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Where do you stand in reguards to:

  • #21
I didn't know that people were being forced to learn Spanish. Here in PA you can't learn a second language until you are in highschool. I'd much rather take Japanese but it's not available in my district. But Spanish is a really useful thing to know. I'm just taking Spanish because 1, I don't have to do a graduation project if I pass all 4, 2 it will look really good on my resume, 3 I know a few people that speak Spanish and it'd be cool to have whole conversations in a different language. Plus, I've heard that Spanish is extremely easy to learn. I agree, though I've only been in the course for like...11 weeks. But yeah I don't see why anyone should be FORCED to learn Spanish. But, people that move here from another language speaking country should learn English. I agree with that fully. What's the point of being in a country where you can't understand anyone?
 
  • #22
Think about it! How stupid would it sound to say you live in England but can't speak English? Why should America be different? Or in Spain but can't speak Spanish, I sure would feel terribly dumb to go to Spain and know what I know in Spanish.(nothing)

Joe

I used to work at a gas station and I couldn't even tell you how many folks come in and only know 2 words. "Budweiser" and "Marlboro.........red........... box" and ask it like its a question.
 
  • #23
Alphawolf, A voila! Mon frere a la langue de francais ici! Il est tres magnifique a vois un personne que parle le francais aussi! Qu'on parle le francais aussi ici? Et-tu? Et-tu?
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  • #24
lol... je ne parle pas le francais... je soulement(?) comprende il un peut. je... necesitere??... lire plus francais.
I took two years of french but the second year we switched to block scheduling and we went too fast for comfort. I'd probably have taken more years if we hadn't switched to block scheduling. and that was what seems like a LOONG time ago so I've forgotten 70% of what I learned already :p I'm going to try to read in french... I just wish there was a french channel or something. TV really helps when learning another language.
 
  • #25
Yah, I know what you mean. This is my 4th year of french and supposedly "you are mastered" then. So thats it for languages now. Maybe I'll take up German some day.
 
  • #26
German is a cool language. Plus chicks dig it cause it's gutteral and has a savage/beastial quality. I've tripped many a trigger speaking German, you needn't even make sense. Usually they have no idea what you're saying anyways.

Remeber to growl your RRRRRRRs and slide your ch.
 
  • #27
Children have such an amazing ability to learn languages that it's a shame they aren't learning multiple languages before elementary school.  Many adults have trouble.  One neighbor from Peru has great difficulty with English, even though her 11 year old daughter knows English & Spanish perfectly and Italian pretty well.  Her estranged father is Italian.  I see this a lot around here.  Many of the kids around here are fluent in English and also in the languages of their parents.  Many of the parents, on the other hand, struggle with English.

I have little memory of my German-speaking great-grandmother, but what I remember best was her thick accent and not knowing what she was saying.  She and my great-grandfather both learned English from my grandfather, who learned it at school.  That means they were here for 10+ years before learning English.  So taking a long time to gain only minimal English is completely normal.  Some do better, some do worse.
 
  • #28
And it's VERY annoying having an accent. I can understand and write english pretty well but the speaking part is the thing I can't.
What annoys me is when people laugh at other people because of their accent. I haven't seen anyone laugh at me because of my accent but I just had a substitute teacher with a horrible accent and people were laughing at him.
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  • #30
one thing to remember, is that as languages go, english is a convulted mess, we have so many ways of saying things, letters with multiple sounds, it's tough.

Truthfully, I wish schools would spend more time teaching students propper grammar and pronunciation for ENGLISH rather than worrying about foriegn languages. ( he says in what is most likely a mistake ridden mis-spelling riddled post.
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  • #31
Its true Ram, we communicate in English, but who the heck knows what a relative clause is, indirect object, direct object, prepositions, gerunds, verbs, injunctions, interjections, conjunctions, the list goes on and on.

A quote from my current French teacher and probably my most favorite teacher "In order for one to speak another language one must know his own language first."
 
  • #32
well, you obviously know...

More than people speaking different languages, I can not stand intentional mispronunciation of words in my language, butchering words to form a sub dialect for purposes of being cool is just.... hmm not going to finish that.

of course, one wonders what the brits think of our 'english'.
 
  • #33
True, for some it is the same as being foreign. I attended public school in a sh** neighborhood and spent more time on the street and so my grammar is riddled with double-negatives incomplete thoughts and sentences. My wife constantly corrects my grammar. Like "I aint got no cigarettes". To me that sounds perfectly normal, my wife will jump my butt about it though. I actually speak better slang/ebonic than proper english. If I want to I can write proper english but speaking it sounds weird to me. The same goes for my German. I have a hard time speaking correctly but the German youth can understand me cause I speak 'low' German. In low german gender play little part in vulgarities, epithets, inuendos(sp?), many other rules don't apply either just like street English.

