RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (Full Version)

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[Poll]

Should schools require students to learn Spanish?


Yes, across the country (please specify starting grade)
  19% (10)
Yes, but only in certain states (please specify state and grade)
  5% (3)
No
  75% (39)


Total Votes : 52
(last vote on : 12/28/2011 7:00:18 PM)
(Poll will run till: -- )


Message

BonesFromAsh -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 7:38:59 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: FukinTroll

quote:

ORIGINAL: BonesFromAsh


quote:

ORIGINAL: FukinTroll

I don't think we should cater to an invader at all.


Interesting choice of words.....


Long ago it was my people that were the invaders... came by the thousands and they adopted English well.



Well, technically, the English were also invaders. Did they make a point of adopting the language of the land? And before that..........[;)]

OP, I come across many Americans who barely have a handle on the english language, so I believe it should be mastered first as it does seem to be the "ruling" language of this country. That being said, Spanish (keeping in mind what DS said in regards to what type of Spanish we're discussing) should be offered, if not strongly suggested, as a second language beginning somewhere around grades 3 or 4. As a child enters jr. high, I believe other languages like German, French, Russian, Mandarin and Japanese just to name a few could also be offered as choices to go towards the language requirements needed for graduation.

Required...no. Strongly suggested...yes.



windchymes -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 7:48:08 AM)

For their own survival, kids need to learn at least Spanish along with their English. Read the job ads in just about any newpaper or website these days and see how many of them say "bilingual preferred", especially in the medical professions.

It's probably not going to be long before Arabic, Urdu, Tagalog & Hindi are required, too.

This is not meant to be bigoted or racial, it's an observation based on recent personal experience.



LaTigresse -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 8:06:54 AM)

Yes. I believe that ALL students, beginning in pre-school, should learn two languages other than their mother tongue. Spanish should be one of them.

We are one of the very few countries that do not do this and I find it horrific. It is a disservice to our children.

Forget stupid political agenda and think about the advantages for the children's futures.



GreedyTop -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 8:18:15 AM)

What LaT said!

(scritches to the critters...)



cuckoldmepls -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 8:22:06 AM)

NO, for one simple reason and the open borders nuts know why. It will eventually brainwash the kids into accepting a latin American political take over. Hell, most kids an't even master the English language, much less a foreign language. This should be the shortest thread on record.



LadyPact -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 8:41:19 AM)

I happen to agree with the comments about doing a better job with teaching our primary language first.  I'm not exactly impressed with the way the requirements of curriculum and standards for students have been lowered over the years.

As to the requirement specifically for to be Spanish for a second language, while it may be the most practical in some areas, I'd still much rather see it as a choice.  I do think we wait too long to offer a second language as an elective.  I'd much rather see that process start around grade four or five. 



pahunkboy -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 9:07:55 AM)

I am the product of 2 years of Spanish in High School.



(that is not good.)



LinnaeaBorealis -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 9:31:06 AM)

I don't think that learning Spanish should be a *requirement*. I do think that children should be required to learn some foreign language beginning in elementary school, but it should be elective as to which one(s).

My Mother's parents both came from Norway around the turn of the 20th century & only spoke Norwegian in their home. They lived in an isolated community consisting of other Norwegians & the children of course spoke Norwegian from the time they began to learn to talk. When my Mother entered school in about 1927, she was teased so horribly by the other children due to her inability to speak or understand English, that she went home & told the family that they would speak English in their home from then on. She & her siblings lost all their Norwegian & the grandchildren, including myself, learned only isolated phrases. I've often wished that our family had remained bilingual.

I chose to take French & Spanish in high school & discovered a delight in learning other languages. At the time that I went to high school, which was while dinosaurs were still roaming the earth, the languages offered in the schools were French, Spanish & Latin. When I spent 10 days in China, I began to learn the language a little. Now that one seems a lot more difficult than English because the meaning of the words are dependent on the vocal inflection.

So, anyway, I voted no on it being a requirement. The only thing is that when something is not a required subject, it seems to get cut first when the schools are low on funding.



calamitysandra -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 12:51:27 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

Yes. I believe that ALL students, beginning in pre-school, should learn two languages other than their mother tongue. Spanish should be one of them.

We are one of the very few countries that do not do this and I find it horrific. It is a disservice to our children.

Forget stupid political agenda and think about the advantages for the children's futures.




Good points, well made.

For those of you who want to see English taught better first, does it have to be a either/or proposition?



LadyPact -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 1:12:09 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: calamitysandra
For those of you who want to see English taught better first, does it have to be a either/or proposition?

It's not necessarily that I see it as either/or.  It's that I don't necessarily have a very high opinion of how it's working now.  I don't blame it entirely on the school systems themselves, though some of it belongs there.  We have a lot of problems in education which are probably a bit more than folks would like to see discussed on this particular thread.



kalikshama -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 1:56:29 PM)

quote:

My Mother's parents both came from Norway around the turn of the 20th century & only spoke Norwegian in their home. They lived in an isolated community consisting of other Norwegians & the children of course spoke Norwegian from the time they began to learn to talk. When my Mother entered school in about 1927, she was teased so horribly by the other children due to her inability to speak or understand English,


Parts of Miami look like parts of Costa Rica. I think making things too easy for Spanish speakers to not assimilate does them a disservice. We've had three cleaning women at work and none of them can communicate in English, despite being here for decades, which restricts their employability.

