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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 15, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I don't think this is something you can execute via homeschooling alone unless either parent or a closely involved grandparent is multilingual, but I think there's a lot of value in having early exposure bilingualism in children, particularly with two distant languages like English and Mandarin (in comparison, I don't think there's a whole lot of perspective to be gained from a kid knowing both Spanish and Portuguese). I know well-educated, reasonably intelligent adults who still think translating between languages is largely a 1:1 mapping or never thought about the ways that differing language structures make it so certain ideas can't be expressed with the same set of connotations. I suspect the experience of being bilingual itself can be an early lesson in distinguishing map from territory.