Or open up job prospect and educational value?
I think it’s because they want to keep us stupid and withdrawn from the world as a whole. The US is kind of a giant prison, but with some shiny things to distract the more well off inmates from caring as much. For those who are poor, they’ll be aware but have hardly a network to figure out how to escape. Language is incredibly important and also allows you to think in different ways depending on what languages you know; gives different perspective. They don’t want us to think. I believe the best mandatory languages to learn if we implemented that in the states would be: Spanish, French, Portuguese (for upstairs and downstairs neighbors), Mandarin, Russian, and Egyptian Arabic. The last 3 are for general world literacy, Mandarin being widely spoken generally, boh Mandarin and Russian respectively to keep people aware of what’s happening in the world in those spheres, as well as Egyptian Arabic since it’s the most widely spoken Arab language, used in TV and everyday use most times.
Most Americans don’t travel so it would be wasted if none of those languages come to them.
What about all the native Spanish speakers who are already in the US?
Spanish is the one language other than English that is mandatory in many schools. It was in mine.
When did one foreign language become required?
What traveling? You don’t need 4 languages for Disney World/Land.
Learning a language helps develop the brain.
Clearly you haven’t been to EPCOT.
It’s more likely that most people wouldn’t pass high school anymore
most Americans don’t need any foreign language to pass high school.
At my high school you needed 2 communication credits, foreign languages counted, so did drama, journalism, year book, cheer squad (this always puzzled me as it was not even a class), and others I am sure I am forgetting as it was 30ish years ago.
11 states have foreign language requirements, but really we shouldn’t even count them. A single 20-30 minute class per day is not going to achieve any proficiency in a foreign language. The only way for an American child to actually achieve foreign language proficiency is to go to a 1/2 and 1/2 school.
I took 3 1/2 years of French in high school, but barely used it after graduation. I do wish we had more language learning in school.
In elementary school half of our day was taught in Spanish, but an ignorant parent (my mother) complained so loudly that the project was scrapped after only a couple months.
US classes are 20-30 minutes long?
No. My high school was 6 55-minute classes with 5 minute breaks between to get to your next class, plus a 45-minute lunch. 7 classes if you elected to take another class starting at 7am instead of the usual 8am. School was just under 8 hours long with 7 classes.
It varies a lot from one school to another, at mine we did “block scheduling” so you had 4, 90 minute classes a day, and different classes 1st and 2nd semester
Which had its pluses and minuses. You could definitely get a lot more instruction time in during a class that way
But for something like a language, if you’re unlucky and your schedule works out that you had it first semester one year and second the next, you’re basically going a whole year where you may not have practiced those language skills.
Other schools around me I think usually had 45 or 60 minute classes, but sometimes electives which might include language might have gotten shorter timeslots than core classes
Consequence of “general education”. School is only 6 hours per day. English, math, science, history, and gym are all required. That’s 5. Want to add health, sex ed, art, music, foreign language, programming, speech and debate, driver’s ed? The more you add, the more you have to shorten the classes. My school had a lot of curricular options, so my classes were short. If a school has less to offer, they may have longer classes.
No
And most don’t leave the country for vacations either
People do go to the Caribbean and Mexico, because they are within close travel distance. Most Americans could not afford a transatlantic vacation. You can take your whole family to Florida for a week just on the cost you’d spend on airfare going to Europe. It’s like $1000 per person per flight, 12 hour+ flight, 8+ hour time difference. A $10,000+ vacation is really not in the average American’s budget.
Yeah my high school said colleges would like for you to take a foreign language class, but it’s not required to graduate from here. Some students did think it was required to graduate and a couple I talked to at the time were surprised to learn I didn’t take any and still graduated.
Huh, I didn’t know americans need to do any foreign language. But 3 or 4 is way too much. I could barely manage 2.
Yeah, I had two and only gained actual usable proficiency in one (English).
Unless you keep using the language, you will loose it, I am bilingual Swedish/English, and since I practice both constantly, I retain my skills.
I did take Spanish as well for a few few years, but have mostly forgotten it.
Tried using my school Spanish once on holiday. Difference between German school Spanish and Spain Spanish is way too big, it’s like even in Madrid they’re using completely different pronounciation rules than what we learned.
And TBH I don’t like the climate anyway, so I have pretty much no reason whatsoever to put the work in. Should have learned French instead.
To be fair, no school is going to adequately prepare you for what the local population speaks. Youre only ever going to learn “proper” conversation, but you need to be run through the actual speakers to learn tone, dialect, and slang.
US schools already have a hard time teaching proficiency in English.
I honestly think it’s because in measures of distance, a US American could be considered well-traveled without ever having left the United States. Living in DC and visiting Florida or California is a big trip logistically. I love to travel and have moved a LOT and I have just barely been to every state in the US (some I only drove through, fuck rural Nebraska). While I disagree personally, I think that most Americans just don’t see the immediate utility in learning other languages.
Not learning Spanish in school as a requirement at this point is just racism, though.
I grew up in the shittiest state and even we took Spanish. Middle school though. I’d say if we ever get through this racist fest, the basics of French, Spanish, and Chinese would be nice in elementary. Maybe with more advanced options for Spanish in later years since that’s our best chance for cultural immersion if they leave our Latina/Latino brothers and sisters alone for 5 seconds.
US isn’t even teaching the 1 very well. 7th grade is way too late to begin that kind of learning.
Not sure about other countries, but here in Norway, English lessons start in the 2nd grade. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s similar in the rest of Europe.
English starts in 3rd grade here and a second language like French or Spanish usually in 5th grade. Starting to learn foreign languages in high school is wild.
In Spain there are places where two languages are taught at once since the first minute. There are two official languages. And a third one is taught soon after that.
Basque, I’m guessing?
7th grade? I never took a foreign language until 9th grade. I have two nephews, and both of them never took one until 10th.
bold of you to assume US high schools have money for even one foreign language
Setting non-travel jokes aside for aoment because somehow Americans don’t travel but they also get spotted as obvious tourists in their jeans and golf shorts.
Between prior English imperialism and recent American global market share, just about any place with a decent internet connection will have English as a viable communication language. It won’t always be great and you may have to talk to a few different people to find one that speaks enough English. The places I’ve been often have ads in English. Often enough, they’re not even dual language ads.
Now combine that with American exceptionalism and you’ll see Americans don’t see a need to learn anything else. No, they don’t see the irony in demanding the language of England as their one and only language heard in the 'States.
But, in a less cynical take, that country is huge and geographically diverse. There are many Americans that travel. Americans that travel domestically (or even only Can/US/Mex) should not be shamed. Language aside, different regions can have as much diversity as denser countries. Think about your stereotype for a resident of California, then New York, and lastly Texas. That is, after all, because the US is actually 50 states in a trench coat.
By the time I graduated high school, I spoke Latin in German fluently. In the last 30 years, I have traveled neither to Germany, nor ancient Rome.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Na dann, what’s stopping you?
Money. Or, more specifically, the lack thereof.
Or a Time Machine
Why would I learn another language when everyone else should just learn american.
