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Which foreign languages in your country? | ||
Tags: School Education | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5276 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 9 of 55 30 October 2010 at 3:08pm | IP Logged |
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In Latvia:
1) If I remember correctly, English starts at age of 9 or 10. 2) At age 13 you have to choose between German and Russian. This applies only to regular schools. There is also a French Lycee for those who want to learn French along with English and German/Russian and Nordic gymnasium, where they teach Scandinavian languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5148 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 11 of 55 30 October 2010 at 4:24pm | IP Logged |
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i started English when i was 7 !(but at first i was taught by bad English speaker and just an hour per week) but most people in france start it when they are 11 (2 or 3 hour)
then when you're 13 you have to learn a second language: German or Spanish or Italian if you live near italy(2 hour per week). and then when you're 15 you can start a third language, Italian, russian or mandarin but it's not common 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5572 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 12 of 55 30 October 2010 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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In my state (New York), foreign language education doesn't start until the 7th grade (12-13 years old). In my school the only options were French and Spanish. I can still remember how little time it took me to choose French and how excited I was about finally being able to learn it at school. In high school, they give students a little more control over what courses they want to take, so I decided to take up Spanish too (which required convincing the school that I was really motivated and that I wouldn't just get confused). We had a history teacher who spoke fluent German and was willing to teach it, so a fellow language enthusiast and I tried to get a German class started at our school, but there was not enough interest.
If you ask me, foreign language education should start a lot younger than 12-13. Small children may not do well in advanced math and science and history, but they're super language learners, and it makes no sense to wait until puberty to start teaching kids a foreign language. I think all schools in the U.S. should have mandatory Spanish starting at age 6 or 7. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LittleBoy Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5315 days ago 84 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 13 of 55 30 October 2010 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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It varies hugely in England. I believe that my story is rather exceptional, and that most have much less language than this, but anyway, mine is as follows:
Tiny amount of Italian in Year 3 (Age 7/8) Small amount of French in Years 5 and 6 (Ages 9 - 11) Go to secondary school. French in Year 7 (Age 11/12) Add German and Spanish for Year 8 and 9 (Age 12 - 14) Most schools only do one language between years 7 and 9, with only a couple of hours per language per week, although we had about that much time in each language. Could only take two languages in Years 10 and 11 (for GCSE, ages 14-16). I chose French and Spanish, at my school we had to take at least one, but couldn't continue all three normally, at most schools very few people take even one beyond this point. Continued with one language (French), in 6th form, which is ages 16-18. Most schools don't have enough uptake to offer language classes in sixth form, whilst my current French set is three of us out of a year of about 120. There were two more who dropped out at the end of last year, whilst German and Spanish have marginally bigger class sizes. And even at my school, which I still attend, the system has changed since my day, with the introduction of Mandarin, I believe that now you can only take two languages ever. That was a long rambling post, sorry! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| boon Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6164 days ago 91 posts - 177 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin | Message 14 of 55 30 October 2010 at 5:30pm | IP Logged |
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When I was in school, I started learning Irish at a young age (it's basically a foreign language for most Irish people). Then later on I had French classes too. I didn't have any options but a couple of years later they brought in Spanish classes as well. But only for the new kids.
Different schools taught different languages. In some schools you could only do German. Nowadays there are more options, such as Mandarin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NotKeepingTrack Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5172 days ago 19 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, German | Message 15 of 55 30 October 2010 at 7:28pm | IP Logged |
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There is no unified system in the United States, you have a wide variety of all subjects being taught in the the same grade since education is the responsibility of the state and not the national government. Even within a state, each school system is different, and within those school systems you will find different things being offered when it comes to foreign languages.
But for me, elementary school was all in English. In middle school, 7th grade was a weird year where we learned a little bit of a bunch of languages. (I think it was Spanish, French, and something else that's slipping my mind.) In 8th grade, the advanced students were offered Spanish instead of a second hour of literature, however this instruction was seriously lacking. Starting in high school, there was a "category" from which we could choose taking a foreign language, home ec or woodshop for one year. I took Latin for 3 years, but again, it was not a rigorous course at all. My school also offered Spanish, but those were your only choices. My university offers Spanish and French as a major, French and German as a minor, and they also usually have one Russian course a semester, and last year had an Arabic class, but I don't think they are bringing that back. I do know that in many elementary school districts around me there has been a push for foreign languages, and if a school offers one (usually Spanish, usually once a week) they make a big to-do about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rodrigo Chaves Hexaglot Newbie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5437 days ago 12 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, English, Spanish, Italian, Catalan Studies: Japanese, French | Message 16 of 55 31 October 2010 at 12:34am | IP Logged |
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Here in Brazil, private schools have English classes begging in Kindergarten (age 5-6). Public schools just begin teaching English at the 5th grade (age 10-11)
There are some schools that offer other languages, like Spanish, German, and French, but all the schools teach, at least, instrumental Engish. They teach you how to read texts and how to answer simples questions about those texts. At the university you can choose a language out of a wide varety, it just depends on the university. i.e. UNICAMP has German, Japanese, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian and Esperanto. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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