Dad Spoke ONLY Klingon to Son for 3 Years

[LutherSloan]

Huffington Post

Dad Spoke Only Klingon to Son for 3 Years

d'Armond Speers, a Minnesota man, spoke only Klingon to his son for the first three years of his child's life, the Minnesota Daily reports.

Speers says that he spent the first few years of his son's life speaking to him in the invented language of the alien race featured in the series "Star Trek" in order to better understand how children learn languages. Meanwhile, Speers' wife continued to address the child in English.
He told the Minnesota Daily,

I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language. [...] He was definitely starting to learn it.​

Speers reports he "still gets nostalgic when he recalls singing the Klingon lullaby 'May the Empire Endure'" with his son.
Listen to Speers' son singing the Klingon Imperial Anthem here.


Wired reported on Speers' language experiment in a 1999 article in which Speers described the challenge of speaking to his infant son given that the Klingon alphabet lacked words such as "diaper" and "bottle."
The article notes,

So Speers found himself using "thing which is flat" for table. "Alec very rarely spoke back to me in Klingon, although when he did, his pronunciation was excellent and he never confused English words with Klingon words," Speers says.​

Eventually, Speers gave up on Klingon communication, saying that his son "stopped listening to me when I spoke in Klingon" and "it was clear that he didn't enjoy it, and I didn't want to make it into a problem."
His son, now in high school, doesn't speak a word of Klingon, according to the Minnesota Daily.
Despite his interest in Klingon, Speers says he's not a Star Trek fanatic.

I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. [...] I'm a linguist.​

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/darmond-speers-dad-spoke_n_363477.html

I understand his research, but that's still pretty odd.

 

[Brannigan]

If you look below the article, the guy responds.
Hi, d'Armond Speers here.

1) that picture is not of us. I do not wear the gear or go to conventions. I study a language.
2) I do not live in Minnesota. I was consulting for the company that created the Klingon dictionary iPhone app. They are in MN.

My son's first language is English. That is the language he was raised with. In addition, I spoke a constructed language to him, to see if he would acquire it. He didn't.

I wasn't training him to be a warrior, wield a bat'leth, and drink blood wine.

My son is now 15, and he's just fine. The insensitive and abusive comments from so many of the posters here are far worse than the fact that I spoke a different language with my son 15 years ago.
-From HuffingtonPost

 

[Islander]

Still, if he wanted to research how a constructed language could be learned naturally, he could have use Esperanto.

 

[Praxius]

This guys an idiot.

I can understand trying to teach them a different language that's actually practical, but imo he wasted the kid's development time on a language that isn't all that worthwhile in the real world.

Educate your damn kids, don't use them for your own little games and lab tests.

This reminds me a lot of the parents who named their kids Adolf and Aryan Nation or what have you.... they turned their kids into political/racial props for their own personal agendas at the expense of their children's future. Sure it's not the same level of extreme, but the mentality is the same where you're child isn't your child to raise and educate, but it's your little play thing.

 

[TheQman]

I remember reading this awhile ago, I think it was an interesting concept.

 

[chakotay_lover]

Yea I kinda felt that he was using his kid in an expierment, thats a really weird thing to do. I think its a good thing to teach a child more than one pratical language. lol but not a fake one, poor kid

 

[Neutral Zone]

It's all well learning an artificial language (hell, I've learnt Esperanto) but what's the point if there are very few others that you can communicate with? I would have taught the kid something practical like Spanish, German or French.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Still, if he wanted to research how a constructed language could be learned naturally, he could have use Esperanto.

But he didn't want to. who cares. those posts under the article show what kind of morons we live with.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'd heard something about this a few years ago. While it is unusual, I see nothing harmful, since presumably the kid knew English anyway. I assume that eveyone else spoke English to the kid and only Dad spoke Klingon.

So he is fluent in the fictional Klingon language? So what? Considering there's a version of Google done in Klingon, it's obvious that others are too.

 

[Emnabtond]

This guys an idiot.

I can understand trying to teach them a different language that's actually practical, but imo he wasted the kid's development time on a language that isn't all that worthwhile in the real world.

