OT – Bilingual Education

[Anonymous]

[quote=davelj]I could make the argument that it’s beneficial to a large segment of the population for a certain portion of the population NOT to be literate in English, as it largely relegates the latter to menial work that no one else wants to do.[/quote]

Well as Ted Knight famously said in Caddyshack: “The World needs ditch diggers too”

[CA renter]

[quote=captcha]You guys have it easy.
I studied German in grades 1-10, English 11-12, Russian 3-8 and Latin 9-12, each with at least three hours of lectures/week. And I was on natural sciences track where the emphasis was on math, physics, chemistry and biology (in that order).

The kids on social track had more hours and another 6 years of a Roman language of their choice (either French or Italian).

Even the kids on the vocational track would meet Harvard’s foreign language requirement :)[/quote]

I think that’s cool. 🙂

Where did you grow up?

[CA renter]

[quote=captcha]You guys have it easy.
I studied German in grades 1-10, English 11-12, Russian 3-8 and Latin 9-12, each with at least three hours of lectures/week. And I was on natural sciences track where the emphasis was on math, physics, chemistry and biology (in that order).

The kids on social track had more hours and another 6 years of a Roman language of their choice (either French or Italian).

Even the kids on the vocational track would meet Harvard’s foreign language requirement :)[/quote]

I think that’s cool. 🙂

Where did you grow up?

[CA renter]

[quote=captcha]You guys have it easy.
I studied German in grades 1-10, English 11-12, Russian 3-8 and Latin 9-12, each with at least three hours of lectures/week. And I was on natural sciences track where the emphasis was on math, physics, chemistry and biology (in that order).

The kids on social track had more hours and another 6 years of a Roman language of their choice (either French or Italian).

Even the kids on the vocational track would meet Harvard’s foreign language requirement :)[/quote]

I think that’s cool. 🙂

Where did you grow up?

[CA renter]

[quote=captcha]You guys have it easy.
I studied German in grades 1-10, English 11-12, Russian 3-8 and Latin 9-12, each with at least three hours of lectures/week. And I was on natural sciences track where the emphasis was on math, physics, chemistry and biology (in that order).

The kids on social track had more hours and another 6 years of a Roman language of their choice (either French or Italian).

Even the kids on the vocational track would meet Harvard’s foreign language requirement :)[/quote]

I think that’s cool. 🙂

Where did you grow up?

[CA renter]

[quote=captcha]You guys have it easy.
I studied German in grades 1-10, English 11-12, Russian 3-8 and Latin 9-12, each with at least three hours of lectures/week. And I was on natural sciences track where the emphasis was on math, physics, chemistry and biology (in that order).

The kids on social track had more hours and another 6 years of a Roman language of their choice (either French or Italian).

Even the kids on the vocational track would meet Harvard’s foreign language requirement :)[/quote]

I think that’s cool. 🙂

Where did you grow up?

[CA renter]

[quote=briansd1]CA renter the film is about providing immersion programs for kids in their non-native language (the language they don’t speak at home).

For Spanish speakers that would be immersion in English. For English speakers, that would be becoming fluent in Spanish or Chinese, etc…

I recommend watching the film when they replay it on TV.

I believe that in America, people are English centric to their detriment. It’s like it’s a point of pride not to speak any foreign language (it should be shameful, in my opinion).

In Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc, people are all bilingual in their native tongues and English.[/quote]

Yes, I saw that, and really love the immersion programs. That’s what was meant when I said that “bilingual education” comes in many different flavors and serves different functions.

The “bad” bilingual education I was referring to was where kids who don’t speak English are not taught English either at home or school (for some length of time). IMHO, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage. This was the primary model of “bilingual education” when I was teaching, and it was a very contentious issue for those in the academic community.

[CA renter]

[quote=briansd1]CA renter the film is about providing immersion programs for kids in their non-native language (the language they don’t speak at home).

For Spanish speakers that would be immersion in English. For English speakers, that would be becoming fluent in Spanish or Chinese, etc…

I recommend watching the film when they replay it on TV.

