<p>We are a homeschool family, and my spouse uses a foreign language every day at work. My spouse refused to teach our kids the language, believing that school language learning was useless, and that using the language at home (as in while preparing meals) was so much phony BS.
Spouse advocated going abroad and learning to use the language to survive as the only worthwhile learning. Latin of course excepted.
None of this prevented my kids from attending Ivy League schools. I honestly can’t remember what the first kid did about this. The second took two years (of a different language) via Rosetta Stone. Certainly not a problem re: college admissions.</p>
<p>Personally, I feel that the language program within my high school is woefully inadequate. We offer four languages: Spanish, French, Italian, and German, however, German was unavailable my first year of FL due to the school budget. Here, we start in 8th grade, which is far too late. I recall my Spanish classes to consist mostly of vocabulary and grammar. Speaking was only a minor component. In Spanish II, we only had to memorize sentences for our speaking assessments, rather than form our own sentences. Spanish III consisted of conjugation of the subjunctive/future/past subjunctive/etc. I don’t remember any sort of “drill” component to my Spanish classes. All my teachers did was have us take notes on vocab/grammar, or just complete dittos on such. Due to this seemingly terrible system (proven by my lack to remember nearly everything Spanish 2 years after my classes ceased, even with the supplement of Spanish soap operas), I decided to drop the language after my 3rd year.</p>
<p>Because of my seemingly inadequate experiences with Spanish, I intend to start anew with a different language. I felt that my school was lacking in languages - were it a few years ago, I would have loved to take Japanese in High School. However, now, I hope to take either Russian or Latin (or both… it depends!). If either of those are not offered, German, and then French would work. </p>
<p>As for why I chose Spanish… I think it was my mother who persuaded me too. I was leaning toward French, as the majority of my friends were taking the language, it wasn’t the fall-back language that the slackers chose to take because they didn’t care much at all, and I enjoyed how it sounded. Also, German was conveniently dropped that year. However, my mom felt that French was not useful whatsoever unless I was interested in traveling to France or Canada. Plus, my grandmother took French, and constantly states how she never used the language. </p>
<p>I look forward to how language classes are conducted in college. Hopefully they stray more toward the speaking component than my high school did! =)</p>
<p>My D began the formal study of French in 7th grade and continued all the way thru French IV and then AP French in high school. She is a Vocal Performance major in college and will be taking a double academic minor in French and History; of course, she continues languages, Italian, German and hopefully some Russian too. She has a real affinity for languages and had great teachers (well, one wasn’t so terrific, but…) and as a result is quite fluent in French. She can converse with native speakers with virtually no problem and can read and write the language and watch films as well.
Beginning the study of a second language in the early teens is too late for most people and I have no idea why we in this country consider that acceptable. I started French at the age of 4 and stayed with it, adding in Italian, Spanish and Japanese ( the latter by virtue of necessity since I lived there!) and found it much more difficult as I grew older. Picking up ASL as an adult was a real chore, but it’s not acquired in the same way so that was something else altogether! I find that if I don’t use them frequently now, I lose more and more as I age.
I became an ESOL teacher during a career change and fell in love with my students- all of them, but especially the adults. There has been a change in terminology away from ESL- English as a SECOND language- because the overwhelming majority of students spoke MORE than one language, making the acronym a misnomer. My adult students were almost always eager to learn as much as they could, making the classes a real delight as they also learned from each other- and there were often as many as a dozen nationalities represented within one classroom. I was lucky enough to have several members of the same families during my time at a community college and enjoyed it immensely. We focused on conversation, using idioms and job-specific terminology for the more advanced students and every day vocabulary, such as foods (ordering in a restaurant), clothing (shopping trips) and transportation for the newer immigrants- some of those would find their way into my classroom the morning after arriving in the city!
I truly believet that we do our young people and our country a real disservice by not offering a variety of languages, beginning when children enter school. Even their English skills would improve!</p>
<p>As several posters have noted, immersion is key. </p>
<p>My D went to a bi-lingual school from pre-K through 8th grade, and she entered HS fluent in French. In her HS honors French Lit course 2/3 of the student in her class are bi-lingual. The teacher in that class is French, and only French is spoken.</p>
<p>The standard HS language curriculum is great for developing reading skills. To take the next step toward speaking fluency 24x7 immersion is the most effective approach. So the alternative to immersion as a child, is to spend as much time as possible in the culture of interest, perhaps after taking 4 years of the language. Some HSs offer such an option, and certainly most colleges. Even spending a summer or two should make a big difference.</p>
<p>We need to start teaching foreign languages in elementary school, otherwise is a pretty hopeless exercise for most students in the long term.</p>
<p>danas–I can’t believe your H knows a foreign language well enough to use it “every day at work” but refused to teach your children even a rudimentary amount. That’s exactly how kids pick it up…by hearing it around the house. </p>
<p>I know you said it didn’t make a difference in college admissions, but that’s not the point. </p>
<p>I have taken every opportunity to teach my kids about music, because that’s something I know and can pass along.</p>
<p>I have friends who use large amounts of a foreign language at home (Hebrew, Portuguese, French) because they want the children to learn at least SOME. And even if that language isn’t the one the child wants to learn more of later, it does make it easier to learn another “2nd” language. </p>
<p>And of course, anything you learn is not wasted.</p>
<p>everyone!
stop bickering and read Judith Harris’ The Nurture Assumption.
If your kid accomplish something extraordinary despite the upbringing caused by parents’ eccentricity/ laziness/ cult belief/ BS, it is because of nature (genes) and nurture (not us, parents, but the environment - friends (the most important factor),school, time, place, luck.
Don’t beat yourself up, don’t be so smug, but love them and do what you feel right and enjoy the process of it.
Say, your kid would go to ivy because s/he inherited your good brain let that be test taking trick or strong organizational skill or simply very unique quality s/he has ( i.e. born in the circus, I am not kidding) but there, s/he will be drunk hazed sexed overdosed because of stupid peers but then, come to sense and get good grades eventually because of your good genes and some better peers who can crack exams anyway, come out alive and head to their own glorious future in the end, apples won’t fall far and not rot away these days because we parents are so much more smarter and informed to bake beautiful organic pie out of it without an once of trans fat, or so we want to believe.
Wait until end of the boomer Xer Yer era and see who is left standing… Dr. Mom, Penelope Leach, Dr. Spock or Judith Harris. Anyone wanna bet?</p>