Imagine the government requireing every child to learn a second language , If they started in preschool it wouldn't be so hard , our nternational relations and trade would benefit a lot.
Or should the Government suggest such instruction and make it availible without requireing it?
Or should those who like the idea push it priviately , telling everyone that it is just so cool to speak in Spanish or French ?
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Learning English is mandatory in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and most of Germany (the Eastern part is catching up-they used to require Russian)
The US government does not have the power to require this. In addition, we do not have even a tenth of the qualified teachers. Most often, some Sra. Garcia pops in twice a week. Then in the Sophomore year, Mr or Mrs Sanchez spends about 45 minutes five times a week asking ?C?mo se llama Ud.? ?De d?nde es Ud.? ?A qu? hora se cepill? los dientes esta ma?ana? Judging from the students that have taken two or three years of this in MIami-Dade County Public Schools who appear in my ELEMENTARY SPANISH I classes, little is learned, less is remembered. French, being harder in both pronunciation and spelling, is even less effective.
The important features of FL instruction in Europe takes place after the third or fourth grade. Academic subjectsd other than English are taught in English. Pretty much every Jr Hi and Sr Hi teacher is fluent in English in these countries. Here, 90% of our FL teachers are immigrants, most of whom do not have enough knowledge of the mechanics of the English language to teach their FL effectively. Most English majors have never actually been exposed to the grammar of English, other than remedial grammar, which is hardly the same thing.
The government decreeing that FL should be taught would not work, because the law cannot provide the teachers. Getting the teachers would have to start with a total restructuring of English and FL teachers in the US, starting at the college level. It would be quite expensive, because there is little to start with, and teaching is so poorly paid that there are not enough bright people who major in it.
There is a will to learn English in the Netherlands, in Scandinavia, in Belgium and even France. This will does not exist in the US, not among the people, their children, their superintendents of schools, their school boards.
I saw the last of the Lord of the Rings films in Paris in 2003. There were two giant theatres in the multiplex and several smaller ones. One of these showed the film dubbed in French, another in English with subtitles in French. We saw it in the latter. The huge theatre was crammed to capacity, maybe 2,000 people. There would be no such occurrence in any theatre outside NYC in the US for any FL film. Americans do not know enough French (or any other language) to want to see it in the original.
The official motto of the US is "E Pluribus Unum", but the real motto is "I took Spanish in High School but I don't remember anything."
Well, maybe "Yo quiero Taco Bell.
They still haven't related to "Me encanta Mc Donald's" (=I'm lovin' it.)