chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Dec 5, 2012 16:37:50 GMT -5
scratch that, I just checked my HS's current offerings. students can now choose from French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Greek.
Greek? interesting.
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sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on Dec 5, 2012 16:40:07 GMT -5
MPL- Couple of hours west of you as you know. DS' school offers Spanish, German and French. Like someone else said the Spanish class is most popular. DS plans to take German all 4 years (it's one of his favorite classes). In fact he just informed me that he signed up to do a foreign exchange thing with a German Student for the 2014/2015 school year which would be his Junior Year. German kid would come here and live with us and DS would go to Germany and live with that kid's family.
I took 4 years of Spanish in high school. I gave me enough of a knowledge base to CLEP out of a language requirement in college. I could speak Spanish with the Spanish speaking co-workers/employees I had when I lived in California but I don't comprehend fast enough to like watch a tele-novela and be able to follow the story.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Dec 5, 2012 16:53:33 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 16:54:34 GMT -5
For those with high school kids, does your high school offer more than just Spanish and German? I don't get that with colleges requiring 2-4 years of a world language that the choices are so limited (at least here). We're a global company and I would say Mandarin or Thai would be the most beneficial here. Spanish and German? Uh...no. Where my kids go, they offer French, Spanish and Italian. It is a Catholic school so about half the student body comes from Italian or Irish backgrounds. I took French in High School...it is sort of useless to me. Spanish is good domestically particularly if you are in a part of the country with an overwhelmingly large Hispanic population (they don't want to seem to learn English), but in terms of world commerce, Spanish is useless. I agree, Mandarin would seem like a logical choice, but I can't imagine the difficulty of learning that language and particularly the written characters. Maybe we can jumble up all the languages together and come out with some world speak.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Dec 5, 2012 16:59:16 GMT -5
Like Esperanto? ;D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 17:06:40 GMT -5
LOL Oh yeah, foolish me...I won't ask you how that sounds or goes.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Dec 5, 2012 17:43:19 GMT -5
"Spanish is good domestically particularly if you are in a part of the country with an overwhelmingly large Hispanic population (they don't want to seem to learn English),"
That's their problem. I'm certainly not going to learn spanish to accomidate them.
As I said, even if you do manage to learn a language, unless you immerse yourself in it and practice it frequently you'll likely lose it. So I think learning a language is a waste of time unless you plan on speaking it regularly as part of your daily life.
*shrugs* then again you learn lots of stuff you don't use every day, so language isn't unique in that regard.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Dec 5, 2012 17:47:14 GMT -5
As you can probably tell, I hate forign language and can't grasp it well at all. English has served me well enough.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 17:56:00 GMT -5
"Spanish is good domestically particularly if you are in a part of the country with an overwhelmingly large Hispanic population (they don't want to seem to learn English)," That's their problem. I'm certainly not going to learn spanish to accomidate them. As I said, even if you do manage to learn a language, unless you immerse yourself in it and practice it frequently you'll likely lose it. So I think learning a language is a waste of time unless you plan on speaking it regularly as part of your daily life. *shrugs* then again you learn lots of stuff you don't use every day, so language isn't unique in that regard. Whoa, cool your heels dude...I'm with you about 50 per cent of the way. But sometimes I think, wouldn't it be incredible to read Tolstoy or Dostoevsky in Russian or Kahlil Gibran in Arabic...that would be a gift.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Dec 5, 2012 18:08:50 GMT -5
"But sometimes I think, wouldn't it be incredible to read Tolstoy or Dostoevsky in Russian or Kahlil Gibran in Arabic...that would be a gift." Sorry, I do tend to get a bit carried away . I can see your point. I know some people who learned languages just to read famous works by people in their native tongue. One of my professors in college liked to read works in french by french authors.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Dec 5, 2012 18:15:22 GMT -5
We just had Spanish, I think it was due to budget constraints and also due to not many people signed up for French. College offered several more languages, if I had been really interested I would have taken one there. I pretty much just took a language in high school to knock out the foregin language requirement to get into college.
I graduated in 2002 and language was a pre-req for all teh schools I applied for as well and that was back in 2002. I could get in to Simpson without it but I would have had to take two semesters in college to make it up. Why pay for it when I could take it for free in high school?
