Friday, October 15, 2004
Bilingualism Stunts Your Growth
In reading the introduction to The Bilingualism Reader, I came across this interesting demonstration of attitudes towards bilingualism near the turn of the last century:
In reading the introduction to The Bilingualism Reader, I came across this interesting demonstration of attitudes towards bilingualism near the turn of the last century:
If it were possible for a child to live in two languages at once equally well, so much the worse. His intellectual and spiritual growth would not thereby be doubled, but halved. Unity of mind and character would have great difficulty in asserting itself in such circumstances.
-Laurie, 1890, (as quoted by Wei, 18)
