In St. Petersburg, Russia, most public employees speak excellent English, and there are signs in English, all to accommodate tourists. We can't do the same for those who live here.

I... don't like it, really.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

Also I had a surprise birthday party thrown for me tonight. The attention to detail my friends have in conjunction with the things I have always wanted was really wonderful. Um, that's just a cold way of saying how much I love them for it lol. and for getting me a dress to junior/senior as my gift.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

I lived in Europe for a long time and though most people in Western Europe and most people in urban areas in Eastern Europe speak English to some degree (usually pretty well), I have never seen signs in English. Major cities are a lot different than the regular towns. Also, most parts of Europe that I traveled to had a chip on their shoulder if you didn't speak their language though if you made an attempt, even my shitty broken, retarded child like attempts, they appreciate it and treat you very well. The sign thing though I never saw.

I hate the ethnocentric mindset and phobia of anyone different that haunts America. Hell, we hate our own people so foreigners don't have a chance. Turn on the news and you see our news channels hating each other, hating the other party, shit they even hate J Crew ads!! White/Latino/black/Asian/Puerto Rican/poor/rich/Philly fans/Sabres fans...I mean foreigners are fucked.

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well, this is finally the end of the end

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

Why would learning another language be important if you already live in a country where most people speak one language? The reason why Spanish is deemed important to learn today is that much of the United States population is now Hispanic and Spanish speaking. If another country can speak 2 languages, why does that automatically make us obligated to know 2 languages?

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

i dont like that thinking. yeah, US is an english speaking country, but having a second language wont hurt anyone. americans are really stubborn about it, that people coming here should learn and know OUR language, but how many americans try to learn the language of the country they are traveling to? not that many.

personally, i feel kids should learn spanish and french in school.

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Do you realize the importance of learning another language? Sure, maybe for you personally it isn't useful. However, the fact that many people in the U.S., including many of our politicians who deal with other countries on a pretty regular basis, haven't even learned another foreign language is troubling. Do you know how much more we could trade with other countries if we bothered to learn the language of the people we are trading with? If we didn't depend on translators in political affairs and could furthermore speak the language of those we were dealing with, I imagine it would help a lot. The thought should not be "in our country, we speak our language, and in other countries we speak our language" in terms of political and business meetings. In normal business, you cater to your customer. If your customer speaks another language, you better damn well learn the language.

One reason that foreigners dislike Americans is because they don't make an effort to speak their language. When many Americans visit another country, they don't even bother to brush up on some basic terms that they'd need to get by. In turn, many of them have to depend on the citizens themselves who actually bothered to learn English, because they clearly saw a use for it. Many foreigners find it insulting that people don't even make the effort.

Furthermore, there have been many studies that show that learning another language can help improve English language skills. Learning languages makes you look at your own language in a different way. You understand more about sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. Given that many in our school system are illiterate, it wouldn't hurt to have a foreign language system in place that could potentially improve their English skills.

While we're on that subject, many American public schools don't start teaching foreign language til 7th grade--if at all. With schools facing financial crisis, many have decided to cut foreign language even further. When you look abroad, many schools in Europe begin teaching students at very young ages, and continue their education on foreign language throughout their schooling. They start young, because studies show that the optimal time to learn a language is between birth and 7 years of age. Honestly, many students in other countries are likely fluent in another language by the time Americans here start learning one. That isn't how it should work.

Mindsets like yours are the reason America is so far behind in foreign language. People here "don't see the point." But when you're in a world as globalized as it is today, foreign language is essential. I can almost guarantee that if we continue down the road we're on, we're going to fall way behind compared to many other countries who do see the importance of foreign language.

/endrant

shoot, the best english grammar i ever had taught to me was by my latin teacher

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

Seriously...all the people in the US demanding that foreigners learn how to speak English are the same people who complain when they travel abroad and they get angry and frustrated when nothing is written in English.


Absolutely.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi

Oh, so what you're saying is, even when schools are having trouble with math and science, the more important subjects, we should still make foreign languages necessary and push it because other nations hate us for that (because you can totally speak for everyone in the world). I personally think it should be optional, because if you WANT to learn the language, instead of being forced to, it becomes easier to learn. I've been taking a Spanish class all my life, since a very young age.

Furthermore, if you're going to be a politician, sure, you should learn a language. That's why it should be optional. The foreign language grades suffer because it's forced, and kids just don't take it seriously.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

The language of business worldwide is English. Has been for years. Will continue to be. Business is a completely different animal that dumb tourists.

