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Old 12-09-2015, 12:08 AM
 
25,556 posts, read 23,851,694 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jackmccullough View Post
It's good to teach foreign languages, but it no longer makes any sense for large numbers of people in the United States to study French. It's been decades since it's had the important role in the world that it once did. In terms of utility, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic are far more useful to American students.
In part because there are a lot more Spanish and Chinese speakers in the US, and one needs to practice in a language.
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Old 12-09-2015, 12:17 AM
 
Location: Texas
44,256 posts, read 64,142,036 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan View Post
When I was in high school they still taught Latin

Only those who wanted to go into the medical and/or law fields took it.

My sister took Latin and went on to become a nurse and said that Latin really helped her.
.
You know, I keep hearing about how Latin so helpful if you want to go in the medical field, but not one time in 18 years have I found it useful to know Latin. Knowing Spanish, however has come in handy almost every single freaking day.
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Old 12-11-2015, 01:58 AM
 
Location: PHX -> ATL
6,311 posts, read 6,747,028 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KellyXY View Post
Why did they get rid of French if they'd have to hire another Spanish teacher anyway? I'd understand if the French teacher's load was well below that of most of the other full-time teachers, but if there is enough interest in the language to make having a French teacher economically viable why take away the choice?
Numbers thing. When I was taking French I took it for three years, up to the 101 level. There was only one class for this advanced offering and it was small. First and second years of French had two different class periods, I remember when I was a senior it dropped to one class period for each. Some time after I graduated they got rid of the French teacher.

The Spanish classes at my high school were very full. Everyone took Spanish. To be fair my high school is in Glendale, Arizona and there is definitely a higher perceived value for Spanish than French for obvious reasons. Also a lot of kids that went to my high school were already fluent, so they picked that class for the easy A. Part of me sometimes I wish I took Spanish instead. At the last two jobs I've had my co-workers chose to speak Spanish to each other instead of English and it made me paranoid... and I had a lot of customers who also spoke in Spanish. Now that I live closer to the border, knowing Spanish would have been a lot more practical.
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Old 12-12-2015, 12:23 PM
 
16,825 posts, read 17,656,471 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KellyXY View Post
Why did they get rid of French if they'd have to hire another Spanish teacher anyway? I'd understand if the French teacher's load was well below that of most of the other full-time teachers, but if there is enough interest in the language to make having a French teacher economically viable why take away the choice?
Because most districts have more than one school and making curricular decisions is about more than one singular teacher. There are pd requirements, issues related to textbooks and other related expenses, as well as scheduling problems.

It is more cost effective to have all the same subject band not for nothing, French is hard to justify as an expense compared to other languages.
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Old 12-12-2015, 12:25 PM
 
16,825 posts, read 17,656,471 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4 View Post
You know, I keep hearing about how Latin so helpful if you want to go in the medical field, but not one time in 18 years have I found it useful to know Latin. Knowing Spanish, however has come in handy almost every single freaking day.
I found Latin to be very useful in my A&P classes as well as both physiology courses. The names of systems, diseases, etc were much easier to understand and memorize after 4 years of Latin. Maybe they just mean it is useful during college and med school courses. I ended up a scientist and it still helps everyday with vocabulary and species names.
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Old 12-12-2015, 02:04 PM
 
Location: Texas
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Originally Posted by lkb0714 View Post
I found Latin to be very useful in my A&P classes as well as both physiology courses. The names of systems, diseases, etc were much easier to understand and memorize after 4 years of Latin. Maybe they just mean it is useful during college and med school courses. I ended up a scientist and it still helps everyday with vocabulary and species names.
Um, recognizing them because of their familiar roots not the same as it actually being useful.

Certainly not so useful as to forgo learning an actual living language in place of it.
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Old 12-13-2015, 01:25 AM
 
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Panama is one of the most popular retirement locations for Americans outside of mainland US. It is just one of many Spanish speaking countries Americans are retiring to. Can live nicely on a Social Security check.
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Old 12-16-2015, 09:28 PM
 
Location: 89434
6,658 posts, read 4,723,398 times
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They should make spanish required in HS and more of a priority. Lots of workplaces are filled with spanish speakers who barely can speak english
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Old 12-17-2015, 07:35 AM
 
602 posts, read 500,644 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevdawgg View Post
They should make spanish required in HS and more of a priority. Lots of workplaces are filled with spanish speakers who barely can speak english
Even in places where another language would be more useful (e.g. Hawaii, areas near Quebec)? A mandate for Spanish would of course make sense where you live for example (and many but not all parts of the U.S.), but if you're considering the nation as a whole I think students/school-districts should at least have the option of taking/teaching the locally more relevant language if different than Spanish. (A compromise I'd accept is that all school districts throughout in the country must offer Spanish as one of the choices in HS, but not to require that all students take it.)
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Old 12-17-2015, 09:48 AM
 
16,825 posts, read 17,656,471 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stan4 View Post
Um, recognizing them because of their familiar roots not the same as it actually being useful.

Certainly not so useful as to forgo learning an actual living language in place of it.
How is it not useful if it makes it easier to learn something?

"use·ful
ˈyo͞osfəl/Submit
adjective
able to be used for a practical purpose or in several ways.
"aspirin is useful for headaches"
synonyms: functional, practical, handy, convenient, utilitarian, serviceable, of use, of service "

I speak a "living language" fluently, it has been of far less use to me than the number of words I understand without looking them up thanks to latin. It has been of literally zero use to me professionally, and only very limited use personally.

Once more, I USE (hence the term USEFUL) the vocabulary I learned in latin every single day when reading science lit. I don't use Spanish EVER and on of the other languages I speak only rarely.

Besides, just because something isn't useful to you doesn't make it very useful to others.
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