Ole! Learning A Foreign Language
Remember back in high school when you were forced to take all those classes you just weren’t sure about? Anything from wood shop, to drafting, to sewing was shoved in your face. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t forced on you, but you did need the credits to graduate. One of the big ones for me was learning a foreign language. We all had to do this. Now, nothing has changed today. Kids across the world are still spending their time learning a foreign language. I’m not sure if it’s still two semesters, but I do believe they have more options than we did. Back when I was in high school, you could either choose Spanish, French, or more Spanish. Yeah, anyway, you get the picture. So, have you begun learning a foreign language yet? If so, which one did you pick?
The concept of learning a foreign language is a novel one - I will say that. However, how can you ever determine who needs what. For example, would you have a guy who moved to the USA from Taiwan and learn an additional language or just English? This is a valid question, bare with me. A friend of mine back in the day was pretty ticked off about this. He was from Taiwan, so he did speak the native language. However, he had already learned English before moving to the states. This turned into a big problem when they wanted him to take two semesters of a different language at our high school. He simply refused because he was already fluent in two languages. Although neither were the foreign languages offered at the high school. Things can certainly get tricky when it comes to learning a foreign language.
These days they say everyone should learn Spanish because so many Hispanics are flooding into our country. However, is it reasonable to ask every other foreign to learn Spanish, when they’ve already learned English after moving to the states? Seems a bit bizarre. I certainly don’t expect to move to Mexico and demand that everyone learn English. In reality if you plan to move somewhere, you should probably learn the language.
The great thing about learning a foreign language in this day and age is the technology. Virtually any language you want translated can be done online. How cool is that! Simply hop on the web and get an extra hand with the new language you’re learning.
Tags
Classes, Kids, Learn Languages, Teaching
