11.18.09 By: John Gholson
Linguist d'Armon Speers decided to teach his son nothing but Klingon for the first three years of his son's life. "I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."
The social ramifications of Speers' language experiment are completely glossed over in the article, which instead focuses on Speers' involvement with Ultralingua's Klingon translation software. It strikes me as almost a form of abuse--using an important aspect of a child's development for his own amusement. Sure, the kid can go on to learn other, actually useful languages, but what larger purpose did it serve to raise him as a Klingon? My assumption is that only the father could communicate with the son, which troubles me as well. It shows a disinterest in seeing your child interact with other children and the world at large.
I'm not anti-Klingon. If you're a Star Trek fan, and it sounds like a fun language to learn -- go for it. I'm just profoundly disturbed that someone would raise their child as an experiment, especially someone who isn't even a Star Trek fan! Speers states plainly, "I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. I'm a linguist."
Overall, Speers paints the experiment as a failure. His son is a high schooler now, and he doesn't speak a word of Klingon.
Filed under: News/Reactions
Jenniferat 11-20-2009
OK, this writer is just a little ignorant of a child's linguistic capabilities. My younger sister went to a French immersion school for all her elementary school years. They are not even taught a single word of English (nor are they spoken to in English) for the first 5 years of their education. At home, they are spoken to in their native language (in my family's case, English). It is proven that this does not ruin their understanding of their own language. We don't learn the real rules of our languages until about 6th grade anyway, we're just taught usage. So this baby was not harmed, unless every member of his extended family also only spoke Klingon (doubtful, even in the most dedicatedly geekish family).
This child will learn the other languages (any he needs to learn) in various settings. If he had a grandmother from Germany, a step-mother from Mexico, and an Armenian next door neighbour who babysat him daily, he would have the capacity to learn every one of these languages in addition to Klingon and English with absolute ease. Start them early and they're incredibly flexible.
So, no, this child would not be damaged at all. It might not increase his chances of dating much (though you never know...) but as far as damaging his chances of learning his own language, or even reducing his chances of learning a, as you term it, useful language, there is zero damage done, and indeed, his ability to learn other languages is naturally increased.
The dad's a proper linguist, and this is his actual son. Do you really think an educated man will ruin his own son's chances in the educational and real-life world? Grow up and get an education yourself. Linguists play with languages in the same way as other people play with video games or puzzles.
Perhaps you ought to do a teeny bit of research before you go jumping down someone else's throat. The rest of the world isn't as limited as you are.
Brathouseat 11-20-2009
I think the point that the author of the article was trying to make (and you missed) was that he taught him a FAKE language. Not French:-/... If anything teach him a "romance" language that can help him filter down the many languages of the world (Latin for example, or even Greek if you want him to have a leg up on Medical terms). The guy is a obvious Trekkie (or whatever you call them) and was amused by the idea of teaching his kid this made up language...And it would be cool if he actually knew a primary language that wouldn't cut him off from the rest of the world. JRR Tolkien (sp?) came up with his own language and there is media that can help you learn that as well.... But it is a really cruel thing to do to a kid.
Simzeeat 11-20-2009
Face it...YOU do NOT want to admit that people CAN learn from an early age.
Mayat 11-20-2009
Um you obviously didnt do research. A child learns language at a very young age and after about 3-5 years it becomes more difficult for them to learn new languages.
jgraffat 11-20-2009
Jennifer, the complete control that this man put on his son preventing him from interacting with others is abuse. He limited his sons world, the writer is not limited. He is defending a child whose father played a dominant and abusive role. I'm not sure why, particularly as a woman you don't get that. As others noted, the capacity to pick up a lanaguage decreases not increases with age, even age 3. Again, how you manage to evade grasping the abusive control factor here is alarming. You are implying that education precludes the ability for one to be abusive, which is so naive and stupid, I don't even know how to address it. In short, you're a f**kin' moron who should not be allowed to have children. Is that simple enough for you?
Mikeat 11-21-2009
Is your name Dot per chance...are you on Mad TV. I don't think this was an appropriate method of education. I doubt if many others will
allisonat 11-21-2009
THIS. IS. AWESOME!!!! HAHAHAHAHA
Jeanneat 11-21-2009
Very well said! I come from a cajun family and I only wish my Mom had taught me Cajun French from when I was little. Even my french classes at school didn't help me learn our local language as it's so very different from European French.
My mom herself didn't know english when she started school, but with the teacher beating her with a ruler on the knuckles every time she spoke french, it didn't take her long to pick it up. By her parent's fifth child, they finally figured it was better to teach the kid english as well before he started school lol. And now he knows them both just fine.
