speaking of english only

[kimba1]

how many here was required to take a foriegn language class in school?


I think america was always multi-lingual but somehow forgot

pretty much everyone I know took some foriegn language class,but it simply never took. with the except of those very rare person who never finished school.

I realized this when I notice ward cleaver speaks spanish badly

[Kramer]

how many here was required to take a foriegn language class in school?


I think america was always multi-lingual but somehow forgot

pretty much everyone I know took some foriegn language class,but it simply never took. with the except of those very rare person who never finished school.

I realized this when I notice ward cleaver speaks spanish badly

english worked well for a long time here in America. it landed man on the moon, made some spectacular inventions, fed the world, protected the world in war and made the standard of living for every American the envy of the world. What's changed recently? Why have things gone down hill so badly? How about press 1 for english.

[Christians4LessGvt]

KRAMER....i took Spanish in grade school, high school, and college
i can communicate very, very limited with Spanish only people
i enjoy trying and they seem to enjoy helping me along
but a promise you if i moved to & lived in Saudi Arabia I would learn Arabic
i wouldnt moan about the lack of english when i decided to move somewhere else

[Xavier_Onassis]

A language is not just a system of communication, it is a unique view of the world and one or more cultures within that world. Anatole France said that "to learn a language is to gain a soul."

If the US had adopted German or French I am pretty sure we would have landed on the moon as well. English is no better or worse than either of those languages for communicating scientific and engineering skills. English is very difficult for poetry, but it is easier to make oneself understood in simplified English than in any variety of Russian, for example. It is nearly impossible to spell everything correctly, because  the Latin alphabet was not designed for English and many words are spelled as they were formerly pronounced in some other language (French in particular). English like all languages, has both advantages and disadvantages. The greatest being that it was spread around the world to so many places that it is the world's favorite second language.

We are awful at teaching Foreign language in the US. Typically, a US student gets virtually useless "cultural enrichment" classes in grade and middle school, in which Sra Gomez pops in and says a few simple things and perhaps shows some filmstrips. Then in the Sophomore year, when the boys' voices are changing and the girls are figuring out how to spell their names with a y, and everyone is worried about being popular and zits, students get one 45 minute session in Spanish, French or some other language five times a week. This is repeated in the Junior year, so the total is 255 hours of instruction. No one learns any language fluently in 255 hours.

College instruction is not much better. If you are going to major in a FL, you will have to spend some time immersed in the language to become fluent. This is what is done in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia, and some other places: most all of the faculty is at least bilingual, and HS classes in the sciences are taught in English (or German, or both). So it is usual to meet Belgians, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch, Germans and Finns who speak English like native speakers. They have had around 1500 hours in school of exposure to English, and of course, probably a lot more listening to music and TV programs.

The Australians are worse at this than we are. Japanese public schools are awful at English,because the teachers speak a variety of English only spoken by Japanese teachers of Engrish. Those who actually become fluent learn English in "cram schools" after the school day is over. Cram schools are taught by native English speakers from the US, Australia, Canada, NZ and the UK.

[Plane]

I agree , very good post XO.




Millions of Mexican citizens speak English well enough to operate in the US.
A small fraction of this number of Americans speak Spanish passably.

How is this an advantage to the US?

[Xavier_Onassis]

A small fraction of this number of Americans speak Spanish passably.

How is this an advantage to the US?
===============================

I would say that it is of little or no advantage.

Non Hispanic Spanish speakers that I have run into in Miami as well as in Latin America are quite often Mormon and other sorts of missionaries. The Mormons make very few converts, but the  two year missionary duties is quite beneficial to them in their careers.

Learning to speak a language fluently, even a relatively easy language like Spanish,  is not really an easy chore. It takes a lot of practice in conversation to be truly fluent, and to learn the slang, the children's  songs and stories that every Hispanic knows  and to understand jokes takes at least as long as to speak fluently.

I imagine that learning Russian took up more of Condi Rice's time than all of her other courses put together. Russian is fairly easy to spell, but to speak it fluently, what with all the case declensions and the  slang (which often makes no sense to an Anglophone) takes a huge amount of effort, time and practice. And there are a wide variety of dialects and different pronunciations as well. Only Muscovites speak like Muskovites, for example.