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Which foreign languages in your country? | ||
Tags: School Education | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Raye Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5159 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: DutchB1 | Message 25 of 55 01 November 2010 at 12:41am | IP Logged |
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My U.S. public school experience: Some kids started a foreign language in 9th grade (age 14), others began in 10th grade (age 15). It wasn't compulsory in my day (I think it is now in many/most states), but anyone with a remote idea of going to college knew you had to take two or three years to satisfy the entrance requirement of the state university. My school offered Spanish, French and German. Spanish was probably the most popular. I think wealthier school districts and private schools are more likely to make special programs available (like bilingual instruction and immersion) at a younger age, in languages such as French, Spanish and Japanese.
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| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5654 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 26 of 55 01 November 2010 at 4:35am | IP Logged |
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I'm wondering what states some of you are from, saying colleges require foreign language in order to get into university. Out of high school, I never completed a week of a foreign language class, yet, I got a scholarship for a university in southern Ohio (too expensive, withdrew), enrolled in a community college, and now got accepted into another university, all without taking a foreign language class in high school. I live in Ohio by the way. And they told us the same lie(?) about needing a foreign language to enter college.
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| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5788 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 27 of 55 01 November 2010 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
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The public school system in my hometown (USA) offered only Spanish and French from grade 7 (ages 12-13), for a total of four years (though switching after two years was allowed I believe). Local private schools offer additional languages, though they seem to come and go, with only French, Spanish, Latin, and Chinese staying constant in the last decade.
In Japan, English is mandatory for the last three years of compulsory education (junior high school, equiv. to US grades 7-9, ages 12-15). English class will be mandatory for lementary grades 5 and 6 from the start of the 2011 school year, though many big city schools currently provide English instruction starting from grade 1 (ages 5-6). Most students go on to high school where English is usually mandatory. Either during high school or upon entering university, many humanities and liberal arts students will take a second foreign language. Korea, Chinese, German (especially for medical students), French, and Italian are among the more common choices, approximately in that order. Japan-educated adults in and entering the workforce now usually have between 6 and 10 years of English language instruction and future generations will have many with up to 16 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5201 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 28 of 55 01 November 2010 at 9:52am | IP Logged |
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Wow! This thread really reveals how the United States is flagging in terms of second language education.
In Portland, Oregon, up until high school (ninth grad), no language study was required, and in fact, none was offered! At high school there may have been a requirement of two years, but no more. The languages available were Spanish, French, German, and Japanese... although that may be different now. My guess would be that, generally, Spanish is the most studied second language in the United States... certainly in the Portland area. Thank god my mom enrolled in my extracuricular courses! Edited by nebojats on 01 November 2010 at 9:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 29 of 55 01 November 2010 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
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Well, we have at lest seen the reason why most Americans (the present company excluded of course :-) do not excell in languages.
I have been a language teacher myself, and I felt I did a fairly good job, but if you do not start until you are 13-14-15, and then perhaps only do it a couple of hours per week, it is difficult to get good results. No teacher can get you up to speed in that time. My only consolation was that some of my pupils were inspired enough to travel to Latin America or Spain to learn more Spanish, just as I went to France after having been inspired by my French teacher, but that will usually be one in a 100. A few years of laguages will always be better than nothing, and even my two years of German has served me very well, but obviously, we would so much better if we could start earlier and go on for longer. My dream would be that you start with English immediately (age 5-6), you start your second language at age 10, and your third language at age 13. That is how you would get results. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5775 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 30 of 55 02 November 2010 at 7:06pm | IP Logged |
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In my school (in Pune, Maharashtra, India) we had English from 1st Grade to the 12th, Marathi from the 1st grade through the 10th, Hindi starting from the 5th grade through the 10th, had to choose from Sanskrit and German for 8th through 10th, and from Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, German, French, (and many other languages like Russian, Persian, Urdu, and other Indian languages as I found out later) and tech subjects like elex, mech engg, IT etc for 11th and 12th. So basically we had to study 4 to 5 languages through the 12 years of school.
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| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5212 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 32 of 55 04 November 2010 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
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Here in Scotland it seems to vary from school to school, but my situation was:
- French starting from Primary 6 (age 10), just very basic stuff like how to say hello and what your name is, no grammar or anything like that. - French class when you go to high school (age 12). Classes are only a couple of times a week so you don't learn much, and they're mainly focused on vocabulary on specific subjects (hobbies, pets, holidays, etc.) with only very basic mentions of grammar (present tense verb conjugations). - In Second year at high school, we were given once-per-week "taster" lessons in Italian. I don't remember learning anything more than colours. The language switches year-about between Italian and German; I was in an Italian year. - In Third and Fourth year, we do Standard Grade courses, and at least one language must be taken. The choice is between French and the year-about language (Italian in my case); I picked French because I already knew the basics from previously studying it so I thought I may as well stick with it. The lessons are a bit more frequent and in-depth at this level, and you learn about past and future tenses etc.. - In Fifth year, you can choose to take a Higher course in one of the languages you did at Standard Grade. This is basically a continuation of Standard Grade: more grammar, more vocab, and you study a short story. For the first time in a school language course, speaking is introduced: you must give a presentation, and have a "conversation" (mostly pre-scripted) with your teacher. There's a lot of reading and writing, although the level still isn't very high, and even relatively basic concepts like the subjunctive are never touched upon. - Some schools offer an Advanced Higher in Sixth year, if they have the resources and the demand; mine didn't. From what I gather it involves study of more complicated literature and not much more speaking. - There were exchange visits for Italian and German, but not for French. However we did have a trip to France when we were 14, during which we mostly stayed in our group and were isolated from any actual French people, but we did have one experience of meeting a group of French youths our age in a small town. I still remember the exact conversation: Scottish pupil 1: "How do you ask what age they are?" Scottish pupil 2: "I'm not sure... Just say 'âge' and they'll know what you mean." Scottish pupil 1: "Ok... âge?" French youth: "Seize. Environ." Scottish pupil 1: "Seize?" [looks around to see if anyone can remember what "seize" means] Scottish pupil 3 [30 seconds later]: I know, it's sixteen! Scottish pupil 1: "Ok, and 'environ' means 'round about'" [worked out from the context]. French youth [pointing at a girl with us]: "Cette fille-là, elle est belle!" Scottish pupil 1 [to the girl]: "Did you hear that Jaime, you're 'belle'!" So you get the idea of the level of conversational proficiency we had attained after 4 years; both parties managed to get their points across at least. As you've seen, French was the main language focused on at the schools I went to; at other schools it was German and I have friends who learned a lot of German but never touched French. Fancier schools with more resources offer more languages; I have a friend who did Russian at Higher level. Edited by garyb on 04 November 2010 at 4:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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