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Mandatory Language Training | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5205 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 9 of 16 02 March 2011 at 10:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find the likelihood of mandatory Arabic being taught in Texas, of all places, to be extremely unlikely. Even though for political reasons many of them could REALLY benefit from it. Which is exactly why it'll never happen. Edited by Sandman on 03 March 2011 at 2:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 10 of 16 02 March 2011 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I fear that picking such a difficult language as Arabic to be the first introduction to structured foreign-language learning for these kids could be a bad idea. It could emphasize the already too widely-spread idea that learning a language is always hard, painful, and something that is foisted upon you by authority figures. I would prefer that kids in Texas be given mandatory Spanish classes, seeing as that is both an easier language for English speakers, and a language which most of them probably encounter quite often in their everyday lives. Such an undertaking as Arabic should, in my opinion, be left for those who display an exceptional interest in and dedication to language-learning, instead of reinforcing stereotypes that dissuade young people from language studies.
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| skchi Groupie United States Joined 5542 days ago 57 posts - 86 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 16 03 March 2011 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
I agree with this approach - mandatory world culture classes, with maybe a little bit of basic language instruction, and language classes as electives for the students that are interested. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5320 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 12 of 16 03 March 2011 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
Why would you use hours of children's time for political reasons? That's the time when you're supposed to enjoy not having to deal with such messy and unhappy issues. Arabic is an extremely cool language though. I'm glad that they're branching out from the usual vanilla Spanish-French-German combo. Dunno how I feel about it being mandatory, but that's more reflective of my overall view of public education. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5205 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 16 03 March 2011 at 8:32am | IP Logged | ||
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"Why would you use hours of children's time for political reasons?"
It wouldn't be for political reasons, it would be for decreasing the ignorance that leads people to come to incorrect conclusions. Just as someone who thinks the world is flat would only be able to come up with nonsensical explanations of the planet or universe, those that are ignorant of others culture or country will come up with equally nonsensical ways of reacting to them. This ignorance can, and does, play itself out through political ideology based on logically flawed assumptions. The goal would be to correct the demonstrably incorrect assumptions (all Muslims are terrorists, all Muslims hate America, America is being taken over by Sharia law, etc) that people do in fact base their beliefs on, particularly in Texas where some children are learning it as soon as they can speak. It need not, nor should it, have anything to do with "politics" per se. One can't come to meaningful conclusions, regardless of whether they are left/right wing, if their facts and basic assumptions are incorrect. The culture classes idea seems like a fine, possibly superior, alternative. Edited by Sandman on 03 March 2011 at 8:34am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6447 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 15 of 16 04 March 2011 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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If there's one thing I wish would come from this, it's people learning that "madrasa"
just means "school". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raye Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4951 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: DutchB1 | Message 16 of 16 04 March 2011 at 3:46am | IP Logged | ||
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The Texas school district that’s supposedly receiving the federal funding says on its website (address below), that “there are no ‘mandatory Arabic’ classes as being falsely reported by the media.”
http://www.mansfieldisd.org/departments/communications/news/ 10-11/february/arabicgrant.htm If you Google this topic and have a little knowledge of U.S. domestic media outlets, you’ll quickly find that the main sources of this “They’re making our children study Arabic!” story online are the “usual suspects” who have a sort of “The Arabs are coming” sense of emergency about U.S. life. I still can’t find a more reliable (less biased) description of this program online – no time to go ploughing through Department of Education regulations at their website. The local school district site is the closest I got. The reason I Googled this topic in the first place is because it made no sense based on my experience as an American public school graduate. It just doesn’t work that way. I figured someone had to be misunderstanding the grant language. As best I can tell, the feds decided that it might be a good idea to throw a couple of dollars toward Mandarin and Arabic language learning, and this school district designed a non-mandatory Arabic program to try and get some federal cash. Edited by Raye on 04 March 2011 at 3:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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