HOW TO RAISE POLYGLOT CHILDREN WITH NO EFFORT

INTRODUCTION
Why Mikhail Tal, Robert Fisher and Raul Capablanca became such succesfull chessmasters? Why Antonio Gato and Enrico Rastelli have been such good jugglers? Why Nadia Comaneci was so good? Why Leonhard Euler and Blaise Pascal, were great mathematicians? Why Amadeus Mozart was so good? If we analyze the lives of thousands of artists and scientists we discovered that they were not more gifted than any other, but someone had trained them since childhood to things that are deemed prejudicially as “adult material”. Never forget that children have a much more efficient brain than your, so most of the educational efforts should not be made at the university, but in kindergartens and elementary schools. Let’s assign the best teachers in kindergartens and primary schools.

PREMISES
We come now to the experiment that each of you can try with incredible results according to the present culture, but normal, considering the ability of children.
This is an experiment which began years ago in a small village in Venetia, where a couple of linguists decided to test the method Serafini (its inventor) to teach children multiple languages, and all without efforts and without the need to know all the languages by parents or teachers. This method and its results can be achieved without any particular wealth, and therefore this paper is an invitation to all educators and parents on the planet.
Background:
-To achieve its goals. it is necessary to remove the television from home. Yes, because the TV is not controllable, and it’s like having a stranger in the house talking and with whom you can not interact. Children quickly learn to operate with the remote tv control, and if not removed from home, it will ruin all your efforts in education. It is not a drastic choice to eliminate the tv, but a choice that makes you responsible to decide and give the inputs that you want. For input, we mean all the external stimulus to which the child is exposed even during pregnancy. We use the term “input” because a child from the womb “metabolizes all inputs and processes in patterns that are common to all human beings.
-It is necessary that the inputs are consistent and never contradictory. Contradictions send short the deep cognitive processes and learning and create overlays wrong. The early learning gives perfect results, compared to the adult learning which will be incomplete and crippled.
-It is required the cooperation of all members of the family and the educational program must be planned from before the birth and continued at least until puberty.
Before you begin please note that language learning is evaluated mainly under two aspects: the production and understanding. In plain English: speaking and understanding. Writing and reading are secondary skills and may also be acquired at any moment later.
But keep in mind that the method developed here is the product of decades of studies by investigators. Once established the feasability of the method and the results, it can be adopted on a large scale with tens of millions of children.

EXPERIEMENT

Here it is in short words and principles the method. Let’s start.
From the first day of her birth to girl “E” (for privacy will not disclose the names of them), parents have spoken her respectively VENETIAN (the father) ARMENIAN (the mother), while mother and father among them have spoken standard ITALIAN. After just one year of age, “E”, began to communicate with her father in Venetian and in Armenian language with his mother. The evening after supper, every single day, “E” has to see a cartoon or a movie for kids in FRENCH language for about an hour. This block of french language cartoons consisted of about 2/3 weeks alternated by another block of 2/3 weeks of cartoons or movies in RUSSIAN language. Let’s assume that neither parent knew French and one only knew Russian, but nobody has ever spoke one of the two to her. The same program was started with the second child “M” born 2 years later, who joined her sister. All cartoons and films were selected from the 50’s productions to this day, with particular care to begin with the old productions since, the most recent productions have the effect of making less attractive the old ones. Therefore we recommend to avoid, at least up to 7-8 years, to see cartoons like Disney (at least the most recent works). Among other things, the production of Russian animated cartoons, is undoubtedly highly educational for its content and forms of design. The best is to start with the black and white movies and then switch to colored ones. We wish to emphasize that you do not need to buy these products, you can download for free in the desired languages from the web.
At 5 years of age girls entered the local ENGLISH school carried on by English native teachers.
Along with this educational policy, the evening before bed we read fairy tales in Venetian language and Armenian language or sometime English. Since the 7th year of age, children have had their laptop with the Linux operating system in English and then with all the settings and research work in English (Linux operating systems allows wide customization). Considering that the web is dominated by the use of English language, those who wants to be protagonists choosed it to navigate and do research or communicate with the world. The kids naturally choosed the English Wiki and not the Italian.
Now the girls have respectively 9 and 12 years, understand and speak 6 languages perfectly, and understan many others similar as well.
We also strongly recommend to motivate children and tell them they are good and intelligent. Avoid judgements that will mortify kids. Very often we inihibite kids with negative judgements and we risk to ruin the self esteem they need to grow and learn.

