"Language is the Mother of Thought, not its Handmaiden."- Karl Kraus
In their interview, Mrs. Gomas and Max Gomas tell us about their family story of how Mrs. Gomas, born and raised in the Ukraine, left Ukraine to protect her husband, of Congolese descent, and son from extreme racism. Although both her and her husband had to leave their homelands behind, they raised both of their sons in a multilingual multicultural home, exposing them to 8 different languages and many different cultures. They both discuss how beneficial it was to be in a multilingual home and how it helped their experience, but also how it may have negatively affected them.
In the book The Bilingual Child: Early Development and Language Contact the authors, Yip and Matthews, write about their opinions of children growing up in bilingual and multilingual homes and how it affects a child's development. According to the authors, in their opinions and experiences, they believe that being fluent in many languages actually assists a child and pushes their learning capabilities. They believe that children learn how to think in a more complex manner when they can communicate across multiple languages. Mrs. Gomas would agree with Yip and Matthews. Not only did she aid her children in learning multiple languages as they grew, but her own professional career encourages students to go abroad and practice the languages they are learning. She encouraged that both Max and Alex learn as many languages as possible because it would allow them to hold onto their culture but it would also help in their development. Max would also agree with Yip and Matthews, as he says in the interview that knowing all of these languages did not harm him at all. He can now, in conversation, switch between languages without any difficulties. Knowing multiple languages has improved and expanded his ways of thinking because he can think across multiple languages and has memorized 4 different vocabularies.
In the book One Child, Many World: Early Learning in Multicultural Communities the authors analyze case studies to understand how children learn language in their youth. The authors claim that the environment in which the child grows up in makes a big difference as to how the child will learn and understand language. The authors also claim that the education system in America make it harder for bilingual children to hold onto their native culture. Schools, when teaching english to young children, force children to forget their native cultures and languages in order so that the child has the strongest grasp of english as possible, to ensure success in their future. Both Max and Mrs. Gomas prove that the school may expect a child to forget some of their native languages in order to help them better understand the english language, but ultimately the home environment plays a big role in how much a child retains. Max, started school in America at the age of 5 and learned english alongside other children, but because his parents strongly encouraged multilingualism, Max did not forget any of his native languages. In fact, his parents not only taught him all languages, but they extended their cultures upon him and his brother which allowed for them to understand many languages but also the culture behind them.
Yip Virginia, and Stephen Matthews. The Bilingual Child: Early Development and Language Contact. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print. Gregory, Eve. One Child, Many Worlds: Early Learning in Multicultural Communities. New York: Teacher's College, 1997. Print.