Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Politics and Other Controversies
 [Register]
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.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 09-22-2018, 06:45 PM
 
Location: Home is Where You Park It
23,856 posts, read 13,662,599 times
Reputation: 15481

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtl1 View Post
Well like I said the only people in America who need to learn a new language is those who don't speak English. English speaking Americans don't have to do anything language wise.
When I was growing up sixty years ago, I needed two years of a foreign language to get into a California college/university. And some years later, I needed two years of a foreign language to graduate from an Oregon college/university. I guess it’s true that both high school and college have really been dumbed down.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-22-2018, 06:52 PM
 
19,966 posts, read 7,826,567 times
Reputation: 6556
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg View Post
When I was growing up sixty years ago, I needed two years of a foreign language to get into a California college/university. And some years later, I needed two years of a foreign language to graduate from an Oregon college/university. I guess it’s true that both high school and college have really been dumbed down.
2 years of a foreign language? What did you major in a foreign language lol?

I had to take a lot of various courses in school, but doesn't I really need them or they reflected on a higher educational standards.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 07:05 PM
 
Location: Home is Where You Park It
23,856 posts, read 13,662,599 times
Reputation: 15481
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtl1 View Post
2 years of a foreign language? What did you major in a foreign language lol?

I had to take a lot of various courses in school, but doesn't I really need them or they reflected on a higher educational standards.
Nope. My high school major was college prep in English. (I was headed for journalism at the time.) I took four years of Spanish. Our very ordinary middle-brow, average sized public high school also offered four years of German, four years of French, or four years of Latin. Everyone who was college-bound took a language and I’d say a good half of us took more than two years, because most people thought then that speaking a foreign language was the mark of an educated person. (FTR, I still think that.) My undergrad college degree was a Bachelor of Science in biology, and after an abortive stab at French (oh, mademoiselle, you sound so funny!), I went back to Spanish. They were discussing then whether to allow two years of a computer language to meet the language requirement, and I believe that was adopted the year after I got my degree (1976).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 07:11 PM
 
Location: Bellevue WA
1,487 posts, read 776,334 times
Reputation: 1786
It's Russian trolling bot time everyone. Be prepared to see a whole bunch of these kinds of posts, ones that **** you off and boggle the mind as to how anyone could be so provincial.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 07:16 PM
 
19,966 posts, read 7,826,567 times
Reputation: 6556
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg View Post
Nope. My high school major was college prep in English. (I was headed for journalism at the time.) I took four years of Spanish. Our very ordinary middle-brow, average sized public high school also offered four years of German, four years of French, or four years of Latin. Everyone who was college-bound took a language and I’d say a good half of us took more than two years, because most people thought then that speaking a foreign language was the mark of an educated person. (FTR, I still think that.) My undergrad college degree was a Bachelor of Science in biology, and after an abortive stab at French (oh, mademoiselle, you sound so funny!), I went back to Spanish. They were discussing then whether to allow two years of a computer language to meet the language requirement, and I believe that was adopted the year after I got my degree (1976).
OK that's cool, but I don't see how taking a foreign language in school is really applicable to whether everyone living in America should communicate in English.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 08:54 PM
 
Location: New Mexico
4,792 posts, read 2,779,819 times
Reputation: 4915
Default More detail

Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural510 View Post
English is not the language of North America. The US is an English-speaking country, Mexico is a Spanish-speaking country, and Canada is bilingual English/French. If your biggest peeve in life is ignoring the telephone prompt for “para Espanol marca Ocho”, then your life is boring enough to be pretty darned good.
Yes, except that the US (as of 2014) had more Spanish speakers (native & second language) than Spain. & people in parts of the US (mostly the SW) have spoken Spanish since before the British showed up in the New World.


Mexico is mostly Spanish speaking, but they've retained a good number of Native Peoples' languages & cultures.


Canada too is officially English & French speaking, but they also have Native Peoples' languages & cultures in existence - although Mexico probably has the larger numbers in both categories, & also more of both than the US.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 09:02 PM
 
Location: Suburb of Chicago
31,848 posts, read 17,518,206 times
Reputation: 29384
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg View Post
When I was growing up sixty years ago, I needed two years of a foreign language to get into a California college/university. And some years later, I needed two years of a foreign language to graduate from an Oregon college/university. I guess it’s true that both high school and college have really been dumbed down.
My adult children who are millennials had to take two years of a foreign language in high school and one of them had to take two years in college as a requirement for his major.

As far as I know that hasn't changed since they graduated.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 09:05 PM
 
Location: The analog world
17,077 posts, read 13,299,192 times
Reputation: 22904
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg View Post
Nope. My high school major was college prep in English. (I was headed for journalism at the time.) I took four years of Spanish. Our very ordinary middle-brow, average sized public high school also offered four years of German, four years of French, or four years of Latin. Everyone who was college-bound took a language and I’d say a good half of us took more than two years, because most people thought then that speaking a foreign language was the mark of an educated person. (FTR, I still think that.) My undergrad college degree was a Bachelor of Science in biology, and after an abortive stab at French (oh, mademoiselle, you sound so funny!), I went back to Spanish. They were discussing then whether to allow two years of a computer language to meet the language requirement, and I believe that was adopted the year after I got my degree (1976).
I agree completely, and I'm astonished at the attempts to diminish the value of foreign language education. I took Spanish and French, although, sadly, I've forgotten much of it in the intervening thirty-five years since I graduated high school. My husband took French and German. All three of my children took Spanish in middle school and at least three years of high school Latin. I don't think someone can claim to be truly educated without having studied at least one additional language beyond his native tongue.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 09:06 PM
 
Location: Suburb of Chicago
31,848 posts, read 17,518,206 times
Reputation: 29384
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg View Post
Nope. My high school major was college prep in English. (I was headed for journalism at the time.) I took four years of Spanish. Our very ordinary middle-brow, average sized public high school also offered four years of German, four years of French, or four years of Latin. Everyone who was college-bound took a language and I’d say a good half of us took more than two years, because most people thought then that speaking a foreign language was the mark of an educated person. (FTR, I still think that.) My undergrad college degree was a Bachelor of Science in biology, and after an abortive stab at French (oh, mademoiselle, you sound so funny!), I went back to Spanish. They were discussing then whether to allow two years of a computer language to meet the language requirement, and I believe that was adopted the year after I got my degree (1976).
The only difference between your experience and my kids is that they went to a large public h.s. where they could have taken Spanish, German, French, Latin, Chinese and Hebrew. They also had to take Spanish in grammar school.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-22-2018, 09:17 PM
 
Location: Home is Where You Park It
23,856 posts, read 13,662,599 times
Reputation: 15481
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtl1 View Post
OK that's cool, but I don't see how taking a foreign language in school is really applicable to whether everyone living in America should communicate in English.
It’s a response to your assertion that no American should be learning a foreign language.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
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.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Politics and Other Controversies

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top