Native English Speakers

[Two Thumbs]

There are many (many!) benefits to learning a second language, but as a practical matter, is there as much reason for a native speaker of English in this day and age to learn another language(s) as there is for non-native speakers to learn English? Should we reassign the time used in schools today on mediocre foreign language instruction to further bolster math and science skills instead? Just for the sake of argument...

learning other languages is important if you live near a country that speaks another one than yours.

so unless your states boarders Mex, there is no reason for any American to be mandated to learn any other language

OK, but it's not as if Americans never move from state to state.

then if I move, it would be a good idea to learn

I've lived in; Illinois, MO, Arkansas, FL Connecticut and now PA. I have never needed another language.

When I lived in Sardinia (Italy) I took Italian classes. The better I got, the cheaper my meals. Weird how respecting your host country works like that

 

[Two Thumbs]

The idea that Americans should learn Spanish simply because our country is being invaded, is ludicrous. It's good to learn another language when there is a genuine need, like in business. I have done a lot of business in Germany so I learned to speak and read and write German.

If it's a matter of 'understanding immigrants' then they should be learning a useful language, like a Chinese dialect or German.

Why German? A wave of German immigrants on the way?

It's spoken in PA, sorta, the amish stll use it at times, but only among themselves

 

[SteadyMercury]

They are the root languages of many others, so no, they're not 'dead languages'; they in fact make several other languages far easier to learn fluently and quickly. So ... yeah, seriously ...

Latin is a dead language, regardless of whether it is the root language for Romanian/Italian/Spanish/whatever.

Learning Spanish will also make other romance languages easier to learn fluently and quickly, and it might actually have some utility. If I know the gender of a word in Spanish, it is very likely I'll know the gender of that word in Romanian, Portugese, French, and Italian too.

 

[SteadyMercury]

There are many (many!) benefits to learning a second language, but as a practical matter, is there as much reason for a native speaker of English in this day and age to learn another language(s) as there is for non-native speakers to learn English? Should we reassign the time used in schools today on mediocre foreign language instruction to further bolster math and science skills instead? Just for the sake of argument...

Nope, I don't think there is much benefit to it. How many kids who too their mandatory hours of Spanish/French/German in high school even learn to speak it with any level of usable proficiency, or remember much more than the absolute basics five years later?

I'd rather they take that time and teach personal finance... the principles of making a budget, debt, investing, etc. would do young people a lot more good than trying to stuff a language down their throat that 99% will never need.

 

[USNavyVet]

There are many (many!) benefits to learning a second language, but as a practical matter, is there as much reason for a native speaker of English in this day and age to learn another language(s) as there is for non-native speakers to learn English? Should we reassign the time used in schools today on mediocre foreign language instruction to further bolster math and science skills instead? Just for the sake of argument...

I think kids should learn a 2nd language and like another poster mentioned, you learn more than just the language. You learn the culture, the sites, some of the history. I took French throughout school but could only read it pretty well. Never thought I'd use it until I joined the Navy and went to France. I could read the signs which helped a lot. Also, by learning one Latin-based language I could understand bits and pieces of other languages like Spanish when I went to Spain.

 

[Picaro]

The idea that Americans should learn Spanish simply because our country is being invaded, is ludicrous. It's good to learn another language when there is a genuine need, like in business. I have done a lot of business in Germany so I learned to speak and read and write German.

If it's a matter of 'understanding immigrants' then they should be learning a useful language, like a Chinese dialect or German.

Why German? A wave of German immigrants on the way?

It's spoken in PA, sorta, the amish stll use it at times, but only among themselves

Germany is the big dog in the European economy, and they build auto plants and invest in many U.S. businesses. Same with China, Taiwan, along with a lot of Chinese speaking immigrants. Japanese and Hindi would also come in handy, though Indians tend to speak English very well, at least the upper castes do.

 

[Picaro]

They are the root languages of many others, so no, they're not 'dead languages'; they in fact make several other languages far easier to learn fluently and quickly. So ... yeah, seriously ...

Latin is a dead language, regardless of whether it is the root language for Romanian/Italian/Spanish/whatever.

Learning Spanish will also make other romance languages easier to learn fluently and quickly, and it might actually have some utility. If I know the gender of a word in Spanish, it is very likely I'll know the gender of that word in Romanian, Portugese, French, and Italian too.

I didn't say they had to do translations of Plato and Cicero and then write 10,000 word essays on them by 3rd grade.

Learning Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes for starters, as early as possible, goes a long way to making English a lot easier to understand and learn. I'm sure some people don't get that, especially those who went to grade school after the 1970's, but that was an era when the goal was to really educate kids, and not socially promoting a bunch of whiners and sending masses of half-wits with high self-esteem off to warm seats in colleges.