It's not a bad thing to learn a foreign language, but it's certainly not a detriment that you don't.

Math and science are the "more important subjects" because America deems them to be so. English should be considered an "important" subject, but it clearly isn't. That's why you notice that so many of the younger generation of absolutely horrible English skills. Schools don't prepare them well enough, and instead focus on "more important" subjects like math and science. So, yeah, I think they should push foreign language as a study. I am glad that I went to a school that had a pretty good foreign language program that was REQUIRED. I took Korean in school, and you know what? I'm better off because of it. I learned another language. I could better understand how English worked because of said language. I learned SO much about the Korean culture in that class. Sadly, I am not fluent in the language, but I'm glad I was able to learn it. I understand the Korean culture better than I did before I took the language. How is that not important?

The very reason that many kids don't take it seriously is because Americans themselves don't take it seriously. We have this outlook in America that foreign language doesn't mean anything or that it doesn't matter. It does. English isn't the only language in the world. Hell, a lot of languages existed long before English came around. To ignore those languages is to ignore the history of the English language itself.

If you make English optional, then quite honestly, very few people will take it because foreign language has so little importance in America. As I said before, there's more to learning a foreign language than just learning the language. In foreign language courses, if taught properly, you learn A LOT about the culture. Many Americans do not know enough about other cultures, and they can save themselves from looking like idiots by learning more about it. Learning about other cultures will open up your mind to new ideas and viewpoints. Quite honestly, I can't see how that isn't important.



Perhaps it's not a detriment, but I still consider it something that should be actively taught in schools. I don't even see an argument against it, besides funding issues... which is another thing entirely. There aren't really any downsides to learning a foreign language.

Honestly, I would have probably been more open to learning a foreign language if it wasn't forced on me in school.

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Learning French in high school saved my ass when I was rushed to the ER in Belgium. Being able to ask where the toilet is and the like is key. I had to wait two days until they could get me an interpreter so I could communicate with the docs though. They don't exactly teach you how to say words like "Spontaneous pneumothorax" in high school french class.

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Almost had a meltdown today. I bought a new Coach bag and it's really sensitive to water in that if it gets any water on it, it will stain. I normally am not one to bitch about snow online, but holy shit I would have been upset if my purse got ruined.

In my high school, English (and history) were yearly requirements. Math and Science classes only had to be taken two of the four years. My high school also required at least three years of a language, Latin, German, French, or Spanish. I ended up taking three years of German and while I found it interesting, I can't say that I gained a whole lot from it. Although being able to semi understand our German-speaking members is pretty cool.

I would not have minded taking more years, but in wanting to take english and engineering classes I simply didn't have room.

It does annoy me that Language classes aren't required earlier when it's easier to learn said language. I remember doing a whole lot of nothing on a lot of days in elementary school. It also annoyed me that there were no accelerated classes in my elementary school. It might be prudent to provide a language as an elective in elementary school and a requirement in middle/high school. If a student is proficient enough when they leave elementary school they can test into a higher grade language class and get more out of their education.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

im tactically nuking my floor hockey team.

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Check out my website: http://www.artistzero.com

"That wasn't very nice...I do believe you killed my hat."

Driver of the FIRE LINDY RUFF Bandwagon since 2008.

Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Overall you appear to be Right Brain Dominant

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Schools around my neighborhood are really shitty, so things may be different at better schools. Schools in my area either had really bad classes across the board, as well as stupid requirements. Or, people went to Eleanor Roosevelt, which is a math and science school, so I'm pretty sure you weren't required to take too many English classes... at least from my knowledge. Plus, since it's a math and science school, I'm pretty sure the English classes are shitty.

My school did offer language classes starting in elementary school. I don't remember how young it starts, but I'm pretty sure it starts at least in first or second grade. However, any memories I have before 4th grade barely exist, so I can't really tell you. The only thing that was stupid about my school is that in 7th grade, they made you switch languages for a year or two. Which, yeah, they want us to have experience with more than one language. My problem was that switching to Spanish (my school only offered Spanish and Korean) caused me to forget a lot of the Korean that I had known. So when I switched back to Korean, I was a newbie again. Then once I acquired more Korean skills, I didn't really remember Spanish much anymore, especially since I had only taken a year of Spanish. But, I really do think they should start languages when kids are younger. I feel like it'd make them grow up not only with another language under their belt, but with a more open mind as well.