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Your language experience in school | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4620 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 17 05 November 2013 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Language(s) studied
German (3 years) French (2 years) Started at age 12 Retention into adulthood French - practically all forgotten, apart from the numbers, some simple vocabulary and a few set phrases. German - I really enjoyed German at school and could speak at a basic level. I topped up my knowledge by doing an evening class. As chance would have it, I ended up marrying a native German speaker and I found my school knowledge gave me a solid base to build upon. The school situation today French and German still rule the roost in Scotland, although Mandarin is creeping into the curriculum. Spanish also has a presence. Children now start a couple of years earlier in primary school and learning a language is compulsory until the age of 14. But it's all downhill after that as many kids drop languages as soon as they are able to do so. Gaelic has only very recently been included in the national curriculum. I guess a vote for independence in 2014 would see the language being made official and taught in all schools. But that remains to be seen. Edited by beano on 05 November 2013 at 3:48pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4097 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 17 05 November 2013 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Language(s) studied
English (9 years) French (5 years) Started at age 10 Retention into adulthood English - In retrospect, which is fuzzy indeed, I would say I was already at a B1 level when I started learning English at school, and since that was the year I got an internet connection I would say I had advanced fluency two years later with no help from school (I used to report my teacher to the principal because she used to deduct points when I used synonyms not in the textbook). My retention has been good, because I've never stopped learning. I use the language professionally, and my work is all about efficient communication. French - When I stopped taking French, in grade 10, I was at a decent conversational level. I lost a lot my active knowledge, but not so much that I couldn't read French articles and books while I was doing my BA thesis 6 years later. I won't comment as to where I am with my French today, though, since much improvement has been done since. The school situation today No idea. Swedish schools teach English and your 3rd language (usually German, French or Spanish) a year earlier now, I think. I don't have kids, so I don't keep up. Now, if you want to know exactly how awful formal "school" training can be, let's instead look at the year and a half I took of Gaelic at uni in Scotland, or my winter term (2-3 hours daily, plus 4-5 hours of homework, so not exactly what people used to UK or US universities might consider just one term) of Classical Greek in Sweden. In Gaelic, I can say "Tha Gàidhlig agam" which is not true at all, and I am still paying for those classes. I got good grades too, so it's not that I didn't bother. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4826 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3 of 17 05 November 2013 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Language(s) studied
French (passed the O level, not brilliantly) (5 years) Latin (failed the O level) ..................(5 years) (German was not offered in my cohort. Later years had the chance to study it. It occurred to me years later that I should have tried to study it while in the 6th form). Started at age Almost 12 Retention into adulthood French - not too bad, but I started French conversation evening classes some years after leaving school. Many years later, I took a GCSE at evening class, and passed quite well. I also started an OU course in it, but did not pursue it to a high level. Latin: very little. The school situation today Same as Beano I guess, although I think Spanish may be a bit stronger in England. I don't live there, but in Wales, I think children are encouraged to take Welsh at GCSE (the public exam for 16 year olds), in addition (probably) to French and either German or Spanish. Latin will be taught in private secondary schools (aka "Public schools"), and also probably in the relatively few remaining traditional grammar schools. It may even be taught in a few mainstream state schools, but would not be as a rule. Classical Greek is also probably still taught in "public schools". Edited by montmorency on 07 November 2013 at 2:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alphathon Groupie Scotland Joined 4178 days ago 60 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Scottish Gaelic | Message 4 of 17 05 November 2013 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've taken the liberty of adding a heading on the reason(s) why said languages were studied, as it may give some further insight into the systems involved.
