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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?
I hope not, because my school only offered French and Spanish. They offered German, but that was dropped.
Kids who take classes for 2 or 3 years still aren’t even a fraction as proficient as someone who spend a year in France. You can see the difference. School taught kids are still thinking through every single word to form a sentence. For kids who’ve spend even a summer overseas, it comes second nature.
They should encourage exchange programs. You have to be in an environment where you’re forced to speak it and practice it.
Kids who take classes for 2 or 3 years still aren’t even a fraction as proficient as someone who spend a year in France. You can see the difference. School taught kids are still thinking through every single word to form a sentence. For kids who’ve spend even a summer overseas, it comes second nature.
They should encourage exchange programs. You have to be in an environment where you’re forced to speak it and practice it.
True, but in-school programs are a good compliment to exchange programs. Study abroad isn't possible for all students, but studying another language should be.
I studied French for 4 years or so, from the 9th grade to a year in college. Never attained any significant degree of speaking proficiency, but, as it is somewhat similar to English, I can read a good deal of French.
I went to Asia in 1985 and have been speaking Mandarin Chinese since then, and despite starting this language at the age of 22, I am fairly good at it, now. Language is all about environment. Its relatively easy to pick up Mandarin over here. Doesn't hurt me, either, that my wife is Chinese.
We made certain that our son started Chinese kindergarten and went to Chinese schools through the 9th grade. Only then did we move him to an American school and then finally to the US for high school and university. He's native proficiency fluent in both Mandarin and English, and is now in grad school in the US and studying a second Asian language.
For myself and my son, speaking Mandarin and now his second language, in addition to English, make sense. Some posters above have opined that Americans do not need to know any language but English. They are largely correct. Even expats living in Asia debate often the merits and value of spending the time needed to learn Chinese/Japanese/Korean as opposed to investing the same time in obtaining a professional degree/skill.
At my office in Asia, we use English almost exclusively and use Chinese only with Chinese clients, and even then not always. English is used with clients from all other places, including Hong Kong. I do speak Mandarin in the office with the secretaries and staff, however, and speaking Chinese certainly makes living here easier and more interesting.
But, there are other reasons to learn a second (or third) language. Being bi- or trilingual opens the brain to different ways of perception and thinking and problem solving.
Second languages learning opportunities should be offered early and made to be fun and natural, rather than boring and with the added pressure of exams and grades. Its true that not everyone will need to be proficient in a second language as adults, but, why not give people the opportunity to learn naturally and easy and then let them decide for themselves whether they wish to continue with a language as they get older.
They got rid of French in my high school the year after I graduated. Instead of having 3 Spanish teachers and 1 French teacher, my HS has 4 Spanish teachers.
They got rid of French in my high school the year after I graduated. Instead of having 3 Spanish teachers and 1 French teacher, my HS has 4 Spanish teachers.
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?
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?
Usually it has to do with numbers. I have pretty decent numbers in my classes, but if they ever dropped too low, I'm sure the school would drop the French program. The Spanish classes are always overfilled. We probably need another Spanish teacher, but the funding isn't there. I wonder if I resign if they will keep the French and German programs. Actually, I'm surprised they still keep German. I only teach 1 and 2, and only one level per semester.
Reasons for the decline in French has to do with peer pressure and society. Most students think they will use Spanish more (like two semesters of high school Spanish is really going to help you in life). Also, there is a misconception that Spanish is easier than French. Lastly, French is seen more as a feminine and "sissy" language.
I've noticed that French students take French because they want to. People take Spanish because they have to. The Spanish teachers have 10x more behavior problems than I have.
However, it takes a very special student to study German. They are usually the nerdier or sort of "outcast" kids. I've also had a few anti-semitic or racist students. They never said anything inappropriate, but you could just tell.
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.
Not necessarily.
I studied Spanish in high school, was an exchange student to Paraguay, took Spanish at the university level, and also have lived around many Hispanics.
You don't learn a language solely in CLASS. Nobody does. You need to do things like speak to people who speak that language, watch tv or listen to music in that language, read books in that language, etc.
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