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317070today at 6:41 AM5 repliesview on HN

Overestimate their understanding, underestimate their vocabulary.


Replies

lauriegtoday at 8:14 AM

Learning a second language is a fantastic way to feel many aspects of being a child again. Having to deal with frustration. Understanding a situation but not be able to fully take part. Being able to communicate but only with the blunt instrument of the words you know.

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Terr_today at 7:09 AM

I'm not sure whether to interpret this as a statement about what we currently over/under-estimate, or as command that we should try what feels like over/under-estimation in order to counter our own biases.

imawakegnxoxotoday at 7:41 AM

Kids are so much smarter and more capable than adults give them credit for, and it is stunting society as a whole

I think infantilisation is a huge part of the reason we're where we are today - kids 100 years ago were working harder jobs than most adults today (not implying child slave labour is a good thing, just making a point)

Kids today, though, are given exactly 0 responsibility and treated like babies the whole way through their prime learning years

I feel so sorry for the next generation

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ErroneousBoshtoday at 7:55 AM

"But it's okay if a battery goes on fire daddy, I'll put carbon dioxide on it!" - EBv2.0, aged 3 and a half

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wizzwizz4today at 7:16 AM

I like Lemony Snicket's approach: he gives (obviously) wrong, but technically correct, definitions for hard words. These definitions are usually hyper-specific, or satirical. Children, who are still very familiar with learning vocabulary from context, can find this much more amusing than adults who have given up on learning new words except via dictionaries.

> The word “briskly” here means “quickly, so as to get the Baudelaire children to leave the house.”

> “Wipi!” Sunny shrieked, which meant “I’d much prefer gardening to sitting around watching my siblings struggle through law books.”