A much better idea is to wait until the children are 14 or so. That way you can be sure that most will never actually learn the language in question, and be pretty sure that they will have an unpleasant time while not learning it. That’s what we try to do here in America. Then, if they have failed to learn a language in high school, we force them to fail to learn a language again in college, requiring 3 semesters of a foreign language, usually taught by people who have no teaching qualifications, and often with minimal supervision. This helps cross-subsidise language/literature departments, but ensures that our students remain monoglots. The Balls interview makes me worry that we have someone in post who just doesn’t get it.-Crooked Timber
For what it's worth, the Spanish classes I took in high school are serving me okay. Not great, but okay.
2 comments:
I'm a musician so maybe it's a bit different in my case, but as an American (loosely) I learned German and Esperanto as child, still use them both.
As a young man I was stationed in Germany and had a girlfriend who spoke German but whose primary language was Russian, and I became able to read and write in that language, learned it quite handily.
I am dyslexic and actually find it easier to use the Cyrillic Alphabet than the Roman I've used for most of my life. German Fractur is also more immediatly intelligable.
Recently I began attempting to learn a new language online, just to have something else to put on my CV, and I was amazed how many different types of language software there are available. In the end I decided to purchase some gear that would help me learn Spanish and it has been amazing, I can’t believe how quickly I am picking it all up! Going to give Russian a go next!
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