Lately, trend for being a bilingual has been famous among people. This trend is sparking debates, especially about when children should start learning about second language. Many people assume that primary school is a good start, while others disagree because it will disturb the development of their native language. Both views have their own reason and base from writer’s experience in Indonesia that the starting point will not affect significantly.
On one hand, several individuals are having opinion that school should prioritize the development of their native language rather than just learning different language but forgetting about their mother tongue. However, more variety of language we learned will divide our focus, making our development become slower than how it supposed to be. For example, child who need to focus in 2 different languages will remember more vocabulary and grammar; child that can remember 4 new verbs in one subject will need to allocate the number into the second rather than focusing with the first, creating slower progress than it used to be.
On the other hand, young age around 12-15 years old is the golden age to master different language, especially for students who want to study abroad. Even though people say it will disturb the student, in fact, it rarely happened. For example, students in Indonesia, especially private school pupils, had been learning English, Mandarin and Indonesian since elementary school, making them native when they were adult. Additionally, it is not affecting their mother tongue, even Chinese Indonesian people who lived in East Java can fluently speak Javanese. It proves that language is a habit. So, when their parents and teachers can organize their curriculum well, why we should reject this program?
In conclusion, although it will make progress slower, it can be prevented by maintaining progress of their child properly, so it drawbacks could be reduced. Thus, we could start the study since primary school or even elementary school.