Educate your damn kids, don't use them for your own little games and lab tests.

This reminds me a lot of the parents who named their kids Adolf and Aryan Nation or what have you.... they turned their kids into political/racial props for their own personal agendas at the expense of their children's future. Sure it's not the same level of extreme, but the mentality is the same where you're child isn't your child to raise and educate, but it's your little play thing.

Read Brannigan's post.
Also, he didn't bring him up only with Klingon, he tried to bring him up bilingually with English and a constructed language for the sake of an experiment. Bringing someone up bilingually does not affect their development, if that was the case I would be seriously retarded.

 

[drychlick]

the guy a nut job! end of story

 

[CobraCommander]

Quote: "Despite his interest in Klingon, Speers says he's not a Star Trek fanatic.

I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. [...] I'm a linguist."

---Suuuure
​

 

[TheQman]

I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. [...] I'm a linguist."

---Suuuure
​

LOL. I love this.

I think it would have been nice if he taught a more conventional language, but it is a valid experiment and didn't harm the child's development.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'd heard something about this a few years ago. While it is unusual, I see nothing harmful, since presumably the kid knew English anyway. I assume that eveyone else spoke English to the kid and only Dad spoke Klingon.

This would have been a lot more fucked up if the kid had been prevented from hearing English in addition to being taught Klingon.

 

[Praxius]

Read Brannigan's post.

I already did before I posted. It doesn't change my position and it doesn't matter how much of a star trek freak he is or isn't. As someone who once worked in education and who has a father who's a school teacher, etc. it wasn't the wisest thing he could have done. His little "Experiment" isn't anything unique except for being stupid.

People have been studying children's development skills for many years now and many have been studying the impacts of being taught two or more languages at early stages for quite sometime...... however they used practical languages that they can use in their lives.

The only experiment I see here is whether or not some fictional language can somehow screw up his child's early development, which I'm glad it seems he didn't end up doing. It certainly wouldn't improve it, that's for sure.

Also, he didn't bring him up only with Klingon, he tried to bring him up bilingually with English and a constructed language for the sake of an experiment.

I am fully aware of this, and it's this little "Experiment" that I have issue with.

Bringing someone up bilingually does not affect their development, if that was the case I would be seriously retarded.

You tell me to read someone else's post which I already did, yet you clearly didn't read mine very well.... since I said:

"I can understand trying to teach them a different language that's actually practical, but imo he wasted the kid's development time on a language that isn't all that worthwhile in the real world."

I live in a country that has two official languages, English and French, among many other languages, so I know the importance of bilingualism..... but when you fill your child's head at a young age with a language that is virtually useless in their everyday life, no matter where they go on this planet, you wasted their time with something foolish, when you could have spent that time teaching them something more important and more usefull for their future, rather then to just entertain yourself with trivial experiments at your child's expense that could cause problems with their growth and interaction with other people in society.

Like I said, this guy is lucky he didn't screw his kid up..

 

[Klaitu]

What? this guy chickened out and said that he wasn't raising a klingon warrior?

Wimp!

 

[Forbin]

Does this fall under the old addage "You can try to teach a targ to sing, but it only wastes your time and annoys the targ?"

 

[Wicca who Wonta]

Although I think his efforts would have been better spent on a laguage that actually exists in real life I don't think the experiment hurt the kid. It might even have been beneficial to his language development. That said, I really don't understand why he bothered to do it. I guess he must really love the language!

 

[plynch]

It's so nice to see that Trekkers are so tolerant of other people's oddities. Sarcasm intended. Disappointment intended. I guess I expect more out of people whose love object preaches tolerance. Wrong again. I think I'm done here.

 

[Sector 7]

It's so nice to see that Trekkers are so tolerant of other people's oddities. Sarcasm intended. Disappointment intended. I guess I expect more out of people whose love object preaches tolerance. Wrong again. I think I'm done here.

Elvis is dead. Where is your tolerance? I guess I expect more out of people whose love object died of a drug overdose.

This idiot got LUCKY. Had his experiment gone awry, how many of his supporters would be so tolerant? They would probably be the first to support his lynching.