One of the funniest (ha ha funny) I ever overheard was between a young Japanese woman and a young Frenchman, each in this country only a matter of months, trying to communicate in English with each other.

English was not my first language- I spoke a dialect of German. Given my experience I tend not to believe in the need for teaching in the little kid's language. I picked it up painlessly and swiftly.

I have/had a friend who had grown up the same as I and our daughters were born three weeks apart. My friend spoke the dialect to her daughter, I did not to my daughter.

When my daughter was three, I said something to her in the dialect and she returned, I'm not Wilma Anne, you know.

Even at that age she was aware of different languages.

I once worked at a resort where a good many of the staff were from other countries (Note the Japanese woman and the Frenchman). Two men were from Germany, one friend was an Americanized German and then there was me.

The only way all four of us could speak to each other in German was to resort to 'high' German. Our dialects were too different.