Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I don`t think that is what you`re asking though...
Regardless of what their ethnic background is, you *still* have to take a foreign language in school. Just having a parent who speaks a different language natively doesn`t magically grant you that ability. Language isn`t genetic.
|
Well, that's not exactly what I meant. I know language isn't a genetic thing. Let's say the child has a Japanese parent and a Chinese parent. They reside in Japan, and it's time to take a language course, and the child wants to take Chinese (is it usually specified as to which you take? Mandarin or Cantonese?). Let's say that despite the fact that the child grows up in a Japanese environment, he still hears and speaks Chinese to and with the Chinese speaking parent, making him pretty much fluent in it. Would the child actually be allowed to study Chinese as a language, since he has exposure to said language and speaks it fluently? The same can apply to a child with an English-speaking parent.