Stupid Kids! Ninos Estupidos! Dumme Kinder!

I can manage some extremely broken French, both written and spoken thanks to mandatory Core French in grades one to eight. Once we hit high school it was an option to take the class; I opted to because the teacher was a total DILF. And most of our classes were just spent talking about/persuading the DILF to make us une gaufre.

 

I speak a little bit of spanish, less than I thought anyway. I always tell myself after going to mexico I am going to take some classes but never follow through.

A couple of weeks ago we pulled into a mexican port on Cedros Island of the Baja of California, I felt very stupid, in border towns in Mexico you can get by with Spanglish, in the middle of Mexico on a secluded island they knew almost no english and I struggled with my Spanish. We managed to get a hotel room, eat dinner, hire a guide and tell him we wanted to catch yellowtail.

I need to get my ass in gear and learn it.

 

English is my second language, I was born in Bulgaria. Bulgarian really isn't that useful outside of Bulgaria and really it's biggest use is being able to switch to it witch someone else who speaks it if you need some privacy. I also speak fairly good Spanish, I wouldn't say I am fluent but I can watch TV in Spanish and get by just fine, it's a lot more useful when I visit my parents in California rather then here in Ontario.

That being said aside from Bulgarian, both my parents speak Russian and my father also speaks French and my mother German. I have grand parents on both sides who speak Turkish and Greek so I guess languages just kind of run in my family.

 

This. As the article says, it's about urgency. Other nation's kids learn other languages because they largely need to. We don't really need to, so we don't. We have a much smaller benefit to picking up other languages than other nations. We just don't face the same pressures to learn other languages as other nations do.


Within our own country, outside of the occassional Hispanic immigrants, we rarely meet people who don't speak any English at all. The same holds for our business dealings. For tourism purposes, our country is larger, and much of our domestic travel is a partial substitute for the level of international travel that Europeans do. Our students also rarely go out of the country for their primary university.

All this adds up to the fact that on a day-to-day basis, we have far less contact with non-English speakers than the average, say, German does with non-German speakers.

Throw in the fact that English is the lingua franca of the modern world. Put an American who speaks only English, and a German who speaks only German, in a random medium-to-large world city, and the American will be in much better shape.

I'm not saying we don't have an ego, or that this isn't a short-coming in the American schooling system. Both of those are true. But on the other hand, there are very legitimate practical reasons why other nation's children pick up more languages than ours.



Personally, I have 5 years of Spanish. I was never fluent, but I could probably get around a city without getting stabbed. I was a much better reader/writer than speaker, b/c I never reached the point of "thinking in Spanish." I still mentally processed everything in English, and translated in my head. Which is cognitively burdensome, and tends to make you appear a bit slow in the head. I'm a logical/analytical type of thinker, and never had any knack for languages.

I've managed to forget almost all of it in the past two years. I can barely use anything except the present tense, and half my vocabulary is gone. Granted, I could probably pick it back up again reasonably rapidly. I'm guessing within a few months I could get back to where I was.

 

I pretty much pushed French out of my system after Grade 10, when French wasn't a pre-req anymore and we didn't have to sit through such a stultifying class. No offense to the language, but I don't like it and I live in a place and live a life where being bi-lingual will never be necessary. It's kind of neat living in the only country where speaking French is NOT considered "cool".

I'll guess I'll queue Allord now to make fun of the French. Again.

 

Note that it isn't the American schooling system, people from all English speaking countries have been saying the same thing. Everyone who is really good at a language that I know said that do get good you have to be immersed. That doesn't happen so often for English speaking people, seeing as nearly all media is in English.

In my schooling in the UK I had mandatory French and German classes, and I chose to do Latin in my own time (with a teacher at my school and a group of other wierdos like me). My spoken language is pretty bad, but my understanding of French is ok. I am better at reading stuff though, and can read some of a fair few European languages as well, by using a combination of knowing Latin roots and having most of my holidays on the continent.

I am always annoyed that my Dad never really got the chance to teach me Polish. Both of his parents came to the UK in the war so he grew up speaking it, and had intentions of teaching my brothers and me some Polish. A combination of my Mum not speaking a word and my Dad travelling on business a lot meant he never got a chance to.

 

English is the only language I would even pretend to be fluent in, but I'm pretty good with other ones - I took Spanish from elementary school through 10th grade and can communicate decently well (I'm good with grammar, but my vocabulary sucks). I took a year of German in 11th grade and I can have simple conversations with patient speakers. I have a teach yourself Irish box set but, turns out, that shit is impossible to learn without a teacher. This year I took about 2 weeks of Arabic before deciding Latin makes more sense for my classical history major, but I kept the book and stuff because it's an interesting language and I plan on learning some day. I'm going to Italy in about 3 days and don't speak a word of it, but I'll probably pick up enough to have short conversations by the time I leave in 7 weeks. I guess I just really like learning other languages so I've gone out of my way to try, and it also helps that grammar comes quickly and sticks with me. One day my Arabic/Irish/Spanish/German skills are gonna come in handy, I'm sure.

