How come in American classrooms they make another language an elective. Why not teach our kids as many languages possible that way if we go somewhere we will kind of have uper hand?

Comments

• Kirp123@lemmy.world ⁨31⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  Everyone coming up with conspiratorial reasons why this is not the case but it’s much simple than that. It’s not feasible and it’s expensive and the returns aren’t really worth it.

  Kids in school have a bunch of other subjects they have to learn besides foreign languages. You can add one or two languages but then at some point you will need to remove other subjects to add more or you need to keep kids in school even more. Both are not really feasible. Then you need to hire teachers for all these new languages which most places won’t do.

  Another issue is with the way they teach languages in schools. They expect you to pass a test and not actually learn the language so a lot of the languages will not “stick” as the students lack immersion and practice with that language. I can speak for myself, I have learned two languages besides my native language in school: French and English. I had French since 2nd grade, which is 10 years of French classes and English since 5th grade which is 7 years of English classes. Today I can speak English fluently and like 3 words of French. The difference was that I was always immersed in English, though video games, movies, songs and so on. Not so much with French. I have noticed the same pattern with most of my friends and family members.

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• JigglySackles@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  The problem in the US is that besides English, you might be exposed to some Spanish. And not much else unless you seek it out. Or have immigrant friends. Without consistent practice, and some more native speakers, any learned language just rots away.

  I learned German for several years in college. It was fun. Went to a local brewhouse with my classmates and talked in simple german while we had dinner, it was a good time. Now, other than my own attempts at saving my whithered skill, and a couple bedtime songs for my kids, I don’t use it.

  And even when I was better at it, using it as a tourist in germany was moderately helpful, but it wouldn’t have been nearly enough skill to pass any kind of immigration language proficiency exams.

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• justdaveisfine@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  In my own experience, if you pick up another language but don’t use it on an at least a semi-regular basis, your skills in it get real rusty real fast.

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• Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Because the system is designed to make it so you never leave and you never have the upper hand.

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    English has 1.5B fluent speakers spread across the entire globe. Hardly an insular language.

    This is far more about discrimination - freezing migrant families out of public sector jobs and services, segregating English speakers from minority speakers, abolishing First Nations language and culture.

    Also very important to keep Americans from reading foreign language press.

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    • NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Sorry, but I really am failing to make the connection between how learning a second language as an optional class leads to “freezing migrant families out of public sector jobs and services”. You don’t even need to speak English to access those most of the time. In my city, nearly all public services are available in English and Spanish at the minimum, and frequently Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian as well.

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• jqubed@lemmy.world ⁨55⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  I know it varies from state to state, but where I’ve lived it’s an “elective” in that you got to pick which language to take of the available options (some schools might only have two choices, others four or even five), but taking a certain number of foreign language credits was required for graduation. If you wanted to go beyond the minimum and had room in your schedule you could.

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  • Nemo@slrpnk.net ⁨46⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    Same way where I grew up in South Dakota, except each school only taught one language.

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• mrmisses@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Because it would upset the racists (republicans)

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• HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  It hasn’t really been an economic necessity or cultural priority like other countries.

  Most countries who have a population who speak more than one language usually either have a variety of languages spoken within/near the country or rely on ESL speakers to participate in the international workforce.

  With English being the current lingua franca, Americans already know the current dominant language. There is really only one major language which is relevant to neighbors, but Americans are usually in the more dominant economic position and there is a cultural aversion to adopting Spanish more.

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  • ageedizzle@piefed.ca ⁨16⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    There is really only one major language which is relevant to neighbors

    Spanish

    French Canadians would like to habe a word with you 

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  • fizzle@quokk.au ⁨54⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    This is the correct answer.

    If you live in SE Asia for example you speak your local language at home but you need to learn English for work.

    If you already speak English at home then you already know how to speak English at work.

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• TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  I’d say because half of america’s goals involve not understanding other cultures and believing whatever nonsense the corporate overlords want to say about them.

  I still have to laugh at when american’s went on chinese tiktok to work around the possible bans, and the chinese were all like “wait, you really do have to pay out the nose for an ambulance ride, I thought that was propoganda by our government” meanwhile a lot of american’s were learning half of the horrors of china were extremely overstated or manipulated.

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    meanwhile a lot of american’s were learning half of the horrors of china were extremely overstated or manipulated.

    Crazy how quickly the Chinese travel vlogs get demonetized on YouTube. Google execs really do not want you knowing how nice East Asian cities are.

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    • NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      As someone who is Chinese and living in the US, Americans who have not been to China overestimate its shittiness and people who have been to China once or twice overestimate its glamour. Outside the cities, the rural areas can be real shit-holes. I’ve been to a tea plantation where there were a total of six electric plugs in the entire village. It’s not the level of rank poverty you see in many developing countries, far from it, but it’s a lot worse than even the poorest parts of Appalachia in the US, where at least people usually have electricity and running water.

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  • fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Rednote’s been a fascinating natural experiment in cross cultural communication that we need to repeat at scale

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• Canconda@lemmy.ca ⁨29⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  Wait…

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• Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  We needed ~“3” levels of language classes to graduate in my school (7th and 8th grade effectively counted as 1 level, so it was really 4 years). You could elect to take extra if you wanted.

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• SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Go on radio.garden and try to find foreign language music. My point is it’s wild how much English has become a common language worldwide, even if it’s not the first language

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• Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Americans always have the upper hand in other countries by simply speaking English louder and slower until our needs are met.

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• fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Back in the renaissance ancient Greek and Latin were needed to study ancient texts, so knowing them was needed for university. These requirements lasted into the 20th century so high schools taught it for college track students. These days they’ll take any language. The methods of teaching and the structural contours of this shape how language learning is thought of to this day

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• supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Ok so well then all the work is on OUR kids then and then not the rest of the worlds kids to learn American? Why is the world so unfair to USA?

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• panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  Learning a second language takes a lot of time and effort, and I don’t think the US likes either of those things, not the funding required for them.

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