Protesters at Houston's Arabic Immersion Magnet School on first day of class (Bellaire: employment, school districts)

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Arabic is one of Israel's official languages anyway...

I bet anything you want that most "Pro-Israel" people here don't know that

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

I think any immersion school is good, but some are more beneficial than others.

Living in Texas, having strong Spanish skills is very beneficial, especially if you plan to go into government or the medical field.

This is what I tell everybody...
Whatever language you learn, make sure that you will be able to find people to practice with
Spanish has an advantage because you can easily find people to practice with, plus all the channels in Spanish we have in Houston.

Can't say the same thing for ... let's say French, sure, it'd be great to learn French, but good luck finding people to practice with, at least compared to Spanish.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Can't say the same thing for ... let's say French, sure, it'd be great to learn French, but good luck finding people to practice with, at least compared to Spanish.

There are some French meetup groups in the central city. I heard one meets at a La Madeleine. It's obviously not as easy as Spanish though.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Vicman

There are some French meetup groups in the central city. I heard one meets at a La Madeleine. It's obviously not as easy as Spanish though.

I'm not saying that nobody in Houston speaks French.
When I feel like speaking Spanish all I have to do is drive less than 1 mile anywhere in this city and I can find a restaurant where everybody is speaking Spanish.

Can't say the same thing about French.

[theone33]

I would learn Spanish before French. It is somewhat similar plus Spanish goes alot further than French in Houston as has been noted!

[Dopo]

I was learning Korean and had to ditch that idea, moved from that to Mandarin

[MumHouston]

Heaven forbid that a child learn a language other than Spanish and LEAVE Houston one day.

[geolvl]

How about reviving the various heritage languages? It doesn't always have to be about Spanish. I think it's truly unfair how most people weren't allowed to speak a second language 50 years ago, but now we embrace only two languages. How about All the other cultural subgroups that are dying out that make our U.S. Heritage so rich? So yes, I think Fr is important also as I think we should also have immersion in a bunch of other languages. Let's lead, not trail behind. However, having Spanish immersion in 90 percent of our schools is not diversity and not representative of everyone's interests.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by geolvl

How about reviving the various heritage languages? It doesn't always have to be about Spanish. I think it's truly unfair how most people weren't allowed to speak a second language 50 years ago, but now we embrace only two languages. How about All the other cultural subgroups that are dying out that make our U.S. Heritage so rich? So yes, I think Fr is important also as I think we should also have immersion in a bunch of other languages. Let's lead, not trail behind. However, having Spanish immersion in 90 percent of our schools is not diversity and not representative of everyone's interests.

Let's make perfect the enemy of "good"
Would be great for kids to learn any language they want
Is it possible? I really doubt it.
You really think that schools today can teach 10 different languages?

[geolvl]

I'm just saying there should be multiple immersion schools, each with a particular language. The Mandarin school has received a lot of attention, but it's only one out of all the rest that are Spanish immersion. Now we have Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese (?), but 90 percent of the programs are/will be Spanish. At least, I believe that is the current trajectory.