🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <317BF10A.167E@sgi.com>, Sean Yamamoto <seany@sgi.com> wrote:

>What should be required in high school? 4 years of the following: English,
>history, mathematics, science (biology, chemistry, physics, computer), a
>foreign language, and art (music, painting/drawing, sculpture, dance, etc.). 
>It is irresponsible to say that 98% of Americans would gain nothing from 
>learning a second language. Is it better to take Singles Living, Auto Shop 
When I was in grade school I was sent to Hebrew school three days a week, and 
learned almost no Hebrew. In high school two years of German gave me a dozen 
vocabulary words, a smattering of syntax, and 28 years later I can still 
remember the copyright notice (which was in English) at the beginning of each 
of the teaching tapes. I had no practical need for either language, and both 
"educational" activities were a massive waste of my time.

When I joined the Peace Corps and received a month of intensive language 
training in Thai, I became fluent in a matter of weeks. For two years I worked 
in Thai, and can still hold up my end of a conversation, 18 years later. After 
that I lived in Israel for 6 months, taking a month of Hebrew. Israel's 
language training sucks compared to the Peace Corps, and I only retain a small 
amount of what I learned, but while I was there, I could at least get around 
in Hebrew. On visits to Mexico, I picked up enough Spanish to order a meal and 
count my change and make small talk. Extremely small talk. Ditto with trips to 
Bali and Fiji.

The point is, until you need a language, there is no reason to be forced to 
learn it. If someone is interested in language, by all means offer the 
opportunity to learn. The best opportunity, of course, is to learn in a 
country where that's the native language. 

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