it was very positive.

I wouldn't want valuable time taken up on Lihuanian! Mandarin, French...Spanish....not Lithuanian!

Hey Tokamak-I thought Ukranians spoke Ukranian!

well I think your friend might have a point.He is clearly not learning it for his own benefit , otherwise it would be a more useful language.It is for the benefit of Lithuanian kids in the school
On the other hand it kind of depends how much time is being spent on it.If it's a one-off fill in half an hour learning a few words, then she is being unreasonable.If it is being learned on a regualar basis in a structured way, then I think there are better uses of time.In any case though I think then school should have been aware that it is a pretty inflammatory thing to do.

They speak both languages in the Ukraine. DW is from the Russian-speaking Ukrainians.