Local dad spoke only Klingon to child for three years

[shijing]

From the following blog:

_http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/11/dinkytown_dad_s.php

I don't know if SotT takes articles from blogs. This seems like it could go at least in the 'Don't Panic!' section, although maybe teaching your child Klingon as a first language is no laughing matter?...

Is this taking the whole Star Trek thing a teensie weensie bit too far? d'Armond Speers spoke only Klingon to his child for the first three years of its life.

Klingon? Not Spanish, French, Mandarin? Not some gutteral genuflecting concoction from the deepest recesses of Borneo? Klingon? You heard it right. (And if you don't know about the Klingon Empire, look it up.)

"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 the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."

And get this, Speers says he isn't really a huge Star Trek fan.

We'll take his word for it.

Does the fact that Speers has a doctorate in computational linguistics explain anything -- or excuse anything -- here? Maybe. His child-rearing habits were part of a larger story on the company he advises, Ultralingua, which develops language and translation software. Including Klingon.

OK. We're playing light here with some serious stuff. Ultralingua sounds like an interesting company. And Speers sounds like a really smart guy. Successful, too. May they live long and prosper.

 

[RedFox]

d'Armond Speers spoke only Klingon to his child for the first three years of its 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 the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."

His child-rearing habits were part of a larger story on the company he advises, Ultralingua, which develops language and translation software. Including Klingon.

Ultralingua sounds like an interesting company. And Speers sounds like a really smart guy. Successful, too.

I'm not sure I'd put this in 'Don't Panic!', the stuff above I picked out.....I could be wrong but I get red flags about his guy and his behaviour towards his kid. i.e. his business interests where more important than the child's well being....his kid is just an experiment to help with his business.
I might be able to understand teaching the kid Klingon And English for the first 3 years (just), but only Klingon? It seems distinctly pathological.....and if the guy is successful and smart...I'm leaning towards hints of psychopath....but I could be wrong here.

 

[shijing]

I might be able to understand teaching the kid Klingon And English for the first 3 years (just), but only Klingon? It seems distinctly pathological.....and if the guy is successful and smart...I'm leaning towards hints of psychopath....but I could be wrong here.

There is one part of the story that's crucially missing -- that being, what about his mom? My assumption is that there is a mom, and that she spoke English (or at least a less exotic language than Klingon) to their son for the three years that the dad was speaking Klingon with him. I can't see a mom going along with a Klingon-only curriculum unless, as you say, there was pathology involved.

On the off-chance there was no mother there, just the father and son, and Klingon was really the only language he was exposed to for three years, then yes, its definitely not funny.

 

[Hildegarda]

I agree, this is wrong on so many levels

 

[Brenda86]

I agree, this is wrong on so many levels

Agreed. This is not like exposing your child to other world languages as a child - I feel this can be very useful and beneficial to a child. This is keeping a child from being able to communicate with anyone but you and the other 5 people in the world who actually decided to learn Klingon.

This just really bothers me. There was no need for him to do this to see if the child would pick it up - children will always pick up the language they are exposed to as a small child unless there are learning difficulties of some sort. Ugh. Seems pathological to me.

 

[Mountain Crown]

Just when I thought I'd heard everything. . .

 

[RyanX]

Yes, this is quite appalling.

Aside from a few pathological Star Trek fans, I can't imagine people seeing this as a good thing. No offense against the Trekkies here, just my observation from reading peoples' responses to this story. One Trekkie guy I know actually applauded this. Sadly, the man also has two young children of his own :(

 

[Nawd]

What is missing from this story are several points: Is the father now going to start teaching him a real human language now that three long years have passed by? Will this child have a hard time communicating now that some of the best years to learn communication were used learning a "language" that will do no good what so ever?

English is going to be his 'second language' which started at a time that the learning process of picking up a language has nearly passed. :(

Arrrggg what is wrong with people???

Never mind, I already know.

 

[shijing]

What is missing from this story are several points: Is the father now going to start teaching him a real human language now that three long years have passed by? Will this child have a hard time communicating now that some of the best years to learn communication were used learning a "language" that will do no good what so ever?

English is going to be his 'second language' which started at a time that the learning process of picking up a language has nearly passed. :(

Actually, the good news is that the primary language-learning window won't close for this kid for several more years. I'm in no way trying to excuse Speers for teaching Klingon as a first-language, but if the kid starts learning English at four-years-old, he will still do just fine. There are plenty of case studies showing that kids who begin learning another language before the onset of puberty (and especially in the first half of the gradeschool years) achieve native fluency.