Hey everyone, just a quick note today about an article I found on the web listing a few of the benefits of teaching your child Spanish.
Check it out at the Spanish Children's Books blog: http://spanishchildrensbooks.blog.com/why-teach-your-children-spanish/

One of the newest book collections for getting your child interested in learning about Chinese culture and Mandarin Chinese is the Max and Mei collection.  These books will introduce them to the Chinese zodiac in a unique way. 

The Language Bear is at it again!  After suggestions from customers and more hard work on this end, we now offer a much better way to search, view and purchase books.  An integrated shopping cart, better visibility in the book listings and much more information about the books at a glance!  Featured book listings (that will actually be updated now!)  and the book listings will be much more reliable now, I know that there was some confusion before.
 
Keep the suggestions coming and in the meantime enjoy the great selection of bilingual books which is increasing every day!

Welcome to the March 2, 2009 edition of the Language Bear's foreign language blog carnival.
Foreign Language Blogs:

Spanish Kit presents Why You Should Learn Spanish? posted at Learn Spanish Blog, saying, "Currently, Spanish is the primary language for over 400 million people around the world. Twenty three countries use Spanish as their nation language, and there are over 38 million people in the United States alone who speak Spanish as a primary language."

English Subject presents Learn English - English Speaking Tutorial » Blog Archives » Understanding Business English and Etiquette posted at Learn English, saying, "One of the most often cited reasons for learning to speak English is career advancement."

Erika presents posted at Visiting Spanish Speaking Countries, saying, "Going to Argentina this year? Here's a rundown of some of the more popular festivals."

Rachel presents Learning To Speak German posted at Learn To Speak German Course, saying, "Read this article for tips on learning to speak German."

Bud Brown presents Bud Brown's Excellent Method to Learn Tagalog. posted at Tagalog 101, saying, "Learning languages is not so hard if you have the right attitude, method and resources. I’ve been studying Tagalog for a while with good success. I use a multi-pronged approach...."

Mr Sands presents A Small Victory posted at Nippon The Bus, saying, "An article about being about to read things."

Jason Sharp presents How to learn a language in under 2 years Part #1: Get out of school posted at International Insider, saying, "Don't learn a language in School"

Andrea Bodi presents Jardin Blanche posted at Jardin Blanche.

That concludes this edition. Thanks for all of your great entries, if you missed being able to submit your article this time keep your eye out and submit your foreign language blog article to the next edition of the foreign language blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

We've just had an astounding epiphany here at the Language Bear! As part of our Highlights section, we're having a Blog Carnival!
What's a Blog Carnival, you ask? It's a blog entry that contains links to other blog entries on a particular subject. It's a place where bloggers can collectively present an article that references only the best-of-the-best!
On March 2nd we'll be posting the first edition right here, and it will be full of articles from all over the internet that have to do with learning a foreign language. It will be a great place for you to peruse while you're looking for the best resource material and articles out there, because while the Language Bear has a lot to offer, we don't have everything, and we simply won't. That's what makes the information age so unique. But we'll be offering these links to everyone interested.
And here's the BEST PART! If you have a foreign language blog, or a blog documenting your learning progress, or even a blog entry about how to make French Icecream and Mushroom Strudel Pasta Cake.... (um.. yuck..) you can submit your article to us, and if we accept it, it will be part of the carnival in March!
All articles must be submitted by Feb 27th. So be sure to submit yours now!You can submit an article here.

The Language Bear is now on Twitter!You can keep up with the latest news and developments from your mobile phone!Keep up with what the Language Bear is thinking as well as:Featured ItemsNew articles releasesNew books listingsNew Languagesetc.Below is a ticker that shows you what we're posting on Twitter, but if you want these to come to you directly, just click "Follow"!

According to http://www.telegraph.co.uk:

Babies who hear foreign speech in their first nine months of life find it easier to pick up languages in school or as adults, research has found.

To quote the article published on May 10th, this year:

Psychologists at Bristol University found that the developing brain undergoes a period of "programming" in infancy which sets up for life its ability to recognise key sounds in whatever will become its native language.
This process helps the brain make sense of speech by filtering out sounds not used in the native language, but also makes it harder to recognise unfamiliar sounds from foreign languages.
Crucially, babies exposed to multiple languages during their first few months retain the ability to recognise sounds from all the languages they hear.
English speakers, for example, usually only recognise one "k" sound, but Irish Gaelic, Russian and Turkish speakers can differentiate between hard and soft "k" sounds, which produce different meanings in those languages.

In short, introducing a very young child to the sounds of foreign languages will give them the ability to recognize them. Since children of this age absorb huge amounts of information from everything they learn, these sounds will be stored in memory and they will be able to recall and recognize and even use them later in life.Read the rest of the article here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1944528/Babies-who-hear-foreign-speech-pick-up-languages-faster.html

What is a Polyglot? A polyglot is a person who speaks many different languages. There have been many such famous people over the years. One who's name is Joseph Caspar Mezzofanti, was an italian Cardinal, and lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. He claimed to be able to speak over 38 different languages! And people from all over the world would come to challenge him in their native tongues, and he never ceased to amaze them with his fluency.
You can read about the life of Cardinal Mezzofanti in The Life Of Cardinal Mezzofanti by Charles William Russell. There is a copy of this in the LB bookstore.
And check out this list of languages that Mezzofanti was able to speak! It's HUGE! It indicates how well he could speak all of the languages; OVER 30 languages, perfectly! You've got to check this guy out if you're a lanugage enthusiast.

Did you know that early childhood is the best time to start learning a second language? The earlier children are exposed to a second language the easier it will be for them to pick up on it. This is partially due to their ability to retain large amounts of new information, partially due to their willingness to retain such information and also due to their vocal dexterity.
Reading multilingual books with your child or otherwise introducing them to a second language is also just a great way to broaden their horizons as well. It will inspire them; it will get them pondering the otherwise un-ponderable marvel that is communication.
Read Why, How, and When Should My Child Learn a Second Language? an article by Kathleen Marcos on KidSource.com for more information