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Strollerderby
Dad Only Speaks Klingon to Kid For 3 Years
In the early days we all tend to think our kids sound like they’re speaking language from outer space. But d’Armond Speers went the other way. He only spoke Klingon to his son for the first three years of the boy’s life.
Yes, three years with nothing but a language that exists specifically for Trekkies to indulge their inner geekdom.
Technically, it is a real language. According to the Klingon Language Institute (no joke), a trained linguist was hired to create a language for the aliens of Star Trek. It has its own vocab, grammar and usage. Books have been published in it. You can even get tapes to learn the language.
But all this still doesn’t explain how Speers thought it would be most useful to speak nothing but Klingon to a child growing up in the Twin Cities.
Get this – he says he’s NOT a Star Trek fan. He does, however, have a doctorate in computational linguistics (according to City Pages Minneapolis/St. Paul News Blog), and he wanted to see “whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language.”
So what you’re saying, Herr Doctor, is you used your kid as part of a science experiment?
In truth, it probably wasn’t that damaging. Although it’s not a language he’ll be using at preschool, it’s no worse than teaching him English only to up and move to Indonesia or Spain when he’s three – where he suddenly has a whole new language to learn. Kids are much more adept at mastering a new tongue – both because their brains are so pliable but also because their tongues are more flexible (best thing my parents did – send me for French lessons at six; I don’t remember the language, but my accent is excellent).
But we have a feeling no one will understand him when he announces his graduation from Starfleet Academy. Although he will know many things.
What do you think? Warping or just weird?
Image: dannysullivan via flickr
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11 Comments
Carrie M. commented on Nov 19 09 at 10:42 amComments This is abusive and creepy!And it is nothing like sending small children to foreign language lessons.
Kikiriki commented on Nov 19 09 at 10:50 amStupid. Proves that a Ph.D doesn’t necessarily mean you’re actually all that bright.
GP commented on Nov 19 09 at 12:31 pmHow do you say asshole in Klingon?
diera commented on Nov 19 09 at 12:34 pmKeep in mind, the article says *dad* only spoke Klingon to the kid for three years, not that *everyone* only spoke Klingon to him for three years. Assuming that the child has anything like a normal life, has a mom, etc., he also knows English. Basically, he’s growing up as if one of his parents was an immigrant from another country who doesn’t know the main language of the child’s country – he’s growing up bilingual, albeit with one of his languages being an invented one. There’s some evidence that that actually enhances cognition. This is obsessive and geeky but not harmful at all.
E commented on Nov 19 09 at 1:36 pmThis is not as useful a second language to learn as one that is widely spoken, but nevertheless it’s really good for the brain to learn more than one language; there are lasting cognitive benefits, including greater ease of learning languages later in life. Most of the world’s children learn several from birth, and actually that’s the normal state for a growing brain, not being monolingual. It’s not like the child didn’t learn English from all of his other contacts.
Knitty commented on Nov 19 09 at 7:40 pmI don’t think it would do him any more harm than learning, say, Spanish from dad for the first three years of his life. I would be horrified if the dad allowed *no one* to speak English to the child, but as that’s not the case: eh. It’s not a parenting choice I’d make, but I’m sure the little boy will be fine. As far as experimenting on our children — we all do that every day of our lives. Most of our “experiments” aren’t this extreme, but every time you try something to see if it will work, you’re conducting a minor experiment.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Nov 19 09 at 9:50 pmQapla!
Nikki commented on Nov 20 09 at 11:51 amuhm, does he not notice that Klingon, essentially, IS a human language? It is created by humans and is spoken by humans. Therefore, a human language.
Brian Barker commented on Nov 20 09 at 10:11 pmKlingon is difficult, but Esperanto is worldwide. And easy, of course :)
Lisa commented on Jan 22 10 at 10:25 amclearly the father sees his son as a science experiment. Maybe just maybe because this child enunciate words differently it will give him a heads up on learning other languages easily.
Andrea T. commented on Nov 13 11 at 10:42 pmHaha my dad thought it would be a good idea to teach me and my brother ONLY Latin when we were little, the theory being it was no longer a dead language since it was two people’s native tongue. I picked up English pretty well at school, but poor Danny still talks with an accent.
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