Re: "Usefull languages"

(...)

>>Second, I find it interesting that American students shy away from
French in favor of Spanish in part because of the spelling.<<

You mean MOST American students... Je ne parle pas espagnol, mais je parle
pas français un peu. ;)

>>It's first an indicator of the problems in traditional second-language
education, beginning focus right from the start on reading and writing,
which is not a natural way to learn a language.<<

That's true, but then, the teachers also speak the language as much as
they can in the classroom (at least, in the classrooms I've been in). But
I agree, not the most effective way to learn. It's ineffectiveness shows
itself in some of the anglicized pronunciations of French in my class
(pronouncing plural "s", for one).

>>Then, of course, there is the fact that Americans study second languages
much too late.<<

Yes, so true. I didn't even get the opportunity to learn another language
until middle school. Some places don't even have it then. When I went to
middle school for half a year in Vegas (I moved down here in 8th grade,
moved back to Reno in the middle of 8th, and moved back down this past
summer, in case you care...), they didn't offer foreign languages until
8th grade (and then it was Spanish and German, and no French, which I kind
of wonder about).
Another thing that really bothers me is that it isn't even required in
elementary and secondary schools to learn a foreign language, which puts
the US behind practically every other nation in the world.

>>And finally, Americans focus way too much on spelling, not realizing
that the only reasons they do are because Webster suffered from
overweening patriotism and most bored-stiff pioneers only had his
dictionary for entertainment, so they invented spelling bees.

Dana!
Clint<<

Hehehe... spelling bees...
Though, it is useful for English speakers to focus on spelling, at least
in English, because it is so difficult. You should see how some of my
peers spell... sometimes it's so bad you can't even understand it, which
defeats the purpose of (written) communication.
OT: I assume most pioneers probably had a bible, but then, I don't think
that's much more entertaining than a dictionary, imo....

The Aquamarine Demon

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