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Dec 5, 2012 18:15:41 GMT -5
"I meant as a high school prereq for admission. Both high school course catalogs I'm looking at now (public and private), list 2 years of a single language as a requirement for those planning on going to a Traditional 4-year college and 3-4 years of a single language for the Selective 4-year colleges." I figured that's what you meant. I'm just saying if that's really the expected way now, the change must have been recent because when I was applying to colleges in 2003 it wasn't required. Or maybe it's just your state. I'm thinking it's where you chose to go to school. I graduated HS in 2000 and foreign language was part of my college's placement exam (language of your choice, English, and math). I somehow tested into intermediate French. ETA: My high school offered Spanish, French, Latin, German, and Japanese.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Dec 5, 2012 18:17:45 GMT -5
As you can probably tell, I hate forign language and can't grasp it well at all. English has served me well enough. I wasn't going to say anything until I saw this one. for starters, there is more than just a single language that would be foreign to you. that would be a "them" that you can't grasp, not an "it". unless you're just referring to the idea of learning another language, in which case you didn't present that very clearly at all. are you sure that English has served you well enough? past that, you strike me as particularly arrogant that others will learn English to accommodate YOU. that is, unless you never plan to travel to places where English isn't the national language. oh, wait - it's not the national language here, either. take a personal anecdote - I found myself lost in Venice a couple years back, early enough in the trip that the pidgin Italian I was able to speak by the end hadn't yet taken hold. I was able to ask for and receive directions from a local - in French, because that woman didn't speak English. you never know when it might come in handy to have an alternative way to communicate.
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Cookies Galore
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Post by Cookies Galore on Dec 5, 2012 18:23:13 GMT -5
"Spanish is good domestically particularly if you are in a part of the country with an overwhelmingly large Hispanic population (they don't want to seem to learn English)," That's their problem. I'm certainly not going to learn spanish to accomidate them. As I said, even if you do manage to learn a language, unless you immerse yourself in it and practice it frequently you'll likely lose it. So I think learning a language is a waste of time unless you plan on speaking it regularly as part of your daily life. *shrugs* then again you learn lots of stuff you don't use every day, so language isn't unique in that regard. How utterly dreadful to live in such a narrow little world.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Dec 5, 2012 18:57:03 GMT -5
Our schools are bilingual (French and English) and it's compulsory. There are many other languages offered as electives, including Aboriginal dialects. Spanish was a piece of cake. I learned it just by living in California for a few years. Very easy.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Dec 5, 2012 19:00:12 GMT -5
I'm certainly not going to learn spanish to accomidate them. ---------------------- Evidently, you didn't learn English, either.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 19:38:54 GMT -5
"I meant as a high school prereq for admission. Both high school course catalogs I'm looking at now (public and private), list 2 years of a single language as a requirement for those planning on going to a Traditional 4-year college and 3-4 years of a single language for the Selective 4-year colleges." I figured that's what you meant. I'm just saying if that's really the expected way now, the change must have been recent because when I was applying to colleges in 2003 it wasn't required. Or maybe it's just your state. I'm pretty sure the engineering program I went to at a top 25 engineering school required 2 years of a foreign language when I was admitted in 1983.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Dec 5, 2012 20:01:42 GMT -5
To me, the limited time American students are exposed to foreign languages is a bigger problem than the limited language choices. Generally speaking, it takes a person 10 years to become fluent in a language (less to have conversational abilities).
We have a bilingual Spanish/English school here (half of the day in each language), which is great for the ESL and general population kids.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Dec 5, 2012 20:22:14 GMT -5
Do US schools have Immersion programs like we have in Canada? For example, from grade 3 to grade 6 I would have one French class, but then in Grade 7 i had the option of French Immersion( now it is offered earlier in Grade 3 or 5) Which means exactly that, all of your courses are now in French. It is surprisingly easy for most people to adjust when you are forced to speak the language. Once you hit Grade 10 math courses switch back to English and you can stay in immersion but you have less classes in French than before, most of the science classes are then in English, and the other ones like History are still in French. My friend started at the same time I did and she got a 4 year scholarship to a French University.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Dec 5, 2012 20:27:10 GMT -5
Viola, we only have one in my city (that I am aware of), which is the 5th largest school district in the US.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Dec 5, 2012 20:33:27 GMT -5
Our system may be a little different than other places as I live in the only officially bilingual province, so just about every small school would have an immersion program. The larger areas have it available in the younger grades which i think is better than only starting in middle school.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 20:55:27 GMT -5
We are a very large high school, and we only offer Spanish, French, and Latin. We used to offer Japanese, but the teacher left to work with relocating executives' families at the Honda plant. We used to offer German, but he retired and wasn't replaced (he only taught one class of German I and German II). We have 8 or 9 Spanish teachers, 1.5 French teachers, and 2 Latin teachers. Spanish is definitely the most popular language.
