Spanish students' visit to America

[xiaojiang216]

大家好,

There are about 8 students from Spain visiting our school, and will be here for about 10 days. It was good to hear the language being spoken as it should be, unlike how I hear classmates constantly butchering it.

Why is it that my fellow highschool classmates, most of which have been taking Spanish since 6th grade, can't converse (or even simply converse) with these Spanish students in their native language? I spoke with one of the students, and we got in the conversation of languages. She speaks Spanish, Catalan, German, and English. The other students spoke just as many languages, and some knew French, too.

Why is it that many American people don't bother to learn other languages? I understand that it is not as geographically demanding as it is in Europe, but we neighbor French and Spanish-speaking countries. Do people in America really think that because they speak English, that there is no need to learn any other languages? Studying Chinese would probably be a better use of their time, and would put them at a high advantage over others who don't speak Chinese in the business world.

Because students like these Spanish students speak so many languages, they can express themselves better, and seem to be more dilligent. I'm sorry if I sound very annoying... I am just curious about what others think, because no one in my school seems to care.

Thank you all for your time,

小强

[doumeizhen]

Do people in America really think that because they speak English, that there is no need to learn any other languages?

That has been my experience, yes.

I understand that it is not as geographically demanding as it is in Europe, but we neighbor French and Spanish-speaking countries.

We do, BUT, I think we lack the cultural concept of being surrounded by them. I am not sure if this makes sense... But when I was growing up in Germany, we learned about Europe in the first grade, that we are in it, and so are others. I cannot recall a time in my American education where I learned about Mexico or Canada in context of being a neighbor. It almost seems like we are a free-floating island, and occasionally, people come in, and it's amazing that they do. (Please please please note the sarcasm here)

Why is it that my fellow highschool classmates, most of which have been taking Spanish since 6th grade, can't converse (or even simply converse) with these Spanish students in their native language? I spoke with one of the students, and we got in the conversation of languages. She speaks Spanish, Catalan, German, and English. The other students spoke just as many languages, and some knew French, too.

Why is it that many American people don't bother to learn other languages?

Well, we are forced to study other languages, its a requirement. However, we do not learn them, because we don't think its necessary, you know, with English being the lingua franca (franca, I know, (sh) ) and that is a doggone shame. We have all the opportunities in the world, and we do so little to maintain that priviledge. What's worse, we get away with it.

But luckily, I think that is improving as students perhaps not realize realize the value of the outside world, but at least are becoming more intrigued by it.

If anything, there seems to be a realization on the part of some that English being the lingua franca is not necessarily a historically viable concept. Our history Professor this semster ended the semester by answering the question: Do we really need to worry about China? with Do you know another language? Raise your hand if you do: Now, those of you who didn't raise your hand, you may want to consider learning one: Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, whatever.

She then told us that things would not always be as easy as they are now.

[Language Guy]

You know why so many people learn English? Because Americans can't speak any other languages! It's a vicious cycle.

I think people convince themselves that learning a foreign language is insanely difficult when it really isn't, and that's why so few Americans really learn them proficiently.

It's definitely refreshing to meet European youngsters who understand how important it is to reach out (culturally speaking) to others by learning their languages.

After all, most of us here learning Chinese don't really need to, because many Chinese can at least speak a little English. But we're taking the time to learn it, because to do so is a huge gesture towards cultural understanding and respect.

[wushijiao]

I don’t know if it just the US who has this problem. It seems to me that Australians, Canadians (the English speaking ones), British, and Americans…etc. all have the same problem of monolingualism. Why? Well, besides the reasons already given, I think people, in whatever country or culture, only tend to learn the parts of language that are necessary. That is to say, Norwegians, according to some that I have talked to, learned English well because it was a necessary component of the college classes. They told me that they had to read textbooks and write papers in English. I’ve met people from other countries (Mexico, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, China…etc) who were in the same situation. But, many of these same people never became fluent in languages that were relatively unimportant to their current needs (ie Spanish, Czech, Italian...etc).

One of the problems with the American education system is that it doesn’t value foreign languages enough, and people don’t start learning foreign languages until they are twelve or thirteen years old, which is ridiculous. This is a shame, because I know many Americans who wish they could speak more than just English. But, I do think the mainstream American public is a bit apathetic and a bit arrogant in their attitude towards learning languages. Maybe that is the reason there has never been a fundamental shift in curriculum.

I also think it would be a good idea to expand the number of languages available to young students. It would be good to have whole crops of kids who would be able to speak Russian, Farsi, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi and other important foreign languages that traditionally receive little attention.

As far as Spanish, it’s a shame that schools haven’t created programs that can reach out to communicate with the Spanish-speaking communities that almost invariably inhabit every American city. In my last year of college, I participated in a program to help Spanish-speaking immigrants learn English. I think schools could probably set some sort of language exchange up, which would bring the communicative aspects of the language come alive for high school students.

[Josh-J]

Note that its not just the US in which people don't bother learning other languages. At my secondary school in the UK, I believe just one person continued with learning French after GCSE. Again, this is because people just say "everyone speaks english anyway". My school did have an annoying policy, however, of only teaching French at GCSE unless you managed to get into the top class of French, at which point you could start learning German, but French was still compulsory. Personally I'd have prefered doing German on its own.

Apparently my school is/was rated quite highly for French teaching as well, yet as I said, only one person continuing with it to any high level... (and it wasn't me)