Re: French (was Re: Re: Optimum number of symbols)

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à Kendra <kendra@...>:
>
> > I think everyone would have a lot easier time learning languages if
> > their first language were taught to them with more sense.
>
> I think you just pointed out at the main problem of the American system of
> education for languages. Even English is taught so sloppily, how can you
> expect anything with other languages?
There is, of course, no such thing as an "American system" of
education for anything, much less languages.  In the United
States, each state, indeed often each school district, has its
own policies on education, with only very broadest of guidelines
coming from the Federal government.  I hear so many people
complain about how they "weren't taught grammar" in school,
but my experience is entirely the opposite:  most of my fifth,
sixth, and much of my ninth grade English classes consisted
of fundamentals of English grammar, ranging from what case
systems to verb tenses to clausal structure.  And that was
from a public schooling system, not a private.

> > Even in my AP English class we only discussed gerunds and
> > subject/direct object/indirect object for about a week before
> > everyone complained that we were doing too much grammar.
I'm surprised anyone would be discussing much grammar at all
in an AP English class.  By the time you reach AP English,
you should be discussing literary criticism and be writing
essays on Henry James and Thomas Hardy.

> <sigh> You're the perfect example of how the American system of education
> manages to break the will of people who were happy to learn something
> different, like a language. This is so depressing...
As I've said, no such thing exists.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

Reply