[quote=deadzone]Bigger picture, learing additonal languages here in U.S. is totally worthless if you don’t actually spend significant amount of time overseas actually using the language.[/quote]
This is a crazily extreme statement, one that I find not to be true in my case.
For me, native English speaker, no other language spoken in the home. For starters, simply learning Spanish caused me to later realize things about English I don’t think I would have otherwise.
But beyond that, I’ve found it useful talking to various people I encounter here in the U.S. for whom Spanish is their primary language. This happens *really* often to me. It really helps develop a bond with those folks when you make an effort (even an “annoying” one) to communicate in their primary language.
For travel to Mexico it is of course invaluable, not just for speaking, but for reading the signs and knowing what is going on around you.
For travel to Europe I found that I could kind of wing it in Italy.
I am SO glad I had four years of Spanish!
Now the issue that CA Renter is talking about (how to educate kids here where Spanish is spoken in the home) I have little experience in that but my feeling is that she is correct and that 100% English in school would be best for the whippersnappers.
