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What languages did you study in school? | ||
Tags: School Education | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5368 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 94 08 August 2010 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
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In Britain, the most common languages taught at state schools are French and Spanish. Languages including German and Latin have declined in recent years but Mandarin Chinese seems to be growing even though its' insanely difficult reputation.
What languages are taught in schools in your country? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5808 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 94 08 August 2010 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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I took Spanish in the 80's because a language was needed for college. I didn't become
interested in languages until after I graduated. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sydneycarton Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5511 days ago 23 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 94 08 August 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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I did French for a few years. I even got an A-Level in it but when I went to university I stopped studying it (I never really loved it in the same way I do now German) and I've forgotten most of what I learned - at the least it's very well hidden in the back of my brain.
It's the next language on my list and I'll pick it up again when I've got my German to the level I want. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5311 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 94 08 August 2010 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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English in the primary school and highschool.
Latin, German and Italian at the university. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5769 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 5 of 94 08 August 2010 at 9:43pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I'm from the UK too. I took Spanish for a year in the last year of primary school. Over the course of secondary school, I took French and Latin for seven years each. The way the system worked was two of the form classes in the year-group were made to tsake Latin and the other two classes were made to take Ancient Greek.Latin and Ancient Greek classes were for an hour before school officially started on a Monday and during the lunch-break on Wednesdays for another hour. After the first year, we were given the option of dropping our Classical language for another modern one on top of the French we were all already taking. I took option three - meaning carry on with French and Latin and take up German. In year 11 I took my GCSEs which included all three languages.
For the final two years of school (I don't know how it works in America but the final two years are optional in the UK) I took all three languages again, and took a year-long fast-track course in Spanish for the exam which I had done in French, Latin and German the previous year. I did well in all four. After that fast-track year of Spanish, I took a very slow paced year of Russian. And that was what set my university course in stone. As Jon1991 has already said, the main languages which are offered in the UK are French, Spanish and German. French used to be the most popular but now Spanish is overtaking that. German has always been the underdog here. For the last two years of school, I went to a language college which offered all of French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese (the last three only to those who prove that they have the ability for languages by some means or another - usually high test scores in the year before's final exams). The year before I got there, they had been offering Swahili for about 4 years or so, apparently, but the teacher left, unfortunately. In that language college, it was compulsory for all students to take French for the entire seven years of compulsory school. Their policy was a success, I think, because they expected very high standards from everyone (the same was true for all teachers of all the languages in the department.) Beyond the first year, you were not allowed to speak English at all in class. Due to their tests being so difficult, even the weakest students turned out to be quite good at French or whatever language they took, and the strongest students were way, way better than most schoolkids are at languages by the time they leave school. There were two guys in my German class whom I genuinely thought were German when I got there - they weren't, they'd just worked incredibly hard. I used the fact that these two guys were so very good at German (and French, which was what made me realise they weren't German) as a motivating factor to get as good as they were. It paid off - and I got full marks in some of the exams as they did. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5456 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 94 08 August 2010 at 10:30pm | IP Logged |
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Here in Norway English is compulsory and has been so for generations. Traditionally German and French have
been the most popular second foreign languages. German has however lost popularity and Spanish has become very popular. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Polyglotted Triglot Newbie Joined 5232 days ago 35 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 94 08 August 2010 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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My school had language college status, so they offered a wider range than most schools :)
I studied French, Spanish and German for GCSE . We did a fast course in French and took the GCSE in year 9 (at 13/14) and then took up another language. I did Russian but it wasn't leading to an exam so we didn't learn much. So I decided to learn myself. Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, Greek and Polish were also offered, but naively at the time, I didn't think these would be useful for me. Heinsight is a wonderful thing :( Edited by Polyglotted on 08 August 2010 at 11:01pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5467 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 8 of 94 09 August 2010 at 1:01am | IP Logged |
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Like other Brits I did French and German at GCSE level. I had the opportunity to study
Latin as well (this option was only available to those in the top set of maths and English) but I didn't take it for some reason. I continued both French and German to A Level and at my Sixth Form College they offered GCSE Russian, which I did in my second year. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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