PROBLEMS?
Only one and relevant.
The kindegarten’s teachers forbade “E” when she spoke Venetian and threatened the girl with subtle blackmails, thus creating fear to speak the language at home too, creating problems on interference. The problem was solved by removing the kid from the kindegarten, considering that the teachers of the institute when reproached insisted in their intolerant behaviour. The children were moved to a more modern educational facility. It was necessary to explain to the child that all languages are equal in dignity and there is no shame to speak any of them. On the contrary the girl was encouraged to speak Venetian. Please note that in years of observations, the investigator noted that stuttering is widespread precisely in areas where there are contrasting languages and in which children are so to say “raped” linguistically in the early years of childhood with absurd prohibitions and intimidation.

IMPROVEMENTS TO THIS METHOD?
it could be introduced the teaching of a second language in elementary school such as Chinese, Japanese, or Indi.
The grandparents could speak another language if they know it, and so increase the range of knowledge of the child. Those who can afford, they could hire a maid who speaks another language with the child.
However, it is important that the person who talk to the child does it using a single language and the same all the time. In this way, the child will link: person + language and will link them to the internal gramamar he builds inside him. The affective human side is very important.

THE USUAL PREJUDICIAL CONCERNS!
-But a child will mess?

No, if the teaching is consistent and conducted as explained above, the final result will be the perfect learning.
-But it is a load too hard for a young child?
No, the mind of a child is ready to learn dozens of languages simultaneously. Unfortunately, the education and nationalistic monolinguism of last century, had castrated billions of people, making them fools monolinguals. Wars and etnocides against the so-called dialects, have caused a cultural disaster of immeasurable proportions.

– But how does a child learn a language without grammar?
Children build an interior grammar with no need of books. Among other things, their learning is perfect and long lasting, deep to use a scientific concept.

-Can I begin later after the second or third year of age?
Better not. Every day after birth, it is too late, because some contradictory mechanisms may trigger and also because it is a rush against time. The kid’s mind can build the interior grammars when he is young, later it is to late. It is like moulding clay, after a while it gets hard to manipulate.

-Can the same person switch language so the kid will learn more at the same time?

No, it might create interference and confusion in the kid’s mind. One language one person and the learning will be perfect and smooth.

Consistency is the cornerstone of this method. The human mind seeks consistency, at least in the initial phase. Adults who are removed with great ease.
-But then my kids could learn the language without going to English school?
Yes, no doubt, show them cartoons in English every day and after two years you will see incredible result. You can also let them play with english speaking kids for long periods, or have an english speaker babysitter.
-But television can not be removed, it is too much violence!
No! Instead, violence is TV in the house. And ‘violence against a frail child who clings to everything when the parents do not take their responsibilities as educators. Without TV you will have more home life, more intimacy and you will be choosing what to bring into your home at any time. The concept of input is important, getting rid of the tv, all that space left you will fill it with what you choose.

The child is like an assimilator of information waiting to be filled at all times. Give him just the chance to exploit the moment.
A child is like a seed, plant it at the right time and right place and he will pick up the fruits. You the farmers, they will collect.

Best wishes
Raffaele Serafini

ps: The experiment began in February of 2000 until today. The preparation, work and planning began in 1988 in university of Venice, Barcelona and in several parts of the world, through the observation and study of the effects of early inputs, their processing and final results in several fields of knowledge.