Language(s) studied German (4 years; 2 years general secondary, 2 years Standard Grade) French (3 years; 1 year primary*, 2 years secondary) Reason(s) for studying those languages studied Primary school French - Studying a language was compulsory for me in P7 - the last year of primary school in Scotland. However, French was the only option available, so it wasn't exactly done out of choice. As I understand it, about a year after I left, German became available and teaching started in P6. Secondary school - when we went to secondary school, we had to choose one of the following languages: French, German & Spanish. We also had to take whichever one we did in primary school, so again I was lumped with French. I had no particular desire to learn any language, but felt far more affinity towards German than Spanish, so chose that (I'm a fairly technical/sciencey type, so appreciated what I perceived as the more orderly, precise, less "flowery" Germanic language - to this day I don't really know how true this is and it is probably largely stereotype). Going in to S3, we had to choose at least one Standard Grade language, so I chose German. Started at age French - 11 German - 12 Retention into adulthood French - I don't think I remember anything from my secondary education of French. What little French I do remember was, I think, all laid down in primary school, and basically comprises numbers, names of the letters of the alphabet, and a few random colours and nouns (most of which are either body parts or items of food). To be fair, since they couldn't guarantee that everyone had taken it in primary school the first year was pretty much a repeat of what was covered in P7. Beyond that, All I really remember was singing Mon merle a perdu une plume, although none of us really knew what it meant (We know what it translated to, but couldn't understand the lyrics themselves) and it was merely used as a reinforcement tool for numbers. German - My retention of what was taught in school is actually fairly good. However, as I have dived in to self-teaching of German, it has become painfully obvious that we were actually taught a pitifully small amount, and what was taught was of little use on its own. There was of course some trouristy stuff like how to ask for directions, how to order food etc, but also an awful lot of fairly pointless small-talk about favourite TV programmes, the weather, where we had previously been on holiday etc. To be sure, most of this was useful from a vocabulary point of view, but it was also in the form of pre-made sentences rather than them actually teaching us the grammar behind them to make up our own. Until I started teaching myself, I didn't even know German had a case system, let alone how to use it :/. I think we did learn a little bit of present perfect, although it wasn't presented as such, merely as "past tense". The school situation today I can pretty much confirm most of what beano said about Scotland, although where I live there was no presence of Mandarin, while Spanish was taught. Also, in my secondary school, the learning of at least one language was compulsory up to the end of S4 (age 16 for most pupils). I don't think this was down to the curriculum/educational standards though, but rather to simplify timetabling and to stop other subjects from becoming over-crowded. A few years after I started the system changed, so that one only took the language that had been picked in primary school. Since no primary schools in the area did Spanish, that basically killed the subject, leaving only French and German. With regard to Gaelic, I doubt a yes vote for independence would be enough to have it taught in all schools. There simply isn't enough political drive behind it. If there were, it would likely have happened already. That's not to say it won't happen, but if it does it probably won't be in the next five years. Apart from anything else, I don't think there'd be enough teachers for that to be practically implemented. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4097 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 17 05 November 2013 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
I think there not being enough teachers is a very strong deciding factor, as to why Gaelic won't be taught in all, or even a large portion of, Scottish schools any time soon. 60,000 speakers out of a population of 5,000,000. Cf. 300,000 Breton speakers out of a population of 4,000,000. That's counting speakers generously. Anyhow, I'm making this comparison because if you study to become a teacher in one of the Breton-speaking or bilingual teacher programmes, they say you're pretty much guaranteed a job. There's a huge deficit. It's getting better, after 25 years of immersion schools, but in the beginning a huge problem was finding people confident enough in the language to teach it and to teach in it. Pushing Gaelic in Scotland is going to be hard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4171 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 6 of 17 05 November 2013 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Language(s) studied
German (2 years) French (5 years) We started with French at our school, then after a year German was introduced. Then we had to choose one of them to study for GCSE, so I figured French would be the logical choice, since I'd been learning it for longer and the exam was at the same level regardless. Started at age 12 and 11 respectively. Retention into adulthood French - I still remember the odd stock phrase or bit of vocab, and I suspect that would be useful if I was to take it up again. But I'd still need to start on the beginner level CD. German - Literally only the numbers and greetings. Maybe family members. The school situation today From what I've found out on another thread, not much better. Still teaching foreign languages by speaking to the students in English. Still doing minimal speaking. I didn't even realise that pronunciation was important when I was in school. It seems like Spanish was making some ground just after I left school, and I think those three are the dominant languages in schools still, with a bit of a shortage of German, if what I've read is correct. There's the odd trendy school introducing "world languages" like Mandarin, but I think they're largely isolated examples. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4249 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 17 05 November 2013 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Languages Studied:
German (6 years) Russian (1 year) Started at age German - 10 Russian - 17 Retention into adulthood German - German has stuck with me quite a bit. While I am not fluent, I do understand many words. When I went to Germany a while back, I was able to study the language for a few months and when I go to Germany, I was able to use it while I was there. I plan on relearning the language next, and I don't expect it to be as much of a challenge as Russian is. Russian - After years of not studying Russian, I forgot most of what I had learned, even how to read most of the letters of the alphabet. I realized how poor my Russian had become when my uncle married a Russian, and I couldn't even remember easy words like how to say hello, good morning, good afternoon, etc. to her. I am currently relearning the language. While my previous study is making it easier to learn this time around, I am sure (especially on the alphabet... I picked that one up in about an hour of study)... it is still quite a challenge for me. The School Situation Today I don't know. I think that my niece is taking a foreign language, but I couldn't tell you. My kids are homeschooled, and my husband is teaching them French. Edited by Lorren on 05 November 2013 at 9:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4251 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 17 05 November 2013 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Swedish classes were effective but by the nine were they tedious. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've written and memorized Swedish strong verbs...
2 persons have voted this message useful |
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