Can kids learn 3 languages or more?

[Khun Don]

I think Grace can deal with it.... she learns so fast and easy. but geez, this is a crazy idea for the average child (knowing that they are already learning English). poor kids.
I would wait until their Thai reading and writing is stable, and they have some sort of fluency in English. at least grade 3.

but then, I'm just a teacher and a(n ex-)researcher. not a parent who "wants the best for their child" by dumping them at school to sit at a desk and "learn" for 7-8 hours a day starting at the age of 4.

sigh.

sorry.

Well, as the "man in the street" who knows little about education, I can only agree. I was always taught it is better to do a few things well than a lot of things badly.
I wonder if confusion between languages sets in with children learning so many languages at once and if they start mixing them up verbally-does this happen?

[Betti]

Khun Don: Grace is exceptional and she can deal with it. but what about little Nong XYZ at the back of the classroom (we are talking about a class of 35+ kids) who is still struggling with his/her Thai letters?
every year, I have at least a couple of kids in my class who juggle three languages - usually farang but not English father is in the background, or sometimes both parents are European. the bright ones cope, but the slower ones usually put something on hold for a while. like, they understand but refuse to speak the father's language (I've seen this so many times), or they refuse to read Thai (if that is their weakest language). they always seem to sort things out by the age of 8-9, but this is a very fragile stage for them when they are laying the foundations for literacy (age 5-6).
I'm very strongly in favour of bilingual education (95% of the people in my profession would "excommunicate" me for this in my home country), but my experience shows that two languages are enough (three languages only work well for an average kid if the home is bilingual).

[Khun Don]

Khun Don: Grace is exceptional and she can deal with it. but what about little Nong XYZ at the back of the classroom (we are talking about a class of 35+ kids) who is still struggling with his/her Thai letters?
every year, I have at least a couple of kids in my class who juggle three languages - usually farang but not English father is in the background, or sometimes both parents are European. the bright ones cope, but the slower ones usually put something on hold for a while. like, they understand but refuse to speak the father's language (I've seen this so many times), or they refuse to read Thai (if that is their weakest language). they always seem to sort things out by the age of 8-9, but this is a very fragile stage for them when they are laying the foundations for literacy (age 5-6).
I'm very strongly in favour of bilingual education (95% of the people in my profession would "excommunicate" me for this in my home country), but my experience shows that two languages are enough (three languages only work well for an average kid if the home is bilingual).

More or less as I suspected-it was Nong XYZ I was thinking of struggling , rather than Grace.
Do not understand why people against a bi-lingual education-I had no chance of this throughout the WHOLE of my school life-not one lesson in French, Latin or whatever was ever made available to me-I never even had a lesson in English grammar!!!-and I feel I suffered because of it. I know things like language are harder to learn as one gets older and have tried to learn a foreign language at various times and failed miserably-partially, I feel, because I never had any exposure to such when I was young.

[Betti]

most teachers and parents in my country seem to think that learning a foreign language early has a harmful effect on learning the mother tongue. the teaching profession is just dead set against the idea of early start. most of my former colleagues and friends think that what I am doing at my school is nothing short of child abuse.
a second language is only compulsory from grade 5 (usually English). a third language from grade 9.
we have the worst statistics in Europe for the proportion of people speaking a foreign language - after England.
I wish I had had the chance to start learning as a child. (I was 14 when I had my first English lesson.) I will never get rid of the accent and I absolutely hate it.
having said that, about 20% or 30% of the children we have at kindergarten struggle so badly that they should not be taught maths and science in English, they should work on their Thai reading and writing and learn concepts through their mother tongue, and only have English as a normal subject.