[TalnSG]

I believe one should have a solid grasp of whatever language they will be using most, before introducing additional ones. Unfortunately that is a bit at odds with my strong belief that bilingual education should start early.

Integrating British and American English may not seem a major difference, but at least in the '50s it had a significant impact on me. Everyone around me from age 4 spoke British, except my parents, so by the time we returned to the U.S., most American's could not understand me. My parents had expected the problems with the accent, but the surpise was most of my vocabulary was not understood either. Remembering how confused I was at 7 suddenly having to learn new names for things, I can imagine how much more difficult it would be for a child with to learn a completely different language, or have no distinction as to when they should use which of the multiple languages their parents speak.