Liana Nichik '25
Around Campus Editor
Have you ever thought about how many people are fluent in a language from a young age? Think about the language course you are taking right now, are you succeeding or is it a challenging class that you dread attending? If you would have learned this language as a child, do you believe it would have been easier for you?
Although teenagers and adults have more well-developed brains than children, children do tend to learn and comprehend more quickly. In my opinion, children are much better learners than adults. In my case, I grew up in a Russian-speaking household where everybody spoke Russian all day, every day. In addition, my entire family, including my mom’s and dad’s side, have spoken in Russian to me ever since I can remember.
Honestly, I don't even remember how I became fluent but over the years it became easier to remember this difficult language. Not only did I speak Russian with my family, but I went to a Russian-speaking daycare from ages 1-5, surrounded by many other Russian-speaking children and teachers, and attended Russian-speaking school for five hours every Saturday for four years starting at the age of 4.
Since I was in a family that spoke Russian, I didn’t have much of a choice and Russian became a part of my everyday life but this brought me even closer to my family and other people who spoke Russian. Even if a family doesn’t speak a foreign language, I believe language classes could also be beneficial to children.
On the other hand, I am in a Spanish class here at Louisville. Although I only complete the course at the end of the school year, I find it to be challenging when learning new things but I feel confident when pronouncing words. Since I had been working on Russian pronunciation, I have never found myself struggling to actually speak in Russian, English or Spanish. To be fair, I sometimes realize how easy it is to combine the languages in my head and that confuses me even more. But since I have already been through the process of learning a second language I believe learning a third one is even easier and beneficial. I mean, the more languages the better, right?
Being bilingual has many beneficial aspects for a child's future such as social skills and more experiences in the outside world. Additionally, being bilingual from a young age has helped me have good memory and concentration. If I had not already known another language, I believe this process would be way more difficult. Even if I choose to take Spanish for the rest of my time in high school, I may not become as fluent like I am in Russian because I am now older, making the learning process very different compared to learning a language at a young age. .
Back to the topic of my first language, I also believe that it strongly helped me to learn English quicker and much easier than other kids my age. I found myself passing vocabulary word checks in Kindergarten at an impressive rate, reading advanced-level books, and being able to multitask easily. Since I began school already knowing how to read, write, and communicate in another language it didn’t seem as hard to do with English. I felt confident in myself and I noticed that other bilingual kids did just as well; I felt like there was a bond between us and even now I believe this bond exists. When I hear my friends talking to their parents on the phone in their first language, I see similarities with them I don’t have with others. I find them to be more
social and outgoing because of their language-speaking skills just like me. In conclusion, if you have the chance to learn a language at a young age, do it! You never know how many good things could come out of it!