#and the unwillingness to bother in non-anglo countries | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mishkakagehishka · 2 years ago

Note

With the language speaking poll, it varies from country (and state/county in the US)

In my area you're required 2 years of a language course

Most kids take it but do the bare minimum or just don't remember it. Usually you grow up knowing that language/being taught it young. Sometimes we learn jt in school and remember enough to keep taking to learn and remember. We usually offer use it or lose it languages, which most kids don't use it and then they lose it and then no one speaks other languages

Huh! That makes sense, actually, i feel like 2 years is not nearly enough to retain enough knowledge, and not even enough to learn a lot. I think when i started studying italian in 4th grade, we didn't even get to subjunctives by the time i was 8th grade, and subjunctives are a surprisingly common form. At least to the way I speak. And even among those who took the elective third language, i know a lot of folks who don't remember a thing about it, i'm assuming because even four years of a once-per-week class isn't enough for retention.

Well, it's sad, at least to me who is linguistically inclined. Quot linguas calles tot homines vales is something i take personally lololol but right! I guess it's the sort of inertion that happens to speakers of a lingua franca, there's no "need" to learn a foreign language, so even those who are talented for languages might never find out :/

Well, I hope thanks to globalisation, at least those who like foreign languages can find ways to learn even outside of formal schooling :>

#i think you'll notice easily that i'm a bit in love with foreign languages and really defend languages as a subject in school with my life #i once saw (a native eng speaker) call foreign language subjects joke classes and useless and i felt like maiming lmao #but i feel like i totally understand what you mean #it's one thing with english - it's a mandatory 2nd language from 1st to 12th grade in my country #which means that it's standardised and you're always learning more and more and more and thanks to media #you're bound to retain it. i even had it in preschool !#and a related digression but it also depends on the age you give students a foreign language - the older we get the harder it is to learn #a language. not impossible but just more difficult. i think a huge part of the reason why i'm fluent is because of the fact that i started #learning when i was 4 years old. the third language is an elective in most 4th-8th grade classes and kids get to choose #between italian and german usually (a friend of mine took french tho) and despite the fact that they're languages we do get exposed to #but i tell you most kids i know don't remember anything. depending on the high school you either get a mandatory 3rd language or a #mandatory 3rd and 4th. again italian and/or german. but those tortured souls in classic gymnasiums had latin and ancient greek </3 #even from my hs class i don't know many folks who remember much italian. it's dependant on the kid's will to learn when there's not as much #time or focus on the class bc yknow. we took the same classes yet i'm quite comfortable majoring in a language my friends can barely #introduce themselves in. such is life. i'd love languages to be more focused on especially in these times of globalisation but well #i guess it'll just always be harder to implement a focus on anything non-english #bc it's considered one of the only useful language there's the inertion in anglo countries #and the unwillingness to bother in non-anglo countries #at least in mine where kids have like 17 other subjects i can see why they'd to the bare minimum for 3rd language #even i - linguistically inclined as i am - passed on the opportunity to take french in hs because i just had enough on my plate #asks

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