Most studied foreign languages in your country

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ILuvEire
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby ILuvEire » 2008-11-18, 23:32

michaelhayes wrote:We have no language requirements at my school. You could graduate without stepping foot in a single foreign language class. The administration recommends 3 years of a foreign language to prepare for college, but many who follow this path quit as soon as the third year is done.

Our school offers Spanish, French, and Latin. The students at my school study them in that order.


Really? I thought that it was policy in all of the USA that you had to have 3 years of foreign language! Hmm, that's odd.
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Karavinka » 2008-11-19, 0:42

ILuvEire wrote:
michaelhayes wrote:We have no language requirements at my school. You could graduate without stepping foot in a single foreign language class. The administration recommends 3 years of a foreign language to prepare for college, but many who follow this path quit as soon as the third year is done.

Our school offers Spanish, French, and Latin. The students at my school study them in that order.


Really? I thought that it was policy in all of the USA that you had to have 3 years of foreign language! Hmm, that's odd.


Probably it depends on the state and the city you're in.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Alejo » 2008-11-19, 1:50

melan wrote:
Alejo wrote:And our ASL classes are...ok. We learned to converse a lot, but the teacher talked about gossip and celebrities at least half the period. I can talk to a Deaf person reasonably well, but my vocabulary is a little lacking, except if we are talking about movies or actresses :wink: .

So cool that you can learn sign language at school!

Yeah :D , it was a fun class. But it's kind of sad that I basically have no oppurtunity to use it unless I am talking to my cousin. So basically, every time I see a Deaf person I have a mini joy-seizure. Except this one time, when I was on the subway in NYC after a concert got out at around midnight. My friend and I sat down and there was only one group of other people on that part of the subway, compromising about six-seven Deaf people and a secret interpreter who never revealed him/herself. I noticed they kept staring at us(not really all too rude in Deaf culture), so I said hi and they just stared. Basically, they kept calling us drunks the whole ride. When my friend and I got off at Penn Station, I signed 'Goodnight, assholes. Whoever the interpreter, **** yourself.' Ahhh, the faces...priceless :D . But yeah, that's the only time I ever USED it unless I was at a Deaf event or something. So a kinda useless class in the long run =l.
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ILuvEire wrote:
michaelhayes wrote:We have no language requirements at my school. You could graduate without stepping foot in a single foreign language class. The administration recommends 3 years of a foreign language to prepare for college, but many who follow this path quit as soon as the third year is done.

Our school offers Spanish, French, and Latin. The students at my school study them in that order.


Really? I thought that it was policy in all of the USA that you had to have 3 years of foreign language! Hmm, that's odd.

Probably it depends on the state and the city you're in.

In New York State, you have to take three years of a LOTE for a regents diploma. I honestly don't know the difference between a regents diploma and a normal one, other than that the former is 'better' and strongly encouraged.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Levo » 2008-11-19, 13:58

@Lynch, is that you in your avatar? For a moment I thought you are that friend of mine I usually drink beer with.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby amoeba » 2008-11-23, 23:53

In Ontario (every province has its own education system, so I can only speak for Ontario)

1. French (compulsory for all students, at least as far as I'm aware). But only a small percentage actually become fluent. Supposedly 11.7% of Ontarians speak both French and English, and about a third of those speak French as a first language. The numbers are highest in some parts of northern Ontario and near the Quebec border, especially Ottawa.

2. Spanish

3. German, Italian, maybe Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese? Not sure in what order.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby polishboy » 2008-12-20, 15:46

In Poland
English of course.
Second are German and Russian.
I am living in Western Poland, and in my school they teached German.
But I don't know about Eastern Poland. Maybe they teach Russian, but moslty it's older people who know Russian.
French = 2 %
the other languegs very few people.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Peeves » 2008-12-20, 16:20

In the U.S. it would be Spanish, French, and then German.