Xyberviriat 12-17-2009
From what i read its not until around 10 that children get locked into a language, if you teach them 2 languages up until then they wont develop a accent and can speak both fluently. (think being able to say Yes and Si with out sounding like Jess or Sea) Also studies have shown that learning two or more languages creates more interconnections between the left and right side of the brain. not that it makes you smarter just it makes your brain better able to adapt and learn.
although i dont agree with teaching his son klingon as a first language, it should have been Latin, greek or maybe mandarin.
chrisat 11-20-2009
Considering the fact that the father is a linguist the son should be able to learn several other languages. Is the trait of speaking several different languages genetic or learned?
zat 11-20-2009
there's no more useful language than plain english
masaat 11-20-2009
Are you serious?? If you are, that's really sad because you need to broaden your thinking.
Shannonat 11-20-2009
Actually, the only other language worth learning now is Mandarin. So yes, plain English and Mandarin.
sadiemae1214at 11-20-2009
Actually, the english language is the hardest one to learn considering so many words that are spelled the same can have 2 or more meanings and many words that are spelled differently can sound the same, ie. there, their, they're
Daeat 11-20-2009
Actually, I think this is a great example of the learning capabilities of children. The writer of this article, like so many AOL writers, just is narrow-minded and a fool. Also since I have a great interest in language as well I'm fascinated with the prospect. While Klingon wouldn't have been my first choice I think it's great.
Lizat 11-21-2009
Wow do you use kids as science project material too? Scary!
Daeat 11-21-2009
Why not? America's school system does it all the time. If it weren't for experimenting on children half the advances in Psychology, especially the knowledge we have of human development, wouldn't have occurred.
So yes, maybe when I get around to getting over the age of eighteen and graduating college I will have kids and experiment on them.
urnutsat 11-20-2009
What is your problem? No one is jumping down anyone's throat.
Presumably your family placed your sister in a foreign language immersion school because they wanted her to be fluent in both English and French.
There are practical applications to being fluent in two widely used languages. There is no practical application for a child to be exclusively taught a made up science fiction language that is not spoken socially.
The father used this child as a guinea pig and toyed around with his social and language development in his early years for no good reason other than dad's personal amusement.
That's not appropriate.
How many times was language strained between the two because Dad didn't know the words in Klingon to describe something or explain something? How well versed in Klingon could he have been? How much strain did this put into the family dynamics? It would be a very patient woman indeed to put up with hearing her husband insist on babbling nonsense to their son for a 3 years long experiment in foolishness.
Parents have a responsibility to rear their children thoughtfully with their best interests at heart. Not as little experiments in their adult mind games.
And yes, i really do think an educated man could and would screw up his children by playing mind games? Like that's never happened?
Linguists can play with language as puzzles or video games all they want, but they shouldn't use their child as a toy.
Jenniferat 11-20-2009
at 11-20-2009,
What a tiny little world you must live in, if everything a person learns must have a practical application. Mozart wasted his time pressing on wooden blocks covered in elephant tusk, which manipulated wooden mallets striking tightly-wound cords of metal, making sounds that did not further communication or war calls. Einstein wasted time thinking of the nuclear physics because he should have been thinking of ways to bring Hitler down (a big problem of his time). Shakespeare should not have bothered with plays when children of his time did not know how to read ~ he should have written textbooks and brought learning to the masses. Why on Earth did da Vinci carve statues or paint ceilings when he could have learned a more practical skill, such as painting his neighbour's kitchen? Why did JRR Tolkien create a whole new language, that of Elvish, when he should have applied himself to existing languages?
Why was Mt. Everest climbed? Why did anybody ever lean to skateboard when they could walk or run? Why learn to sing beautifully when we can talk? Why learn any language other than our own? Why travel when we have a perfectly good country of our own? Why go to school when we can learn to cook, clean, hunt, build, and farm at home? Why on earth cut or shave our hair when it only grows again? Would we humans have ever progressed beyond grunts, blunt force, and raw meat if we weren't clever enough to play with, and expand upon what existed? Sometimes we humans do that for the sheer fun of it.
Why was the Klingon language created? Because we could! Because it's fun for those who love it. Because language is a beautiful thing, and though it's too complex for most of us, some folks are so good at it, that simply learning what is already there (and has been there for centuries) is not enough. Where is the fun in that?! How does it damage his son? It opens up new languages, new vistas, enables his son to realise he can learn much more.
If you really want to live a simplistic life, where nobody is inspired to take what we know somewhere else, just for the sheer joy of it, why don't you go live in the wilderness somewhere. But don't live with the wolves. It might be too much of an intellectual challenge for you.
kellat 11-20-2009
waste of time.
Babys and children can learn any language, his father should have known the results.
Their mind is like a sponge and they will mimic and understand things other people will not pick up on later in their life because their own space is already used up.
It's no suprise the boy can speak or understand it, he's not a genuis he's not special it's normal as far as kids go.