Another rant: on foreign language classes in high school

[mayhap]

gpiiretu requested the charming habit of American schools to not offer foreign languages until high school.


I'm sure that most if not all of you wondered, whilst you were still in grades K-12--if you have, in fact, escaped yet--whether the curriculum had been designed for any other purpose other than to cause you pain and suffering, draining from you even the will to live, much less learn anything ever again. And the answer is, no. No, it wasn't.

After all, if foreign language classes were actually designed to, you know, help you acquire a foreign language, they would start you out young. Little kids pick up languages about as naturally, if not quite as rapidly, as breathing. The older they get, the less able they are, until finally their brains become adult, and picking up a foreign language is about as hard as it can possibly be for them, at least until they become senile.

So, when does the typical American school begin offering foreign language classes? Yup, you guessed it! Roughly when it starts being as difficult as it can possibly be! Not everyone is equally handicapped at this point in their developmental stage, of course, but everyone, even that obnoxious girl who never studied, skipped a year, and always pulled A pluses (er, yes, that would be me) could have done much better if they had started earlier!

You've probably heard the old joke before: What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? American. Hardly any wonder, is it, when our education system sets people up for failure and a corresponding fear of non-English languages!

Bah. School is designed to discourage learning.

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

Je suis d'accord.
I used to intend to marry a frenchman, but you can see how that didn't quite happen. Maybe we'll get a spanish maid or be stationed overseas when my children are in their formative years. Barring that, they'll get tutored in childhood.

[satyadasa.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the most popular languages to learn would be among, say, American third through seventh graders, if we ignore just for a moment the relative number of competent teachers of those languages affecting which ones that schools offer. I can imagine Japanese and Spanish would be the two most popular; what else?

[supertigerbabe.livejournal.com]

You know, I went to a private school where we learned French from kindergarten on up, and I'm definitely lucky. Of course, the kids I teach can't speak ENGLISH, much less French or Spanish.... I'm certified to teach French, but I almost believe that it would further screw up their spelling and grammar... *sigh*

But I don't think it's like that everywhere... I think they're a product of poor elementary teachers.

[supertigerbabe.livejournal.com]

So off the subject, I apologize, but what did you tell me about JRR Tolkien intending for Aragorn and Eowyn to end up together? I was trying to tell my class and I can't remember why you said he didn't end it up that way.

Thanks!!!

if you haven't already seen it...

[rukh214.livejournal.com]

as i woefully lack any tech-savvy, i have to resort to boring-ol' show-the-web-link-and-not-a-cool-subtitle method.

"Anchorage elementary students immersed in Russian"

http://adn.com/alaska_ap/story/6092487p-5981097c.html