English, the "National Language" (school)

[Yeledaf]

Originally Posted by Nea1

On both sides.

Of what? The Atlantic? ALL European kids learn at least one foreign language. In addition to English.

The Pacific? There are more students of English in China than there are speakers of English in England.

Don't mess with me here, Pink bags. You're on MAH TURF.

[Moth]

The countries that have the best abilities in second or even multiple languages tend to be 1) Those that have more than one official language (Belgium, Switzerland) and the people basically grow up with it and 2) Small countries surrounded by bigger ones that must learn them to adapt and prosper (the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, etc).

The US does not qualify for the first category nor the second. But if you are going to implement this as policy, then the second is the one to emulate. And that means starting kids out around the third grade with language instruction and continuing throughtout high school and college level.

[CamaroGuy]

I am all in favor for learning other languages. What I am totally against is having multi-lingual ballots and driver's tests. Believe me, Turks in Germany and Arabs in France are not allowed to take a driver's test in their native language.

[Moth]

There are many mandarin immersion programs here in the Bay Area, mainly due to the amount of Chinese. Los Gatos school system is the best .

I seriously doubt that creates any level of proficiency. Not to say its not a good start for someone who is going to stick with it for years and years. Mandarin is a very, very complex language and learning even a small amount requires efforts most people will eventually not bother with.

Sorry to be a cynic. I learned German and it took years to achieve any reasonable level that could be called proficiency. Mandarin is probaby 20x harder.

[Nea1]

Originally Posted by Yeledaf

Of what? The Atlantic? ALL European kids learn at least one foreign language. In addition to English.

The Pacific? There are more students of English in China than there are speakers of English in England.

Don't mess with me here, Pink bags. You're on MAH TURF.

No I meant both sides of the ESL , SSL, while citizens here may not want to learn another language like spanish, many spanish speakers dont want to learn english through ESL.

What turf? Because you are an educator you are the only one who sees things and can have an opinion.? So, I have kids, very involved in the schools, Dad works at a school. Pink bags? Want to be disrepectful and play that way, lets play.

[Yeledaf]

Originally Posted by Moth

I seriously doubt that creates any level of proficiency. Not to say its not a good start for someone who is going to stick with it for years and years. Mandarin is a very, very complex language and learning even a small amount requires efforts most people will eventually not bother with.

Sorry to be a cynic. I learned German and it took years to achieve any reasonable level that could be called proficiency. Mandarin is probaby 20x harder.

Written, yes. Nightmare city.

Spoken, nah. Chinese and English grammar are reasonably simliar. The tonalities are very tough, though.

[ayannaaaliyah]

My daughter attends an International school where 80% of the students are from various countries over the globe. It amazes me how quickly some of the students come over and don't know any English but they have such a willingness to learn, that within 6 months they've mastered it. Anyway, by the time the children graduate, most are speaking 3-4 languages fluently. Currently my daughter is only taking Spanish as a second language however, she knows the basic greetings and some other phrases in French; Arabic; and some Dutch. She enjoys it and shows no resistence but I suppose because the environment of the school allows for it to be enjoyable due to diverse population.

[CamaroGuy]

Yeledaf, you best not mess with Nea1!

[Nea1]

Originally Posted by CamaroGuy

Yeledaf, you best not mess with Nea1!

No it's fine, trust me I can take it. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion, they just dont need to be disrespectful about it.

[CamaroGuy]

People are learning English in dirt poor Afghanistan for God's sake!

As I stated before 55% of the words in the English language come straight from Latin so these Spanish speaking kids already have built-in vocabulary!