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Post by jolovespiggies on Jan 6, 2016 12:20:28 GMT
That is the same about the English Piggles love, they seem to think that everyone should speak English and they shouldn't bother to learn other languages LOL My Italian grandmother spoke six languages which came in very handy because she married a diplomat. You are so right hun, not being able to understand these people makes us vulnerable. Haha, love the dinner table toast Bean love. I am not a linguist by nature either Baz love, it didn't come easily to me.
Hugs JO xx
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Post by shades on Jan 6, 2016 15:18:08 GMT
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 6, 2016 16:37:36 GMT
We have two types of schools in the US. One is public schools funded by tax money, and having to accept all students within a certain geographical area. Those schools tend to offer only the languages really in demand in their districts. That mean enough students take the language courses to warrant hiring a teacher to teach the courses. Those vary a lot by the ancestral background of the people in the area, though all schools seem to teach Spanish, now, as the Latino population is increasing rapidly in the US. Public schools, depending on location, have less than a 50% further education rate of graduates attending anything from vocational schools to four-year colleges.
The second type is private schools funded by tuition, and only required to accept the students whose test scores prove they can maintain a decent grade average, or their parents pay their tuition in full, and donate extra funds to the school through endowments or helping to fund major building projects. Only 1/10th of 1% of US students attend those schools. Unlike the public schools, classes are much smaller with much more individual teaching. They also offer more languages, more opportunities such as film school and robotics classes, advance dance, music and drama classes, and more opportunities for hands-on study doing field work in some subjects. There are liberal arts high schools, but there are also maritime academies, equestrian academies, music and art academies, etc., in the private schools. Private schools have about a 99% further education rate.
I do think, though, that even private schools teach the languages enough students want to learn, or it's not worth hiring a teacher. There are multi-lingual teachers, who make it possible to offer more languages for the price. At the public high school my daughter attended, students signed up for language classes, but if there were fewer than 10 signed up for anything but the beginning level of a language, the courses weren't offered. So there really are a lot of different reasons why languages are or aren't taught, in the US. The only good way to learn a lot of foreign languages is to move around a lot or have parents from different backgrounds.
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Post by jolovespiggies on Jan 6, 2016 18:25:13 GMT
Ha ha Shades love, that is brilliant LOL!! We are the opposite here Piggles although your way is definitely better and makes more sense. The top and most elite colleges like Eton, Harrow, Rugby etc are for some reason knows as public schools here. I had a close friend who went to a girls' public school. We also have prep schools which obviously are for much younger children who go onto private/public schools and we have private schools. It is all a bit of a muddle to me too. I am not sure which languages are spoken n schools these days, when I was at school t seemed to be German or French. Needless to say, I didn't get the hang of ether LOL!!
Hugs Jo xx
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Post by bazookagoof on Jan 7, 2016 3:19:47 GMT
Is Spanish the only available language in American schools? When I was in high school, the two foreign languages available were Spanish and French. I heard Russian used to be available, but it had been phased out due to lack of funding. (My high school had dropped numerous programs during my time there.) I believe many colleges made a foreign language mandatory by the time I had finished school, but I'm not 100% certain. I know when I was college hunting, many universities were on that path.
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 7, 2016 20:55:03 GMT
When my sister and I went to college (late 60s, early 70s) all 4 year colleges required a minimum of 2 years of a foreign language, but I don't think it had to be the same language. I could have taken beginning Spanish and beginning French, and covered the requirement. My high school taught 4 years of Spanish, French and Latin, and by the time I started college, since I wasn't a language major, I was way over qualified for Intermediate College Spanish. By Junior year in high school, we were reading books in Spanish, and writing reports in Spanish. Senior year we learned Spanish history, did research and wrote reports in Spanish. I earned spending money in college writing Spanish reports for other students. I ended up in a class for senior Spanish majors in college, so I really did have a very strong background in the language. Then I went back to Massachusetts, where no one spoke Spanish. Give me a few decades, and I can still read it, but I can no longer speak it. I regret not taking a job that required it, but those jobs were all in Boston, and my parents were having fits over the idea of me moving back to Boston. I don't like cities, either, so it wasn't my idea of a good time. Sad to have lost all that, though.
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