 

[ricechickie]

Serioulsy?! Latin and Greek? Latin is a dead languge and Modern Greek has about 15 million speaker of which I am one. These are languages of interests to linguists only.

Latin is important because of the clues to meaning that Latin roots help with.

In other words, you learn English more thoroughly when you know some Latin.

 

[SteadyMercury]

I didn't say they had to do translations of Plato and Cicero and then write 10,000 word essays on them by 3rd grade.

You said Latin wasn't a dead language, which is absurd it is the very definition of a dead language.

 

[Picaro]

Serioulsy?! Latin and Greek? Latin is a dead languge and Modern Greek has about 15 million speaker of which I am one. These are languages of interests to linguists only.

Latin is important because of the clues to meaning that Latin roots help with.

In other words, you learn English more thoroughly when you know some Latin.

Exactly. A firm grounding in some Latin and Greek helps with reading skills the rest of a student's academic career; you can see words you've never seen before and grasp their meaning and context quickly.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I don't know a single person my age who grew up in an English-only household that can actually speak the language they learned in high school.

So I would agree that it's pointless.

 

[Picaro]

I didn't say they had to do translations of Plato and Cicero and then write 10,000 word essays on them by 3rd grade.

You said Latin wasn't a dead language, which is absurd it is the very definition of a dead language.

And yet here you are using Latin in your sentences. If it's 'dead' then why are you still using parts of it? ...

 

[ricechickie]

I don't know a single person my age who grew up in an English-only household that can actually speak the language they learned in high school.

So I would agree that it's pointless.

Whereas children who learn it in early childhood can easily be bilingual.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Latin is important because of the clues to meaning that Latin roots help with.

In other words, you learn English more thoroughly when you know some Latin.

In my experience simply enjoying reading will get you much farther in recognizing words than the time spent learning Latin. I'll recognize as many word roots from learning German and Spanish as I will Latin, I had to take two years of that shit and it would have been much better spent learning something besides a dead language.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I didn't say they had to do translations of Plato and Cicero and then write 10,000 word essays on them by 3rd grade.

You said Latin wasn't a dead language, which is absurd it is the very definition of a dead language.

And yet here you are using Latin in your sentences. If it's 'dead' then why are you still using parts of it? ...

I think you might be misunderstanding what a "dead language" is.

There are no households in the world that speak Latin as their primary language. No one grows up speaking latin at home. That's what a "dead language" means.

 

[SteadyMercury]

And yet here you are using Latin in your sentences. If it's 'dead' then why are you still using parts of it? ...

I'm using English, the roots of some words being Latin doesn't mean the Latin language isn't a dead language.

Have you traveled to Latinlandia recently and happily engaged the natives in Latin?

definition dead language - Google Search

dead lan·guage
noun

1. a language no longer in everyday spoken use, such as Latin.

 

[ricechickie]

Latin is important because of the clues to meaning that Latin roots help with.

In other words, you learn English more thoroughly when you know some Latin.

In my experience simply enjoying reading will get you much farther in recognizing words than the time spent learning Latin. I'll recognize as many word roots from learning German and Spanish as I will Latin, I had to take two years of that shit and it would have been much better spent learning something besides a dead language.

Both enjoying reading, and putting time into learning another language, have value.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Both enjoying reading, and putting time into learning another language, have value.

Agreed 100%. I think the question of the thread was more is it worth the time invested in it.

I think if a student in the US has interest in a foreign language then great! Give them every opportunity. However I believe the overwhelming majority gain little tangible benefit and the time could be better spent leaning something more useful for a career or life, be it personal finance or addition math/science or whatever.

I'm not against a second language I'm bilingual English and Mandarin. I just question the utility of learning a dead language.

 

[ricechickie]

Both enjoying reading, and putting time into learning another language, have value.

Agreed 100%. I think the question of the thread was more is it worth the time invested in it.

I think if a student in the US has interest in a foreign language then great! Give them every opportunity. However I believe the overwhelming majority gain little tangible benefit and the time could be better spent leaning something more useful for a career or life, be it personal finance or addition math/science or whatever.

I'm not against a second language I'm bilingual English and Mandarin. I just question the utility of learning a dead language.

I don't like the thought of education becoming simply an "investment" of time and energy, that is expected to pay off a certain amount. But that's my bias. I think learning just about anything is a good idea.

 

[Picaro]

I think you might be misunderstanding what a "dead language" is.

There are no households in the world that speak Latin as their primary language. No one grows up speaking latin at home. That's what a "dead language" means.

I think you're taking the term 'dead language' much too literally.