As a side note, I am 1000% better at all these languages when I'm drunk. I can debate philosophy in Spanish if I'm drunk enough.

A friend of mine, also American, has been taking German for years and is totally fluent, and the other day she got so drunk she couldn't speak English. German was the only language she could put words together in. It was hilarious.

 

I speak two languages and manage to get directions to a bar or my hotel in two more, if the need arises. I agree that it's all about immersion and urgency though. I speak English, because I have to and Estonian is my native language. However, I've taken 7-8 years of Russian (a compulsory subject) and am barely able to speak it. Without the immersion there was absolutely no incentive for me to remember the bare minimum I managed to learn.

 

I had roughly two years of Spanish in elementary school and I barely remember any Spanish. It's one of my goals to teach myself Spanish before I finish my PhD. My Spanish is horrible, and my southern accent comes into play because what I learned so long ago, I learned when I still had a strong southern drawl.

I'm fairly conversational in French. I ran into some French travelers in South Africa and we had a decent conversation. After about a half hour, I started straining and they said "oh, it's okay, you're not in university anymore, we can talk in English." Also, back when I sold insurance, I sold insurance to a French Canadian who didn't speak much English. He was buying a car in Florida and driving it back to Canada, but needed insurance during the time that he was in the country. Those two experiences helped me feel justified in learning French for so long, even though I always sucked at it. I was in French 4 or 5 in high school and completely bombed the AP French exam, and then took French for another year in undergrad. All in all I've spent 8 years learning French. It took me through high school to stop saying "Jamaye" for "J'aime". That's when I started to really lose my accent.

I had two years of Latin in high school and maybe it was because I had a kickass teacher, but it was very easy. I don't really remember much of it, but I feel like it does help recognize words that I'm unfamiliar with. I remember it helping me on my verbal section of the GREs.

I can't claim to speak Japanese. I've always wanted to learn, and go teach English in Japan, but I've never gotten around to doing it. I've never had any formal training or instruction. My guilty pleasure is that I watch fansubbed anime cartoons from time to time. I rationalize it by telling myself I am prepping my ears for the transition in language once I finally take the time to learn it.

I know enough in Zulu, Siswati, and Setswana (they're similar enough languages) to greet, exchange pleasantries, and flirt. I had a crash course in South African Culture and Language prior to my research experience in '06. I'm better in Zulu and Siswati then I am in Setswana. There is a surprisingly large Tswana and Zulu population at Howard. Maybe it's their accents, but I find Zulu and Tswana women extremely attractive. They tend to look extremely youthful for their age too. I was consistently off when I was guessing ages in South Africa/Swaziland. I'd guess 22 or 23, and they were 28, 29, and sometimes 30. I hit them with a greeting and the fact that I can usually pronounce their name after seeing it usually earns me some brownie points for an umlungu (white man) even though I'm mixed (or coloured, for our resident South African).

I'm planning on learning to speak Vietnamese one day. I owe it to my father. He and I both regret that he didn't teach me when I was younger.

 

I tend to agree with the consensus in this one...it pretty much always was (and to an extent still is) expected that non-English speakers would learn English, instead of English speakers learning the other persons language. Blame it on the empire, I guess.

Personally, I only speak English at the moment (I took French for years at middle school and can't remember any of it), but I'm in the process of applying for a course in Mandarin. Mostly out of boredom and a desire to challenge myself than for any necessarily practical reason.

I also plan to learn Norwegian at some point...hopefully when one of my Norwegian friends is over here studying next year I can persuade her to teach me some of the basics, as it's proven impossible to find any actual courses in the language....shame, as it's a really nice language to hear, IMO.

Edit:

Isn't that more a series of semi-intelligble grunts and moans than an actual language, though?

 

I speak very stilted Spanish. I grew up and still live in an area where fluency in Spanish is very beneficial (a few miles from the border with Mexico), and it's my fault because I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to learn when I could have
(My dad speaks textbook spanish, as well as local slang.)
My biggest complaint: I have been trying to get my son fluent in Spanish, and have been met with nothing but opposition!
His grandparents on his mother's side are both VERY fluent in spanish (as fluent as you can be, if you catch my drift), and they continue to speak to him in English!
My ex-wife refuses to teach him any Spanish because she "doesn't want him to grow up with a Spanish accent."

 

It seems everyone's opinion on this thread can be summed up with this monologue. Fucking classic:

 

I think people forget that English is one of the easy languages. Yes, the spelling is a disaster and the past/future weird tenses are the bane of my existence, but you don't need to know that to be able to speak it fine. It's a very convenient global language, and all you English speakers have an advantage. Who cares whether some kid in the boonies can speak a foreign language if he's never gonna use it. If he travels outside of the US for fun, people will most likely speak English anyway. And if he needs a foreign language for his job, he can learn it later. I'm much more worried about the poor math skills American kids have.