I believe that in America, people are English centric to their detriment. It’s like it’s a point of pride not to speak any foreign language (it should be shameful, in my opinion).

In Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc, people are all bilingual in their native tongues and English.[/quote]

Yes, I saw that, and really love the immersion programs. That’s what was meant when I said that “bilingual education” comes in many different flavors and serves different functions.

The “bad” bilingual education I was referring to was where kids who don’t speak English are not taught English either at home or school (for some length of time). IMHO, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage. This was the primary model of “bilingual education” when I was teaching, and it was a very contentious issue for those in the academic community.

[CA renter]

[quote=briansd1]CA renter the film is about providing immersion programs for kids in their non-native language (the language they don’t speak at home).

For Spanish speakers that would be immersion in English. For English speakers, that would be becoming fluent in Spanish or Chinese, etc…

I recommend watching the film when they replay it on TV.

I believe that in America, people are English centric to their detriment. It’s like it’s a point of pride not to speak any foreign language (it should be shameful, in my opinion).

In Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc, people are all bilingual in their native tongues and English.[/quote]

Yes, I saw that, and really love the immersion programs. That’s what was meant when I said that “bilingual education” comes in many different flavors and serves different functions.

The “bad” bilingual education I was referring to was where kids who don’t speak English are not taught English either at home or school (for some length of time). IMHO, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage. This was the primary model of “bilingual education” when I was teaching, and it was a very contentious issue for those in the academic community.

[CA renter]

[quote=briansd1]CA renter the film is about providing immersion programs for kids in their non-native language (the language they don’t speak at home).

For Spanish speakers that would be immersion in English. For English speakers, that would be becoming fluent in Spanish or Chinese, etc…

I recommend watching the film when they replay it on TV.

I believe that in America, people are English centric to their detriment. It’s like it’s a point of pride not to speak any foreign language (it should be shameful, in my opinion).

In Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc, people are all bilingual in their native tongues and English.[/quote]

Yes, I saw that, and really love the immersion programs. That’s what was meant when I said that “bilingual education” comes in many different flavors and serves different functions.

The “bad” bilingual education I was referring to was where kids who don’t speak English are not taught English either at home or school (for some length of time). IMHO, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage. This was the primary model of “bilingual education” when I was teaching, and it was a very contentious issue for those in the academic community.

[CA renter]

[quote=briansd1]CA renter the film is about providing immersion programs for kids in their non-native language (the language they don’t speak at home).

For Spanish speakers that would be immersion in English. For English speakers, that would be becoming fluent in Spanish or Chinese, etc…

I recommend watching the film when they replay it on TV.

I believe that in America, people are English centric to their detriment. It’s like it’s a point of pride not to speak any foreign language (it should be shameful, in my opinion).

In Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc, people are all bilingual in their native tongues and English.[/quote]

Yes, I saw that, and really love the immersion programs. That’s what was meant when I said that “bilingual education” comes in many different flavors and serves different functions.

The “bad” bilingual education I was referring to was where kids who don’t speak English are not taught English either at home or school (for some length of time). IMHO, this puts them at a distinct disadvantage. This was the primary model of “bilingual education” when I was teaching, and it was a very contentious issue for those in the academic community.

[NotCranky]

[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]
Just curious, which foriegn language did you acheive fluency in that doesn’t add increased perspective and other valuable things to your life here? I mean, you must have tested your theory?

[NotCranky]

[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]
Just curious, which foriegn language did you acheive fluency in that doesn’t add increased perspective and other valuable things to your life here? I mean, you must have tested your theory?

[NotCranky]

[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]
Just curious, which foriegn language did you acheive fluency in that doesn’t add increased perspective and other valuable things to your life here? I mean, you must have tested your theory?

[NotCranky]

[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]
Just curious, which foriegn language did you acheive fluency in that doesn’t add increased perspective and other valuable things to your life here? I mean, you must have tested your theory?

[Author]

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