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Foreign languages fade-- except Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5425 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 1 of 30 21 January 2010 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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According to this New York Times article, many U.S. public middle and high schools have dropped their foreign language courses. Interestingly enough, however, the percentage of schools offering Chinese classes has gone up. Read it and see what you think:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21chinese.html Edited by Keith on 22 January 2010 at 12:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5534 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 2 of 30 21 January 2010 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I saw that article earlier today linked from Google News. The part about the lack of language offerings in public school in general is quite sad, though. Sure, self-study is generally more effective than class study in most cases anyway, but I still learned quite a bit from high school Spanish class.
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| erinserb Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7195 days ago 135 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 30 23 January 2010 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a sad state of affairs for languages which are rewarding and still quite valuable. Languages such as French, German and Russian are essential to a study of Western Civilization.
Chinese/Mandarin is on a rise right now because of the economic power of China. When that economy starts to get shaky (and it will, think Japan), people will think twice. Also, to speak Mandarin even to a level of proficiency - be prepared to study for a lifetime. However, self-study is the best way to learn - IMHO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Morak99 Newbie United States Joined 5484 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 30 24 January 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is a great shame. My school's language program was saved only because of legal matters. They're in the middle of a big budget crisis right now, and the commission came to the decision that German, Italian, and Latin were too under-enrolled and needed to be axed. However, Pennsylvania state law says you can't fire teachers unless the entire department is cut, and since there was still more than enough students in French and Spanish, cutting the languages wouldn't have saved any money.
It's a shame that the State mandates industrial ed, which literally only about 3 students take in my area, but not language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| str0be Senior Member Korea, South Joined 5603 days ago 103 posts - 148 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, Korean | Message 5 of 30 24 January 2010 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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What is industrial ed?
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| GeekGuy Newbie China Joined 5436 days ago 21 posts - 23 votes Studies: French | Message 6 of 30 24 January 2010 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, learning a foreign language could be a novelty to most people especially Americans I suppose. On the other hand, in terms of the United States, a country of immigrants with a relatively huge land property, the trend of foreign language teaching is evolving with the immigrants. There is no doubt that the economy exerts the great influence, but the real deal could be the fact that schools lack resources for learning German, Russian etc. They are not free while the Chinese government would like to share the burden, which explains the phenomenon.
Chinese is absolutely difficult to learn. Native speaker as I am, I spend a great deal of time enhancing my vocabulary and trying to make the process of the learning enjoyable and rewarding. And I will devote my lifetime to improving my English and French as well. You will never be forced at gunpoint to learn a language. It is up to you whether you like to learn the language or not. I personally do not see any significant differences from the news. Since many people here are really passionate about languages and I noticed that many people are so amazing that they can speak so many languages, I do think it essential to interrogate yourselves the purpose and the pursuit. Is it worth the time and effort learning this language? If it deserves your dedication, you can learn it with ease whether you have adequate references or not. When we change our attitudes, the whole world changes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doug52392 Newbie United States Joined 5493 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 30 24 January 2010 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Isn't it a requirement for most colleges that applicants must have taken foreign language classes in high school? I know it's a requirement for almost every college in Massachusetts, because I had to take three years of Spanish classes in high school to fulfill college eligibility requirements.
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| Veedo Newbie United States Joined 5420 days ago 12 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 30 25 January 2010 at 1:40am | IP Logged | ||
When I started college I found that I didn't actually need foreign language credits to get in but I was told I would probably have to study 2~4 semesters of a foreign language to graduate. Then I learned that in my major (computer science) I didn't need to study any. In general we were told a lot of scary things about college that didn't turn out to be true. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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