Where I live, in Wisconsin, German used to be the most popular language to learn because of our German heritage, but now almost no one learns it.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby ILuvEire » 2008-12-20, 19:07

All of the German students I know either:
1) Have German ancestors (mich!)
2) Love Rammstein/heavy metal.
3) Are Vietnamese (every Vietnamese I know is in German!)
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby TheKickInside » 2008-12-23, 17:36

In the States, it's mainly Spanish. I'm told that most students learn the basics of it in primary school. Then next would probably be French and German.
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Emblaegh » 2008-12-23, 18:08

I've never taken a look at brazillian statistics on this issue, but I would guess something like:

1- English (of course)
2 - French
3 - Spanish
4 - German or Italian

In Brazil, only english is compulsory at school.
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Anesthesia » 2008-12-23, 20:37

In Serbia:
1. English
2. French, German, Russian.. we study English as our primary foreign language and one of those (FGR)as a secondary in high school.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Anesthesia » 2008-12-23, 20:39

Oh, I forgot to mention Latin, which is also compulsory if you're going to Gymnasium.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby hashi » 2008-12-23, 22:04

In New Zealand:
- Japanese
and
- French
because they are the main two languages you can learn in High School. I think German is quite high up there too.

I'm not counting maori as it's not really foreign.
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Formiko » 2008-12-23, 22:52

Well, in the US at least, it's primarily Spanish, not that any one actually LEARNS it however. The other 2 are Italian and French. Italian because many people in NYC have a grandparent from Italy who doesn't speak English. Then we have French for those who hate Spanish. My wife took 4 years of Spanish in high school and only knows Gracias and Hasta la Pasta :mrgreen:
Americans, unless their parents are foreign, do NOT learn any other language. Our friends from Mexico speak little English, so we converse in Spanish, bit his son, who's 14 who obviously is fluent in English (he was born here) is taking Spanish in high school and is only getting a C because he speaks Spanglish! How does that happen?
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Kenny » 2008-12-23, 23:07

That kind of reminded me of a really sad thing: I have a friend whose cousin's mother is Hungarian and the kid's (my friend's cousin's) dad is Austrian but they're living in Madagascar right now and his stepfather speaks French...and he speaks perfect German as it can be expected, almost impeccable French but no Hungarian whatsoever (he's past 14 so the chances of him ever learning it are slim to none, too bad). :o :(

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Kasuya » 2008-12-24, 1:31

KennyHun wrote:That kind of reminded me of a really sad thing: I have a friend whose cousin's mother is Hungarian and the kid's (my friend's cousin's) dad is Austrian but they're living in Madagascar right now and his stepfather speaks French...and he speaks perfect German as it can be expected, almost impeccable French but no Hungarian whatsoever (he's past 14 so the chances of him ever learning it are slim to none, too bad). :o :(


Well, choosing between German and Hungarian isn't a very hard choice. His parents did what was best for him.

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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby BezierCurve » 2008-12-24, 5:46

His parents did what was best for him.


Well, even better would be to teach him both languages. I know people who raised their kids multilingually. And the kids can handle it amazingly well - even if they have to learn the third language on their way (say, of the country they live in); I heard it just takes consistency - each parent has to keep speaking to the kid in his own language.

Well, choosing between German and Hungarian isn't a very hard choice.


Depends on what your priorities are, I suppose.
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby loqu » 2008-12-24, 6:33

Formiko wrote:Hasta la Pasta


what is that supposed to mean?
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Formiko » 2008-12-24, 7:52

loqu wrote:
Formiko wrote:Hasta la Pasta


what is that supposed to mean?


It's a joke many mono-lingual Americans say as their total knowledge of Spanish. It's a play on "Hasta la Vista", but it rhymes. It really doesn't mean anything :)
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Re: Most studied foreign languages in your country

Postby Kasuya » 2008-12-24, 7:54

BezierCurve wrote:
His parents did what was best for him.


Well, even better would be to teach him both languages. I know people who raised their kids multilingually. And the kids can handle it amazingly well - even if they have to learn the third language on their way (say, of the country they live in); I heard it just takes consistency - each parent has to keep speaking to the kid in his own language.


Sure it's possible but it's quite difficult. It requires both parents being around the child quite a lot (many fathers can't do this because of work). The most likely outcome is that the child will speak 1 or at best 2 of the languages well and then the 3rd with low proficiency. That's assuming the parents don't give up entirely on the very time and energy consuming endeavour somewhere along the way.


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