|
 |
What languages did you study in school? | ||
Tags: School Education | Foreign Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5063 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 65 of 94 17 January 2011 at 5:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
Starting in kindergarten, I began to learn English in my classes where Spanish was the primary language of communication and work, since all the kids were Hispanic and only knew Spanish. These ESL classes lasted until 3rd grade. Fourth grade, English was the only language used in classes, and Spanish has completely disappeared.
I'm in my last year of high school right now, and you need two years of a foreign language to graduate, three if you want to graduate distinguished. Guess what's the only foreign language available? Spanish; they took French out a year before I got in. It pains me to think that as I sit in class, learning my native language for the second time, some other high school senior is completing his third or fourth year of German or French. ;-; Next year in college, I plan on taking German, though I wouldn't be surprised if I chose something else. Unlike my high school, there's so many to take that I'm like a kid in a candy store. Look: <3 http://www.laits.utexas.edu/languages/ - Kat Edited by Phantom Kat on 17 January 2011 at 5:23am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sh'Naya Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 6758 days ago 48 posts - 65 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 66 of 94 19 January 2011 at 12:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I attended different schools in Germany and therefore couldn't continue Russian and wasn't allowed to begin Spanish as I had planned.
- English - from grade 3 - 13 (compulsory) (School 1-4) - French - from grade 7 - 9 (compulsory) (School 2) - grade 10 (not compulsory, different school) (School 3) - grade 11 (compulsory) (School 4) - Russian - grade 9 (not compulsory, School 2) School 2 offered: grade 5: English (compulsory) grade 7: French or Latin (compulsory) grade 9: French, Spanish, Russian, Italien or Latin grade 11: same as grade 9 School 3 offered: English and French. Turkish, Russian and a lot of other language courses were only for native speakers. Only English had to be learned. School 4: grade 5: English or French (compulsory) grade 7: English or French or Spanish (compulsory) If it hadn't been for the awful teachers, I'd glady attended school 2 until grade 13 (Abitur or A-Level). However, I think it's a very good idea to offer French instead of English as the first foreign language. It's much easier to learn English than French since you simply can't escape it. By the way, I know several University students who can't speak English. They never had it in school. They learned Latin, ancient Greek and sometimes another dead language. Edited by Sh'Naya on 19 January 2011 at 12:40am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 67 of 94 20 January 2011 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I posted about this before on the forum, but it seems to me that prior to the 1960s, knowledge of English was not that widespread among Germans. An indication of this came in 1944. The Germans put out a call for English-speaking volunteers to dress up in US Army uniforms and infiltrate behind enemy lines as part of the Battle of the Bulge in December that year. There were many volunteers, but of them, only about 10 were found to be genuinely fluent in the English language, to the point that they could use American slang well and do a reasonable imitation of American accents. Many of the other volunteers spoke a little, heavily-accented English, enough to mark them out as infiltrators if they actually opened their mouths, and some had a command of English limited to the words "yes" and "no". So plans had to be scaled back and many of the infiltrators were instructed to say nothing if questioned, and leave the talking to one member of the team who did have a reasonable grasp of English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5094 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 68 of 94 20 January 2011 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I'm American and I took Spanish, French, and Latin in high school, and also studied some Russian on my own, independently. Unfortunately I'm not fluent in any of these now, and did not have very good resources when I was teaching myself Russian, so I didn't stick with it long term.
Spanish and French were very common at my school. Latin was a bit unusual, and so my class size was very small--mostly girls, and mostly good students. But these were the only 3 choices available at at my high school. Foreign language instruction didn't even start until Junior High. My middle school had two choice-- Spanish or French. They were all electives and were not required for graduation at that time. This was in the mid to late 90s. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Magdalla Triglot Newbie Ireland Joined 5139 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, Russian | Message 69 of 94 25 January 2011 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I learned Irish (and of course English) in National School (Public Junior School in Ireland), Irish, Latin, French and Spanish in secondary school, and Latin, Spanish, Italian and German at university level.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5114 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 70 of 94 25 January 2011 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I started English at 8 with casual and fun lessons. At 11, the lessons started to be more serious and we really got into learning things. At 12, I started Latin, at 13 I picked Italian, at 14 I dropped Latin and took Ancient Greek instead. At 15, I dropped Ancient Greek and picked Russian, to eventually drop it at 17, and start again at 18, at university, alongside Arabic.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| chewmeup Diglot Newbie Finland Joined 5044 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Swedish, French | Message 71 of 94 07 February 2011 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
It's interesting that having some other language than English as completely compulsory, for every pupil, seems to be rare. In Finland we have that, since we have to study English but also Swedish. Not as much, but for at least three years everyone is required to do it. In elementary school we have only English, but some schools also offer other languages to start earlier. Normally English begins at class 3 (age 9), but I started German first and English only at class 5. I think some schools offer Swedish and French for kids too, but it's rare. Swedish becomes mandatory at class 7, and for the last three mandatory years of school everyone has to do it. Since I went to upper seccondary school/high school, I've had to continue it, and have only recently started to actually appreciate it. Most kids absolutely hate it, they feel that it's useless and a waste of time.
Any other languages are extra, but most secondary and upper secondary schools offer others too. Starting German is common, especially in secondary school. In upper secondary schools you can often study languages like French, German, Russian, Spanish, Latin, Italian... But mostly it's just French and German. In my upper secondary school, there isn't even a French class beginning every year. So I studied German for seven years (didn't help much, I remember mostly verbs but can't really understand it at all, so it's useless unless I study a lot more), I study English for seven and a half years now (school hasn't helped much with that, I've learned it on my own through tv and so on). Swedish I've been studying for four and a half years, and it's better than my German but definitely not fluent (yet!); learning the language outside the class is not easy since I don't live near the coast where most of the Swedish-speaking people live in Finland. I started French in upper secondary, but since I only studied it for two years, it's in a bad shape. Having studied many languages but only having one that is really fluent, I can't say that languages are the strong point of education in Finland. Teachers are always Finnish, and so Finnish is used in class A LOT. Everyone learns the basics but without personal interest that's it. There's also been a lot of discussion lately about Swedish. Many feel that it shouldn't have the position of a language mandatory for all. In the future, Russian is believed to be important especially in the Eastern parts of the country and that leads to a lot of political discussion that will never end... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5034 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 72 of 94 16 February 2011 at 6:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
I studied English (as a native language), Spanish and Russian during public school. When I went to university, I studied Spanish (again), German and Finnish.
Interestingly to me, my high school in Lafayette, Indiana, offered 5 different foreign languages. I'd never heard of that from other places. The languages there were Russian (of course), Spanish, German, French and Japanese. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
