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Should foreign language/s be required learning in American schools?

Should foreign language/s be required in Am. school?

  • A working proficiency should be attained

    Votes: 12 31.6%

  • A basic introductory level should be attained

    Votes: 12 31.6%

  • No foreign language instruction should be required

    Votes: 11 28.9%

  • I barely speak English.

    Votes: 3 7.9%
  • Total voters
    38
jamesrage said:
Foreign languages should not be required subject in k-12 education. Most people will not leave the US and if they do it will be for vacation,so they have no use for it.
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Seriously?
I mean, okay, foreign languages should not be required in schools but do you really think there's no use for knowing the language in a country you visit?
 
Carjosse said:
If you lived in Texas I guess Spanish would be useful, since I live in Canada I am taking French he only problem is you can only learn if you want to learn it which sadly many do not as French is a cultural part of Canada and is useful if you want to get anywhere in government or large corporations.
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Yeesh.
Read that sentence aloud, and consider learning English before you take on another language.
 
Grand Mal said:
Yeesh.
Read that sentence aloud, and consider learning English before you take on another language.
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I am just really bad at typing, my actual written English and French is must better. For the most part that post makes sense. It was also very late at night.
 
Carjosse said:
I am just really bad at typing, my actual written English and French is must better. For the most part that post makes sense. It was also very late at night.
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(grin!)
Sorry, it was late at night for me, too.
 
A proficiency in a second language should be required. Many nations in Europe require their students to learn English as a second language. No reason why we should require our students to learn a second language.

As to what language, it should probably be Spanish considering it is the most practical, but I could see other languages like German being taught since there is good practical applications for the language in business.
 
Peter Grimm said:
One year of Spanish at an American public high school, unfortunately, won't even prepare a student enough to be able to pick up the phone and order a pizza in that language.

We really suck at teaching foreign languages.
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Because they teach very formal European (Spain) Spanish as opposed to the slang dialect style Spanish most Spanish speaking people in America speak. My daughter has been put in esl because she is bilingual, at first I was a little offended because she speaks English and Spanish just fine but it is only for her own good to learn better proper English and make the distinction between the two languages.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I have to say for Chinese... if someone can learn it in school, they are very intelligent. I tried to learn it for about a month while I was dating a Chinese girl, and it would have taken about five times as long as learning another European language.
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It is much easier for little children to learn a language than it is for adults. Second languages should be taught in Elementary schools, and learning a language like Chinese would not be as daunting a task.
 
Grand Mal said:
Seriously?
I mean, okay, foreign languages should not be required in schools but do you really think there's no use for knowing the language in a country you visit?
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That is where English to Spanish, English to French or any other books or aps come im handy.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Says who? If anything, statistics tend to show that the past is a poor predictor of future events. .
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Link?

No! Wrong! Ahh!

If anything, we should require MORE math be taught. At least an intermediate understanding of Calculus, IMO
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You basically admit that algebra is a useless subject and you want to add another required useless subject? While we are at it why not require latin as a subject in school? Maybe we can add underwater basket weaving too.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Self-descriptive title.

Also... what level of proficiency should be required? How many years of study?

Should we require Spanish? Chinese? Swahili? Leave it up to the student to decide? Which languages should be offered?

Etc.
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I don't know about required, but a few years is certainly a good idea. Works out different parts of the brain, gets some knowledge of a foreign language, etc. I took Spanish in high school and then Japanese in college, I like Japanese a lot more.
 
NOT ONE PERSON who want requiring foreign language taught who has said what they would eliminate to make room for it - OR at least acknowledge you want to extend school hours by at least 1 hour per day.

As for claiming (an absurd claim) that advanced mathematics should be required of all students? That is the claim that the dropout or failure rate should be at least 40% for high school.

The obvious reality is that 49% of students are below average ACADEMIC intelligence - which of itself is not the final measure of intelligence whatsoever. There people of higher education that are ego-centric in claiming superiority, even if their relationship life is a total failure, they are dysfunctional socially, and unemployed.

The only requirement to graduate from high school should be learning basic academic knowledge - and more. Education beyond those basics should be elective, not required.

There is one other academic arrogance and that is to believe education can produce a society in which everyone is well paid professionals, management and politicians, with on actual workers. The folks around here managing yard-work crews of their own business likely make more $$ than 90% of people with a bachelor's degree - and serve more of a beneficial social service too.
 
Ikari said:
I don't know about required, but a few years is certainly a good idea. Works out different parts of the brain, gets some knowledge of a foreign language, etc. I took Spanish in high school and then Japanese in college, I like Japanese a lot more.
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What courses should be eliminated for this foreign language study?
 
jamesrage said:
Link?



You basically admit that algebra is a useless subject and you want to add another required useless subject? While we are at it why not require latin as a subject in school? Maybe we can add underwater basket weaving too.
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No, what schools REALLY need is more political correctness and social sensitivity classes. :roll:
 
joko104 said:
Good choice.
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I actually think that we should move public schools to a trimester period, eliminating summer vacation, maybe lengthen the school day by an hour or so. We've accumulated quite a bit of knowledge and it will take longer and longer to teach. But that's more idealistic because our public schools have so many problems currently that extending the school year isn't going to really help.
 
jamesrage said:
That is where English to Spanish, English to French or any other books or aps come im handy.
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Never worked for me. I'm(slowly!) trying to pick up a bit of Spanish previous to our next trip. I felt embarrassed in Cuba and Mexico, being unable to communicate.
 
Ikari said:
I actually think that we should move public schools to a trimester period, eliminating summer vacation, maybe lengthen the school day by an hour or so. We've accumulated quite a bit of knowledge and it will take longer and longer to teach. But that's more idealistic because our public schools have so many problems currently that extending the school year isn't going to really help.
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It's unrealistic because you"ll never get the ****ing teachers union to agree to work year round. They like their summers off at taxpayer expense.
 
It's hard to think of a single subject that will lead to better employment opportunities down the line than a language course.

Of course, you need to be able to schedule a few months abroad to the region of origin for it to be effective at high school age. Seems expensive to make it mandatory given the US' geographical position.
 
Peter Grimm said:
It's unrealistic because you"ll never get the ****ing teachers union to agree to work year round. They like their summers off at taxpayer expense.
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That would certainly be one of things that would have to be dealt with. But I think it would behoove us to extend school days to fit in more education.
 
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