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- Dec 13, 2011
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- Progressive
We should learn the languages that would make us most able to deal with the world around us. For example, Scandinavians all learn English, because simply put the world's most powerful economy speaks English. To Scandinavians it's not a big deal...it's just good common sense. Likewise I think we should teach our children Spanish and of course Mandarin.
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!