I live in Hollywood, FL, which is south of Fort Lauderdale and north of Miami. Sunday, I was at a restaurant in the French Canadian section of Hollywood and everyone around us was speaking in French. The signs and menus were in English and the waitstaff were (minimally) bilingual. However, I occasionally go to a Spanish supermarket in Hollywood and while the signs are bilingual, the staff is not, but I am able to make myself understood, having taken the trouble to pick up some Spanish after I formed the intent to spend some time in Costa Rica.

Hispanic immigrants - slow to blend into melting pot?

As noted in the article about 2nd generation immigrants, our cleaning women's children speak English perfectly.

*****

I think languages should be taught earlier, when it is easier for the brain to acquire them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language#Age

In acquiring an L2, Hyltenstam (1992) found that around the age of six or seven seemed to be a cut-off point for bilinguals to achieve native-like proficiency. After that age, L2 learners could get near-native-like-ness but their language would, while consisting of few actual errors, have enough errors to set them apart from the L1 group. The inability of some subjects to achieve native-like proficiency must be seen in relation to the age of onset (AO). “The age of 6 or 8 does seem to be an important period in distinguishing between near-native and native-like ultimate attainment... More specifically, it may be suggested that AO interacts with frequency and intensity of language use” (Hyltenstam, 1992, p. 364).




LaTigresse -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 2:10:42 PM)

Which is why I believe it should begin in pre-school.

Studies have proven that, the earlier the better.



ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 2:30:07 PM)

This:

quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyPact

I happen to agree with the comments about doing a better job with teaching our primary language first.  I'm not exactly impressed with the way the requirements of curriculum and standards for students have been lowered over the years.

As to the requirement specifically for to be Spanish for a second language, while it may be the most practical in some areas, I'd still much rather see it as a choice.  I do think we wait too long to offer a second language as an elective.  I'd much rather see that process start around grade four or five. 



Except I would change that last statement to this:

quote:

ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

Which is why I believe it should begin in pre-school.

Studies have proven that, the earlier the better.







girlygurl -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 3:06:35 PM)

No on a requirement.

I think if a foreign language was apart of the curriculum in (early) grade school it would be a good thing.



Aileen1968 -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 3:13:47 PM)

I think learning other languages is fantastic. Spanish is a realistic choice, but it should be a choice.
I also think that Spanish speaking people living in this country should learn to read and write English.

When my grandparents came to this country in the late 1800's, they did everything in their power to assimilate to this country. They learned to read and write English as quickly as they could. To them, it was an honor to be here and they wanted to be as American as possible.



LadyPact -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 3:18:14 PM)

It's not that I don't like the pre-school idea.  It's that I know we can't even get all of the kids into the programs now.  The lottery system is still being used due to lack of funding.



dreamofthemoon -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 5:17:43 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aileen1968

I think learning other languages is fantastic. Spanish is a realistic choice, but it should be a choice.
I also think that Spanish speaking people living in this country should learn to read and write English.
...

This. [:)]
Thanks, Aileen.



zenny -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 5:31:04 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: gungadin09

Just to clarify, the topic of this thread is *not* whether U.S. students should be required to learn a second language at all. They are required to do so, in high school.


Unless this has changed in the last few years. They are not. Frankly, languages taught in schools are jokes. In my experience most forget within a year of leaving. Same for making it just far enough to fulfill a college requirement. The programs would have to be fixed for any real benefit because as it stands students only take a few words/phrases with them.



littlewonder -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 6:29:11 PM)

Yes.

Being that Spanish is a majority language I think it would be extremely helpful. I wish I would have been forced to learn it in school.

I find not knowing Spanish, especially where I live where the majority as of this year, now speaks Spanish, it would make my job a lot easier and communicating with others less troublesome.

Now that I'm once again out in the job-seeking world I'm finding that many want someone who is bi-lingual which leaves me up a creek without a paddle. I'll most likely shell out some money soon to learn so that I will be able to diversify my skills




gungadin09 -> RE: Should schools require students to learn Spanish? (3/29/2011 8:36:32 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Aileen1968

When my grandparents came to this country in the late 1800's, they did everything in their power to assimilate to this country. They learned to read and write English as quickly as they could. To them, it was an honor to be here and they wanted to be as American as possible.


My question is (and not just to Aileen): why does speaking English equate with being American? Why can't speaking Spanish be American too? i'm not suggesting that we *stop* teaching English, not now, nor in 20 years when Spanish becomes the majority language of, probably, New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona, *at least*.

Someday soon it's gonna happen. New Mexico is nearly there already. And when the day comes that Spanish finally surpasses English as the principal language of those four states, it will seem harsh to me if the state governments say, our schools aren't gonna teach English any more, except in high school, where you choose it as an elective. If you want to learn English on your own that's fine, we encourage it, but you need to put your big pants on now and learn Spanish, because, frankly, it's unpatriotic if you don't.

i believe they can teach both without compromising education. My mom is currently works at an elementary school that does exactly that. i believe that they should require both in New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona, at least. To me it's less of a question of coddling people, and more a question of being realistic. In the future, Spanish literacy will be as necessary to society in the Southwest, as English is now, and i think it's downright foolish to ignore that fact.

pam





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