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In some schools that may be true but in many US schools, taking a foreign language is mandatory. It was in both the schools I attended growing up in the US, the schools my parents attended, the schools every other person I know in the US attended, and in every school my sister in law and cousin, who are teachers, have worked in. Basically, I don't know of any US school that doesn't require a foreign language be taken - usually the bare minimum is 2 years with an optional third. There are typically three options: Spanish, French, or German - most people pick Spanish but my mom did French and one of my best friends took German.
I realize there may be some US schools out there which don't require it (it probably depends on the local area) and I honestly couldn't say what the actual stats are on how many do require it and how many don't. But what I do know is that making sweeping statements which suggest it is the norm for US schools to refuse to teach a second language is ignorant and incorrect.
This was my experience when moving to the US as well during High School. At least one year of Spanish was required in the school I attended in South Florida.
In the city I live now (Cambridge, MA) there are 4 Public Immersion Programs available to children starting at the Pre-K level (Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin and French) In addition to one other Private International Academy that has a French Immersion program.
French people (often monolingual) have the balls to criticize Anglosaxon populations because they are often monolingual too. "do what I say, not what I do" could be their motto. On the other hand, modern French is full of English/American slang, mixed up with French slang, the result is a kind of awfully ugly and meaningless banter.
It's quite simple, if people have no reason to learn a foreign language, then they won't. .
Learning things makes you less stupid. Which sounds to me like a pretty good reason.
People have no reason to learn algebra, history, chemistry, Shakespeare, astronomy, the musical scale, the capital of Nebraska, the primary colors, Paul Revere, how many quarts in a bushel or that giraffes have long necks, either, but we teach it to them anyway in our public schools. Because they all fall under the general heading of education, which enriches, one way or another, people's lives as members of a complex social dynamic and expands our capacity to regard the world around us with comprehension.
Learning things makes you less stupid. Which sounds to me like a pretty good reason.
People have no reason to learn algebra, history, chemistry, Shakespeare, astronomy, the musical scale, the capital of Nebraska, the primary colors, Paul Revere, how many quarts in a bushel or that giraffes have long necks, either, but we teach it to them anyway in our public schools. Because they all fall under the general heading of education, which enriches, one way or another, people's lives as members of a complex social dynamic and expands our capacity to regard the world around us with comprehension.
But there is a problem, CNN and BBC are too Anglo-centrist and depicts the rest of the world like rubbish, also you are practically narrowing your source of information, and is very important to learn about other cultures and heard different opinions, the world is a multicultural place which is sadly being killed by the monolingualism in the media.
Learning things makes you less stupid. Which sounds to me like a pretty good reason.
People have no reason to learn algebra, history, chemistry, Shakespeare, astronomy, the musical scale, the capital of Nebraska, the primary colors, Paul Revere, how many quarts in a bushel or that giraffes have long necks, either
But most people forget most of this. I did algebra, chemistry, Shakespeare, the music scale and others, but I hardly remember any of it. I did French too, but I found it so dull I didn't take any of it in. However I am taking up Swedish because I WANT to. It's easy to force language classes on people in schools, but most probably won't take any of it in unless they really want to. It takes determination to learn a foreign language, you have to actually want to learn it, and if people have no use for a foreign language and never use it they will forget it, I know many people who could speak French but no longer can because they never had any reason to use the language.
The BBC is well-known worldwide for being the most global/cosmopolitan and especially since it's the largest broadcaster in the world. I can't think of any other that has wider coverage of world issues -- most are very regional/parochial/national.
Also, almost all the people I know like the BBC, and very few people from other countries I know have many bad things to say about it; I would say, it's well-respected globally.
The whole "use-it-or-lose-it" seems especially true for languages. Even when languages are required for school, it seems it's forgotten just like other subjects by many students soon after (eg. most people don't remember a lot of the math they learned in high school too unless they use it).
I studied French for several years (extended French in high school), but unfortunately didn't use it much for years, especially conversationally, so unfortunately I've lost much of it. I can still read things, and could reasonably attempt to read some books or other written texts (except I might have to look up lots of vocabulary words) etc., but there's nothing quite like real-life, conversational usage when you just learn in school and that's it.
Look down? That's a pretty awful and arrogant thing. Lol. I don't.
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