<p>^Ummm, I'm a "he" douchebag.</p>
<p>UCLAri was right: THERE IS NO HUMOR ALLOWED ON THIS SITE!</p>
<p>Humor is supposed to be funny. And when I said "she" I wasn't referring to you chief. Here's a helpful hint, go back to elementary school and learn how to read.</p>
<p>I guess you've never heard of "dry humor". It doesn't have to make you laugh.</p>
<p>Oh, I've heard of it. But your "humor" doesn't make sense.</p>
<p>Eh, I don't care. I'm going to bed... g'night!</p>
<p>Ok see, this thing started out as an intelligent thread (going by CC standards). From the end of second page or so it just went downhill...Retards.</p>
<p>Praise Jesus! W1cked, I have to concur. Anything intelligent posted on the HS forum is retrofitted into something foolhardy.</p>
<p>De-de-dee .</p>
<p>"instead of us americans trying to learn spanish....the hispanics should learn english.."</p>
<p>Exactly. That should be a requirement to become a citizen of the US.</p>
<p>Oh wait. They just do it illegally.</p>
<p>Or, Americans should get off their lazy asses and do something productive like the rest of the civilized world. Most of my friends in Europe speak at least 3 languages fluently by the time they're our age- some even more. I'm in my 7th year of Spanish study and it's been the biggest accomplishment that perhaps I will ever have. Even if I become the Secretary of State, that still would not trump the fact that I have mastered another language. </p>
<p>Language 1-3 is boring. It isn't until language 4 or 5 that it gets really interesting. I haaated Spanish when I was in Spanish 1 but by the time I hit Spanish 4, I couldn't imagine why I used to hate it.</p>
<p>you can have hiring bonuses if you are fluent in spanish or a foreign language</p>
<p>But its IMPOSSIBLE to get an A in 3, 4, or 5 as a final average in least in my school. It has NEVER been done in 9 years....before that I don't know who taught it or anything but the lady at my school who has done those 3 levels for 9 years never gave an A, she gave me a 92% in honors 3....I was so fricken close...closest in years, but it's very challenging in the upper levels, so much so I decided against taking 4.</p>
<p>Who cares about Europe? Those morons are wayyy behind America in every way. Its nice to be a polyglot, but in America it definitely shouldn't be absolutely necessary.</p>
<p>Europe is justified-every 100 miles one is in a new country with a different language, so there is a need to be trilingual. Besides, learning 3 Romance languages is far easier than attaining fluency in Spanish, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese.</p>
<p>I agree. Some Americans are lazy. My dad knew how to speak four languages by the time he was my age. (Greek, French, Spanish, and English).</p>
<p>It would make for sense for schools to teach languages in elementary school versus high school.</p>
<p>No, they should teach foreign language all 13 years of school, and students should be required to take at least two FLs. Preschools should also have them in the programs as well to give the kids a further head start.</p>
<p>I don't see the point though. Okay, say I might want to be a biochemist. How much Spanish or French will I be using in my lab. Not a lot; that's for sure. Maybe biochem won't use much, for example, physics either, but every now and then you may need to pop out a physics concept. I don't think as a scientist I will be conjugating that many verbs in the subjunctive or the preterite.</p>
<p>I don't think the majority of Americans should learn another language, when they haven't even mastered English. In our schools, colleges, and neighborhoods, we see the obvious truth. A lot of Americans cannot read or write. </p>
<p>According to the latest literacy news from the National Center of Statistics, "69% of college graduates cannot read at or above a 'proficient' level."[1] In 2003, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 63 million adults (29%), 16 years of age and older, had only basic use of literacy, meaning they could only perform simple, every day literacy tasks. The same assessment found that 30 MILLION,14% of the population, could not, and I mean could not, perform at the basic literacy level and had a skill level of below basic.[2]</p>
<p>That is sad. I'm an ardent fan of multilingualism. I think it's the door of opportunity in this global economy and in our future, but, if we can't understand a work of writing or transfer ourselves onto a piece of paper, forget about multilingualism, forget about Spanish. The barrier isn't in learning a strange language or uprooting from what is familiar, it is ourselves. </p>
<p>[1] <a href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48309%5B/url%5D">http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48309</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index.asp?file=KeyFindings/Demographics/Overall.asp&Pageld=16#2%5B/url%5D">http://www.nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index.asp?file=KeyFindings/Demographics/Overall.asp&Pageld=16#2</a></p>
<p>Yea you're right. Most American kids can't use proper grammar to save their lives. English is my second language, but I know more grammar and stuff than 99% of my classmates. In other countries where English is a 2nd or 3rd language, much emphasis is put on learning proper grammar.</p>
<p>Grammar sucks....I got an 85 on my grammar test which brought my lit grade from 100 to 95 but most people failed because it was on very abstract grammer concepts.</p>