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Foreign languages fade-- except Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5574 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 9 of 30 25 January 2010 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Board of Higher Education in MA requires at least two years. Though there are exceptions (native language is not English, Independent learning plan, non traditional student etc.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 30 25 January 2010 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Most colleges do require that prospectives have 2+ years of a foreign language to be considered for admission. I'm required to take four semesters in college to graduate, some of my friends need two, and some don't need any. All in the same university. It just depends on the major. Edited by goosefrabbas on 25 January 2010 at 4:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5959 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 11 of 30 25 January 2010 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Japan's economy has levelled off at a GDP per capita of around 34,000 dollars. If China's economy follows a similar route, it's economy will end up about FOUR times as large as the U.S. economy. Think about that the next time you write off China and Mandarin as a fad. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5734 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 12 of 30 26 January 2010 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Sorry to get off topic, but since it's been brought up, and since I read this interesting article the other day... http://blog.ecocn.org/?p=1098 It's both in English and Chinese, from the Economist. Tagline:
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| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5425 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 13 of 30 28 January 2010 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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^ Very interesting link there, Pyx. Definitely shows that the main difference between the Chinese and Japanese economies is that the Chinese one still has a LOT of room for growth. I guess this is also part of the reason why people are increasingly starting to regard it as a country that holds many possibilities economically...
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| Lemus Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6380 days ago 232 posts - 266 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Russian, German | Message 14 of 30 28 January 2010 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm happy to see Chinese doing well in American schools, but I feel the article really glosses over how badly the other languages have been doing in an era of standardized testing that doesn't include foreign languages. Although the article mentioned the explosive growth of AP Chinese, it did not mention how in the last year there were four AP exams discontinued, three of which were foreign languages (French literature, Italian language and culture, and the non-Virgil Latin exam). The reason being that these exams had low numbers of test takers (I heard the number 6000 for French literature, whereas AP English literature averages about 300000 and AP Spanish around 100000. It's no mystery why they were cut). Also, plans for a future AP Russian have been indefinitly postponed from the last I heard.
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| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6658 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 15 of 30 29 January 2010 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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When I was in high school, the enrollment in Spanish classes at our school was at least two or three times as high as enrollment in any other language because Spanish had a reputation for being an easy language.
Chinese has a reputation for being a fiendishly difficult language. I can't help but be surprised at how popular Chinese is becoming and wonder how far into the language many students will go before giving up. I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from learning any language, but I hope that Chinese is taught differently from the way European languages were taught when I was in high school. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6185 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 30 01 February 2010 at 9:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't know how it is in the rest of America, but at the high school I graduated from they do not teach characters, only pin yin. Not only does it serve as a crutch to the students, but it could possibly make them highly intimidated when they take a college course, where they will more than likely be forced to learn characters, meaning they probably have to retake the first level courses.
People always tell me I should learn Chinese because of the economy... but I have no interest. I'll let everyone else dive right in and I'll take my Korean. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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