My mother tongue is Slovak, and I am fluent in English and German (necessity - only 5 million people speak my language). I knew basic French, but that's long gone. Out of all this, English is easiest - that's partly why it's a global language. I learned it when my mom spent a year in the US and took me with her, taught me: "Yes. No. I don't understand. Bathroom." and dropped me off in an elementary school. The first 1-2 weeks were terrible, but after a month I was doing fine and after 1 more month I was fluent. Since this was such a success, my mom did the same thing with my younger sister a couple years later, and same thing happened - sis became fluent in a month or two. If any of you want to teach your kids a foreign language, this is one of the best ways.

Oh, and Eastern European languages are awesome because speaking one fluently you can get by fine in most other Slavic countries.

 

I'm completely fluent in French and English and easily pass for a native speaker in either language. My English accent is quite generic (maybe a little Ottawa Valley). My natural French accent and speech patterns hail from my parents' home in northern Quebec.

My family background is French-Canadian, but I grew up in either English speaking or very bilingual regions of Canada. I spoke French at home and at school, but my friends were generally English speaking, so I learned both at the same time. I also had the opportunity to extensively practice both languages all my life which I think is key to maintaining fluency. My younger brother also grew up with both languages but has resided in Toronto for some time, and his French has gotten pretty bad, accent wise. To my ear he sounds like an Anglo.

I've used French occassionaly for work, but the biggest advatange has been obtaining services from various levels of government. Most government positions here require French/English bilingualism. Given our proximity to the Quebec border, and that most Quebeckers must learn English by necessity, a large portion of the people you deal with in the gov't are therefore French speaking Quebeckers who have picked up English.

I'll usually start in English, but if my ear detects a French-Canadian accent I'll switch over to French. I have seen peoples' attitudes do a 180 when I switch to French. Its not so much that I'm speaking French to them, but more that my accent identifies me as a fellow Quebecker (even thought I don't consider myself to be a Quebecker, having never actually lived there).

 

Nope. I embarass myself with a Spanish speaking person anytime that I've ever tried to use my two years of high school Spanish.
In Hawaii, you can't throw a penny without having it bounce off three Fillipinos.
Illicano and Tagalog are impossible for me. Frankly, I find it humiliating to be laughed at when I try to say that I'm going to go to the bathroom, only to find that I said; "I shit cat."

However, I'm slowly learning the metric system. Where it pertains to small measurments anyway. If someone were to say to me, "go seven kilometer thataways."
Well, at least I know what direction to start going.

 

I am ESL! Russian is my first language, which is hard as fuck to learn apparently. This also gives me decent understanding of Polish and Ukrainian. I got a raise at work of a bit over $1000/yr as well.

I can also speak enough German to get by while traveling, but holding a conversation would be impossible.

 

Living in the midwest and not traveling much, I've never had much reason to learn any language besides English. However in high school I did take three semesters of Spanish, which I promptly forgot (although I do still remember bits and pieces from time to time). For college I needed 20 credit hours of a foreign language, and my Spanish was so bad I decided to start anew, and took American Sign Language. I have to say that was one of my funnest experiences in college, as it's a very interesting language to learn, but I rarely get to use it. The only time I've used it was specifically for classes, where I had to go out and interact with the Deaf community. I'm already forgetting a lot of this though, which is upsetting becuase I'll see signing featured randomly on a TV show or something and get all giddy because I'll think I can understand it, but then I realize I can't actually figure out much of what they're saying.

My girlfriend is a lot more interesting though. She is Indian but grew up in Kuwait, so she speaks Malayalam, Hindi, English, and she's learning Arabic for her college foreign language requirement. I'm jealous as hell of all that and feel like a fucking rube. I make up for it by correcting her English ("today morning"? More like "this morning" bitch!) every once in a while, and some of her pronunciation of random Spanish phrases we encounter, since that's one of the few things I remember from learning it.

 

Alt Focus-

I can speak Russian (first language), English, and Spanish, and can understand decent amounts of German, Ukranian, French, and Japanese.

The Russian only helps for reading books, especially math texts, that have never been translated into English. French and Japanese are essentially worthless unless you decided to travel there. (Neither of which I have done or plan to in the near future) Spanish, however, was a language my parents forced me to take from seventh grade onwards. I wanted to take French, but they laughed at me, and told me I was an idiot, since "who the fuck speaks French in California? They speak SPANISH!", and that was the end of that.

And they were right; Spanish has been tremendously useful to me in communicating with the millions of people living in California who can't speak English. My vocabulary isn't exceptionally large, and my grammar is spotty, but I can describe what I want effectively. "Puedes limpiar mi casa por veinte dolares?" (Can you clean my place for twenty bucks?)