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.
There are many studies that have shown the value of early language education and how/why children are (more) able to make these transitions than are teens or adults. Some of the positive results are noted in the links I posted earlier.
Specifically, if you want to see how successful these programs are, look at the link to the school that has been doing this for 35, yes, 35 years.
The fact that school districts all over the country are embracing these programs, often at the request of higher income parents, suggests that the jury is not still out.
To you and the several other posters who responded to my posts, I know the kids will learn the languages very well. My concern is if they will learn the other things required in the early grades like math, reading, etc. I would be perfectly happy for kids to learn half-English and half-Spanish every day (probably should be required), as long as it's not 99% one language over the other for three crucial years. That's great for the people speaking that language, but I still have concerns about the kids speaking the other language. Why not do half and half the entire time?
This is also why there are so many Medicaid and food stamp recipients and high illiteracy rates along the border and in the barrios. Much of the growing poverty of the USA is imported.
You don't see the successful immigrants insisting their children never learn English or view it as a second language.
In Illinois a huge majority on Medicaid and food stamps are non English speakers and many are illegal. In fact on the various websites it states "no proof of immigration required". Simple put I don't want to pay more in dollars for those illegally to get welfare.
You see the entire issue through the lens of illegal immigration.
You are incredibly narrow minded and seem incapable of separating the learning of a marketable skill(Spanish) from the language spoken by some illegal immigrants.
This is not a thread about illegal immigration - it is about teaching children a skill that they can use to further their opportunities.
We get that you don't like any language but English.
Fine.
Stop hijacking the thread with your irrelevant theories just because you abhor the idea of anyone learning a language other than the only one that you speak fluently.
To you and the several other posters who responded to my posts, I know the kids will learn the languages very well. My concern is if they will learn the other things required in the early grades like math, reading, etc. I would be perfectly happy for kids to learn half-English and half-Spanish every day (probably should be required), as long as it's not 99% one language over the other for three crucial years. That's great for the people speaking that language, but I still have concerns about the kids speaking the other language. Why not do half and half the entire time?
They will learn those other subjects and according to virtually all of the research in this area, they will learn them more effectively than their peers who do not participate in one of these programs.
What a crock! I do not abhor anyone learning another language if they so choose and I never said I didn't "like" other languages. However, these "immersion" classes in Spanish/English are much due to illegal immigration. Remain in denial if you wish. It is also a fact that many jobs are requiring one to know Spanish to work in this country and it is due to so much illegal immigration from mostly Mexico and unassimilating other Hispanics who just want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside by being pandered to in Spanish even though many of them know English. Yeah, that's why it is marketable and that's a good thing? Go ahead and remain in denial the whole lot of you. It's fun to watch and read your strawman arguments as if none of the above is true.
Not all of them. It's always an advantage in commerce if you speak the language of your customers - it makes them more comfortable and you can pick up nuances that aren't there in English but are present in Spanish or other languages. Such as nonverbal communication, gestures, contextual thoughts. Not to mention marketing in the culture.
Remember the case of General Motors having a terrible time in Latin America selling their compact car, the Nova, several decades ago? Turns out the name sounds too much like 'no va', which means "won't go" in Spanish. They changed the name to "Caribe" and sales improved. Another case with cars is the Alfa Romeo 164. They changed the model designation to 168 in some Asian countries because 164 sounds like the Chinese word for "will die enroute", whereas 168 is a homonym for "on the road for prosperity."
I was working a solar power show in CA and had a colleague from Spain over - he was a natural for engaging the Latin American visitors in Spanish - made it easy for them.
Always an advantage to know the language. If you don't, and your competitors do, you're at a disadvantage.
I ask again, how many English speaking Americans fit in any of the scenarios you are painting above? I think you know the answer to that. Most Americans do not have jobs dealing with foreigners in their own countries and English like it or not is the language of commerce across the world.
Exactly. I see no problem with needing to know a language because of tourists, dealings with a foreign company, etc. However the majority of jobs I see requiring Spanish fluency are jobs like warehouse manager (to deal with the non English speaking people they hire instead of Americans), or jobs in public aid. Why should we require someone to speak Spanish to work in public aid?
I do actually supporting learning languages and I do speak Spanish. However I do resent being asked to speak it because someone refuses to learn English but yet wants something (like welfare).
Agreed and also another cause for resentment is being pushed to learn Spanish to pander to illegal aliens and denied a job because you don't speak Spanish to be able to do that. Any company that advertises for bi-lingual Spanish workers to fill positions for "regular" jobs and denies non-Spanish speaking Americans jobs those opportunities I never do business with. What about black Americans and Asian Americans they don't normally speak Spanish. So this isn't just about white Americans as some would imply in here.
They will learn those other subjects and according to virtually all of the research in this area, they will learn them more effectively than their peers who do not participate in one of these programs.
I have no problem with kids learning a foreign language, or many foreign languages. I think we should require foreign language classes every single year of school. However, your links really just talk about the benefits of taking foreign language classes, not immersion where the kids are learning in a foreign language 99% of the time for the first three years of schooling. That's what I'm talking about. I'm NOT saying foreign language classes are bad, just questioning why not 50/50 English and Spanish instead of 99% Spanish and 1% English until 3rd grade.
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.
