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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
Arbo said:
Why is the emphasis not on them learning to speak English?
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Despite what you might think, they are learning to speak English. But let's be pragmatic. If I'm a retail store owner in Miami Florida, and I need to hire someone to work the checkout counter, I'm only going to hire someone who speaks English and Spanish.

Why? Because she'll be able to communicate with the majority of my customers.

It's like that for a number of professions in the three states I mentioned.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Parlo un po 'italiano. Mio nonno e italiano. Cosi, ho sempre voluto imparare.
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io parlo italiano cosi cosi anche desidero far progredire

hope it is true ,l may need to join an italian dp :mrgreen:
 
Peter Grimm said:
Why do we require American History? I'm never going to need to know the names of the founding fathers, right?
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Why do we require algebra? How many people actually use it, if you honestly think about it?
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Perhaps we should only stick with Arithmetic.
 
ChezC3 said:
self help, eh? Good, you understand I was only trying to be of assistance.
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Ah, more of the lame. Not yet a bit of reasoning to support your initial claim, just more failed attacks.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Despite what you might think, they are learning to speak English.
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No here. And those that you know do know how to speak it often pretend they do not.

So again, why is the emphasis not on those that come here learning and using english, but on those that were born and raised here learning their language?
 
national_language.jpg
.....
 
Master your native language first. Get your spelling, grammar and vocabulary correct.
 
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 voted yes, and a working proficiecy should be obtained. We already know that bilingual job seekers have more opportunities for employment because they can serve more "customers" than mono-lingual applicants. It's also an aid in travel allowing greater opportunities to communicate; not only with native speakers of the additional language but with people who share that language as a secondary tongue with a primary language you don't speak. There are also other benefits to having an ability to converse in another language; here are just a few examples:

regularly speaking more than one language appears to strengthen skills that boost the brain’s so-called cognitive reserve...
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Speakers of More Than One Language May See Delayed Onset of Dementia Symptoms - WSJ.com

Research has shown, for instance, that children who know two languages more easily solve problems that involve misleading cues. A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that knowledge of a second language—even one learned in adolescence—affects how people read in their native tongue.
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The Neural Advantage of Speaking 2 Languages: Scientific American

Below is an NBC video about the advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education:

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/benefits-bilingual/story?id=19081887

I know of no significant detriments to having greater language skills. Hence, I think our kids should start learning a foriegn language in grade school but no later that junior high; their choice among the "top three" likely to be found as second languages in the USA.
 
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Peter Grimm said:
You are correct about Scandinavia - my grandfather did not learn English in school, he learned German, because at that time, Germany was more influential to Sweden than England/USA. Nowadays, very few Swedes learn German but every person in the country can speak English.

In fact, if you're a Swede living in Sweden and you speak poor English, other Swedes will think you're stupid or some kind of dinosaur. Can you imagine if we had such an attitude here in the USA? People like me, who can speak 3 languages, would think most of my peers were a bunch of idiots!
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Ha, so true. In Finland only old people (interestingly enough, these were usually bus drivers) didn't speak English.
 
No. It's best to teach kids nucular signs.
 
Arbo said:
Ah, more of the lame. Not yet a bit of reasoning to support your initial claim, just more failed attacks.
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but you said my initial claim was a lame attack? Unless you're talking about my OP, which all your response was was "Hell no". Not much to argue about. Nothing for me to give support in defense against. Yours was nothing but an opinion. To which I offered a book hallmarked for its conveying a message. What message? Coping with change. Your response "hell no" could easily be countered and effectively refuted with a very firm "Hell Yes" but that would do little to further the conversation.

The point of my reading suggestion was to illustrate the fact that change is inevitable and that sometimes people cling to old habits, patterns, and thoughts in an attempt to prevent the inevitable. All this does is create suffering.

So, as you see, I wasn't attacking you but helping you, helping you understand that the idea that people shouldn't learn Spanish, which is the language which will be most beneficial to Americans in the future is erroneous.

The second was a book of self empowerment to help you overcome your sense of victim-hood which is apparent by your ready accusation of being under attack rather than seeing my gentle and witty response for what it was, a lighthearted, good-nature ribbing, that often is all that is needed for most to make a self discovery.
 