Students can also take their foreign languages through Alabama's online high school program. They get more students than any other subject because small schools just can't afford to offer a foreign language when the teacher may not be certified in anything else. When I graduated, you could teach in either your major or your minor. No Child Left Behind changed that, requiring that you have 30+ hours in your teaching field.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 21:01:21 GMT -5
Actually, learning a foreign language helps you learn to analyze your own language.
Most people (not all) don't have to "learn" English. You are native speakers. Assuming you were surrounded by people who spoke English fairly correctly, you only have to learn a few rules that primarily pertain to Written Standard English. For example, in Oral Standard English, fragments are no big deal. It's how we communicate.
Learning a foreign language, however, forces you to understand concepts like direct and indirect objects. English doesn't change its pronouns . . . objects are in the objective case. The end. Non-pronouns don't even have an objective case. But other languages do change (particularly Latin). So suddenly you have to REALLY understand how a word is functioning in a sentence.
Learning to analyze anything is a nice start to learning how to analyze lots of things.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Dec 5, 2012 21:09:35 GMT -5
Most people (not all) don't have to "learn" English. You are native speakers. Assuming you were surrounded by people who spoke English fairly correctly, you only have to learn a few rules that primarily pertain to Written Standard English. For example, in Oral Standard English, fragments are no big deal. It's how we communicate. ---------------- I don't think it's a question of "learning" English. It's more like "memorizing" English. There are no rules, only exceptions. I found it a bitch to learn.
If it's one house and two houses, why is it not one mouse and two mouses? If it's one goose and two geese, why is it not one moose and two meese? If it's one dish and two dishes, why is it not one fish and two fishes? Nothing about English made any sense to me when I was learning it.
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susanb
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Post by susanb on Dec 5, 2012 21:25:50 GMT -5
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Dec 5, 2012 21:29:59 GMT -5
The term “Asperger's disorder" has been dropped from the official manual used by the American Psychiatric Association, which has recently been published. This could have implications for the diagnosis of cases of autism. The first major review of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) guidance manual for twenty years has led to some changes in what will be the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. According to The Guardian the changes include removal of the term "Asperger's disorder" and the re-categorization of bad and frequent temper tantrums as “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder” (DMDD). Read more: www.digitaljournal.com/article/338335#ixzz2EEdIHXo3
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lurkyloo
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Post by lurkyloo on Dec 5, 2012 21:32:10 GMT -5
We had French, Spanish and German offered in middle school; in the high school Latin was also an option. I took German for five years and came out reasonably proficient, although frankly I was the exception in the class. My university also required either demonstrated proficiency (AP score or in-house placement test) in a foreign language or two years of classes. I've also taken French and a quarter or so of Russian. One vivid memory from my year in Europe is visiting Bulgaria, where very few people speak either English or German...I had a memorable conversation with a taxi driver with his pidgin English and German and my pidgin Russian and French ;D There are irregularities in every language that you just have to memorize though I'll grant you English has more of them (of course English just has more words than most). I think the trickiest bit is getting to where you've absorbed them not just into your conscious but also your subconscious; real fluency is when you don't have to think quite so hard about what you're trying to say. although by that metric sometimes I don't speak English very fluently.
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comom1
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Post by comom1 on Dec 5, 2012 22:07:44 GMT -5
My high school offered German, French and Latin. Of course, that was back in the dark ages ('70s).
My girls could choose from German, French, Spanish and Russian. The district now offers Mandarin, as well.
I took Latin. Kind of a waste as a spoken language but great as a building block for understanding the intricacies of the English language.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 22:13:01 GMT -5
I took Latin and found it very helpful to vocabulary. It's supposed to be good for other languages as well. I told the kids after they get through Rosetta Stone Latin level Two I'll get them whatever other language they want.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 22:14:00 GMT -5
That's because you "learned" it. As my post said, native speakers don't learn it. They absorb the rules assuming they are around people who speak good English.
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