RP,
Interesting that you brought that cause in all the forums that I visit I ask the Euros what they think of Americans and our English and so on. Most seem to avoid answering. I've many times wondered what the English think of our English. They call it American cause its so different.

Joe
 
  • #34
I think RamPuppy hit it right on the head. It's great to be bilingual, and I do think that bilingual education should be part of the norm. But being able to opt out is important, too - as much as I value education, I don't think that parents should be forced to send their children to learn something of which they don't approve.
I was born in the States but grew up and learned to speak in Panama City, Panama. Up until we returned to America, I spoke Spanish as well as I did English. Upon returning, I didn't get any Spanish lessons until I was in highschool, and so I've lost most of my vocabulary since then. But that's to be expected. What I have always been appalled at, though, is that my English was, and still is, dramatically better than those of my American peers.
We need to have a firm grasp on our primary language, whatever it may be, before we start calling for education in other languages. I certainly think it should be an option, but until our nation's 6th graders can read English at a 6th grade level, I think we should spend less money on second-language classes and more money on basic education.
Oddly, I think that laziness plays into the average American's push towards English, in just the same way that non-English speakers get lazy about learning English. It's real easy to say that foriegners should learn English, but it is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black - I still don't think English is our official language (which should be changed, because even if we don't intend it to be, it is, and it's not fair to say otherwise.) I'm not bothered by signs in Spanish, because I can read them. But I'm also not bothered by signs I can't read, because I like to not understand sometimes. :)
People let their lack of language get the better of them, and I think that's a crying shame. I know people who's biggest concern when choosing a vacation destination is whether or not they speak English there! I've read that there's an actual statistical correlation between the number of languages a person speaks and the diversity of their travel - it's a phenomenon that is common enough to be a statistic! It almost seems like there's some stigma against other languages, as if countries that don't have a large English-speaking population are somehow more dangerous or unpleasant because they don't share our tounge.
In any case, I think we can all agree that the real problem is the enormous lack of infrastructure in America for rectifying this issue. We barely have enough ESL services to get immigrant kids speaking English, and bilingual education for English speakers is a joke. Adult education isn't even a serious possibility. I've worked with immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries who would have loved to learn English, if they only had the opportunity. But, such is not the case; even if there were some service to offer them classes, their lack of English has them in an employment position where they couldn't possibily find even the time to attend them, let alone tuition, childcare, etc.
I dunno, really... I have a strange perspective. I think that being bilingual is important, any way you look at it. English speakers should learn other languages, and anybody who's going to live in a given community should at least have the decency to take the time to learn to speak the local language. But when it comes to education, we've got to be pragmatic, and take care of primary language first.
~Joe
 
  • #35
I'm quadrilingual (English, Japanese, French, Spanish) and I have to say it's useful if not fun as well. Forced learning however I stand against. Learning an extra language should be either out of choice (so should many other things, but you can't choose your parents/environment/religion etc. at birth right?) or necessity, the latter being my case. Right, I think I'm off to learn Russian and Gulf Arabic (real targets!).
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  • #36
http://www.geocities.com/keaton_kool/spanish.html
 
  • #37
I've lived in Buffalo and Reading for about 25 years. Both cities have high populations of Hispanics, mainly Puerto Rican. Unfortunately, I took French in junior high and high school. Je parle francais, un peu. It HAS come in handy on occasion. I made one really good friend because of it.

On the light side, most of my Spanish comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons - andelle, arriba, senor duck, senor mouse....
 
  • #38
Je parle le francais un grandement monsier Jimscott! I know what you mean. Especially since I live in an econimically tourist dependent area, its really helpful to give confused franophone tourists a handy helper on where to go and what they are trying to find. Rather than get angry with them and try to listen to thier choppy English....if ya can;'t beat em, join em!
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  • #39
My feelings;
I speak English and learned Spanish so I could conduct business in South America.  I believe children/parents should have a choice of which second language they want to learn.
On the other hand, our schools do such a poor job of teaching, that a large number of kids graduate, unable to speak, much less write proper English.   As far as spelling…forget it.

English IS our national language.  If you want to live here, learn to speak it.
A basic grasp of English should be required for citizenship.
 
  • #40
you should learn to speak the language of the native people...
much like our fore fathers learned to speak the native american languages.
 
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