Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I took French in high school and did poorly. At one time, rich American girls learned French in private schools. Why was that? Do many high schools offer French nowadays?
What percentage of students successfully learn a language in school anyway? I'm gonna guess less than 1%.
What language Americans study in highschool or college makes no difference because the outcome is the same: purely mono-lingual graduates irrespective of what language they study.
We should have a language as part of the elementary, not high school curriculum. By the time you get to HS/college, it's much harder to learn a language than while younger. German was nearly the death of me in college, even though I could do all the grammatical parts, I simply couldn't pronounce the words or pick up on the subtle sounds that make meaning. By that time, my accent was too ingrained.
We should have a language as part of the elementary, not high school curriculum. By the time you get to HS/college, it's much harder to learn a language than while younger. German was nearly the death of me in college, even though I could do all the grammatical parts, I simply couldn't pronounce the words or pick up on the subtle sounds that make meaning. By that time, my accent was too ingrained.
I think there are two main reasons why foreign languages are not taught at a younger age in many American schools:
1. Logistical factors: Since a typical elementary school serves a smaller pool of students than a high school and that teaching a foreign language requires a separate teacher in most cases, that makes it harder and less cost-effective for a comprehensive foreign language program to exist at the elementary level.
2. The politics over what language to teach: Given the factors in the above point that means in many cases it'd be feasible for most elementary schools to offer one foreign language at most, you then may have a debate within the community on what that one language should be. In most (but not all - so nothing here should be a national requirement) parts of the country Spanish would be the most immediately practical and in the easiest group of foreign languages for English speakers to learn, but then you may get complaints from those who believe we should not be aiding those here illegally and/or who refuse to assimilate (and at the other extreme it would largely be a waste of time for those who already speak Spanish at home for areas that are heavily Hispanic). With French you'd get the dissenters who believe it's a language of the past (somewhat true, but mainly relative to English) and not "useful" for most Americans, but you probably wouldn't get the extremists who would specifically want their child to NOT learn the language that I've seen with Spanish - and French is still in the "easy" group. Some who believe that China is the future (once again only partially correct IMO for reasons I'll save for another discussion) have vouched for Mandarin, but here you would have the concern for students with weak language skills since Mandarin is MUCH more harder than Spanish or French.
Because of those factors I think alternate ways of exposing a child to a foreign language early besides in the elementary school classroom setting ought to be considered - such as with software programs, foreign language camps, optional (not mandatory) immersion schools, etc. which largely mitigate both of the above issues (maybe with financial assistance for low-income families). These would allow each family within reason to decide which language would be best for their child(ren) and not be bound to what a single elementary school can handle (which in many cases is zero foreign languages, and lucky if it's one).
I think the data is out there that Spanish surpassed French several years ago as the most-taught second language in the United States. French is still third I believe. Overall French is an okay language to learn, but it's not as prestigious or useful as it was during the 20th century. It used to be that many international institutions (UN, Olympics, etc.) utilized French as their working language for people from different countries, but now that English has become the de fact international language of trade and communication, and because most Americans speak English, French is less important to learn here.
FWIW, I used to be a big Francophile, but I think that Spanish is probably the most ideal language that should be taught in American schools. French is probably the most similar to English, but Spanish also shares that Latin origin and therefore has a lot in common with English as well. Because of that and it's relatively easy grammar and pronunciation, it's a good "gateway" language into Italian, Portuguese, or even to an extent French.
FWIW, I used to be a big Francophile, but I think that Spanish is probably the most ideal language that should be taught in American schools. French is probably the most similar to English, but Spanish also shares that Latin origin and therefore has a lot in common with English as well. Because of that and it's relatively easy grammar and pronunciation, it's a good "gateway" language into Italian, Portuguese, or even to an extent French.
I am terrible at foreign languages, but I do use my years in Spanish class from time to time. And when I went to learn Italian in college, the Spanish was a HUGE help.
French has been useful to my friend who is working in international relations, but I don't know any other people who have made use of their high school/college French.
I studied Spanish, French, and German in school. Of the 3 languages, French has been by far the most useful.
We have a large community of Haitians and quite a few ex-pats from France. We have both dual language public schools in Spanish and French, as well as a number of French private schools. While there are definitely more students studying Spanish in our public high schools, French is still offered.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