Cardinal said:
Ha, so true. In Finland only old people (interestingly enough, these were usually bus drivers) didn't speak English.
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the education system in finland must be a model for the other countries
 
I'm fine with people having to get a basic grounding in a foreign language, just like they have to get a basic grounding in many other subjects. One year ought to be plenty and then voluntary to go further.
 
Medusa said:
the education system in finland must be a model for the other countries
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Although they certainly have their own problems to complain about, Scandinavian countries tend to be the model in a lot of things these days.
 
joko104 said:
Teaching history is important, particularly in a Democracy. I agree that advanced mathematics should not be required for high school graduation. High school should teach basic usable knowledge. That should be the (only) requirement to graduate. Advanced education is what colleges, universities, tech-school, military etc are for.

3,000,000 teens drop out of school every year.

Something's wrong with the system. The required standardized testing or else a student cannot advance or graduate - and with schools punished for bad testing results - leads to not only students dropping out seeing no point to continue, but also is huge incentive for schools to tacitly want students doing poorly to dropout so they are not counted in the test results.
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So the problem is that high school is too hard? I don't buy that for a second. ANYBODY who puts in a little effort can graduate from high school.

High school dropouts do so because they are either 1.) Lazy or 2.) Have an attitude problem or 3.) Got pregnant.

Adding a Spanish requirement isn't going to change those things.

Also, just out of curiosity, why do you say learning history is important in a democracy (as opposed to another form of government)?
 
jamesrage said:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
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Says who? If anything, statistics tend to show that the past is a poor predictor of future events.

jamesrage said:
Perhaps we should only stick with Arithmetic.
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No! Wrong! Ahh!

If anything, we should require MORE math be taught. At least an intermediate understanding of Calculus, IMO.
 
joko104 said:
Every hour spent teaching one thing is an hour something else is not taught.

SO... the question is what do you want NOT taught if learning a foreign language is required?
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Research shows us that one's ability to learn a foreign language is greater at a younger age. On the other hand, one can learn history or science at any age. Since we don't know who will need to know Spanish (or any other language) in adulthood, it makes the most sense to teach all of our kids early on.

I also support English immersion programs for Mexican kids.
 
Cephus said:
I'm fine with people having to get a basic grounding in a foreign language, just like they have to get a basic grounding in many other subjects. One year ought to be plenty and then voluntary to go further.
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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.
 
ChezC3 said:
The point of my reading suggestion was to illustrate the fact that change is inevitable and that sometimes people cling to old habits, patterns, and thoughts in an attempt to prevent the inevitable. All this does is create suffering.
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Having a nation of people learn the language that most modern day immigrants use, rather than pushing those immigrants to learn the language that is already in place, is both wrong headed and damaging to those immigrants.

The rest of your post is just more of the snotty lame attack stuff. Trying to place a certain character on someone rather than actually discussing a topic. You can spin it all day, it still fails, and is still transparent. You should stick to the subject rather than the person.
 
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.
 
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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The thing is though if it is compulsory most people won't like it and won't learn the language but if it is voluntary then those who are interested will continue to take it, year one is to see who wants to learn it and who does not.
 
When I was in high school taking a foreign language course was required. I took 3 years Latin and a year of German.

I don't think the policy made much sense when so many kids were struggling to learn English. Their time would have been better spent taking an extra English class.
 
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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Yes, we do, but that doesn't mean we need to make kids conversant in another language, only expose them to it and give them the option to continue if they wish.
 
Intuitively I recognize language as useful the earlier on it can be taught. It enhances literacy significantly, I'm convinced.

I'd be interested to see foreign language and linguistics begun in elementary school, rather than middle/high school. Hell when I was in high school I volunteered to go teach elementary school kids and within about an hour I was astounded at their memory of what I was teaching them. It was as though 90% of those little ****s were 10x smarter than 90% of my teenage classmates. Immediately it occurred to me (although I was only 16) "we need to be teaching these little kids this ****, they soak it up." Then in college I spent a spring break teaching English linguistics to orphans in Mexico... wow that was hilarious at first trying to teach them the retroflex 'R'... but they picked it up... very quickly.

Young kids' memories are primed for language. That is the time to teach them... and they'll understand what they're reading better (even when it's in English) because of their foreign language education. If you oppose American children learning foreign language, you might as well be opposing their comprehension of their native language. If that's the case, please don't try to spread your ignorance to the next generation.
 
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