The main problem with education

[Unkotare]

In what language have you ever been fluent other than English?

Again, I don't think you fully appreciate the term you are using, but if it will make you happy I can get along in Japanese and Mandarin well enough.

 

[asterism]

I have already addressed this question. While working toward my master's degree I studied many languages. As I've told you before, the word "fluency" is problematic, but I can get by in 4 or 5.

Which ones?

I'm not here to boast. Send a PM.

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[Unkotare]

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Well, that's news to me!

 

[asterism]

In what language have you ever been fluent other than English?

Again, I don't think you fully appreciate the term you are using, but if it will make you happy I can get along in Japanese and Mandarin well enough.

I am and I even defined the context in which I am using it.

Separate from our debate in linguistics and proof of research vs. functionality, did you learn any other language when you were very young?

I'm curious because when I joined the Marine Corps I was already functional in German (3 years of high school), and had been fluent in Spanish (phrases as a young child, immersion by spending lots of time with a Cuban family, and 2 years in junior high). I was given the DLAB and based on that test was sent to DLI to learn Arabic and became fluent in a year.

While I obviously have the talent (different than intellectual capacity) to learn languages I was part of a study to learn more about people who think in different languages and/or don't have any language in which they think at all. A background investigation revealed that my mother and grandmother (native language was French) sang and talked to me in French when I was a baby and the researchers noted a correlation among those of us with similar histories.

One of the findings was that people who learned Cat V languages as English native speakers were usually exposed to another language at a very early age and in my case it was theorized by one researcher that I was not a native English speaker due to my first communication (that I didn't remember) being in French.

What's your opinion?

 

[Unkotare]

Separate from our debate in linguistics and proof of research vs. functionality...

I wasn't aware there was any real "debate" about that going on. Did I miss something?

 

[Unkotare]

did you learn any other language when you were very young?

What do you mean by "very young"? I did the usual Spanish through junior high and high school (tested out of the language requirement as an undergrad), but was raised in an English-speaking environment.

 

[Spiderman]

The problem with education is that too much time is wasted teaching shit that doesn't matter rather than teaching things that will actually be useful.

 

[Unkotare]

when I joined the Marine Corps I was already functional in German (3 years of high school), and had been fluent in Spanish (phrases as a young child, immersion by spending lots of time with a Cuban family, and 2 years in junior high). I was given the DLAB and based on that test was sent to DLI to learn Arabic and became fluent in a year.

See, this is why I hesitate over the term "fluent." You were very likely not actually "functional" in German after 3 years of it in high school, almost certainly not fluent in Spanish from the description above (and "spending lots of time with a Cuban family" does not constitute immersion - hence, my caution with that term earlier), and after one year you were not "fluent" in Arabic in the full meaning of the word. People have a tendency to grossly overestimate their facility with foreign languages, given what complete fluency really means.

 

[Unkotare]

A background investigation revealed that my mother and grandmother (native language was French) sang and talked to me in French when I was a baby and the researchers noted a correlation among those of us with similar histories.

One of the findings was that people who learned Cat V languages as English native speakers were usually exposed to another language at a very early age and in my case it was theorized by one researcher that I was not a native English speaker due to my first communication (that I didn't remember) being in French.

What's your opinion?

That theory would be far too broad. You were and are a native English speaker.

 

[Unkotare]

The problem with education is that too much time is wasted teaching shit that doesn't matter

Like what?

 

[Spiderman]

The problem with education is that too much time is wasted teaching shit that doesn't matter

Like what?

Thinking back to all the useless shit I had to sit through in high school here are a few

You don't need to study Shakespeare in HS
You don't need health and sex ed classes
You don't need psychology and multicultural crap.

Don't need pep rallies, clubs and all the stupid student council crap

Not only could you shorten the school day you could get it all done in less than 4 years

 

[Unkotare]

The problem with education is that too much time is wasted teaching shit that doesn't matter

Like what?

Thinking back to all the useless shit I had to sit through in high school here are a few

You don't need to study Shakespeare in HS

Why not?

 

[Unkotare]

Don't need pep rallies, clubs and all the stupid student council crap

Clubs and Student Council stuff are not mandatory at most schools.

 

[Spiderman]

Like what?

Thinking back to all the useless shit I had to sit through in high school here are a few

You don't need to study Shakespeare in HS

Why not?

It's irrelevant.

There is no need to waste time reading Elizabethan English. And besides the stories are boring and hackneyed.

 

[Spiderman]

Don't need pep rallies, clubs and all the stupid student council crap

Clubs and Student Council stuff are not mandatory at most schools.

No but valuable time is wasted on them nonetheless.

 

[Unkotare]

Thinking back to all the useless shit I had to sit through in high school here are a few

You don't need to study Shakespeare in HS

Why not?

It's irrelevant.

There is no need to waste time reading Elizabethan English. And besides the stories are boring and hackneyed.

You probably have no greater capacity to understand just what that post makes you look like than does any other farm animal mindlessly going about its aimless, un-reflected life.


I suppose I should go through the motions of asking what makes you think you are qualified to judge and dismiss some of the greatest literature in the history of the English language. Go ahead. You already look stupid, so this shouldn't matter.

 

[Unkotare]

Don't need pep rallies, clubs and all the stupid student council crap

Clubs and Student Council stuff are not mandatory at most schools.

No but valuable time is wasted on them nonetheless.

If it is voluntary, then who the **** are you to deem it "wasted"? You didn't think this through at all, did you? You were just mindlessly emoting, weren't you?

 

[psikeyhackr]

Shakespear didn't need to know enough about electricity to give a car a jump in a snow storm. What, no cars, no electricity?

Three science courses with no practical discussion of electricity. Lots of discussion of electron orbitals in chemistry class. Is education in touch with reality or is it designed to keep kids out of touch with reality?

Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics (2006) by Stan Gibilisco
teach yourself electricity and electronics

psik

 

[Spiderman]

Why not?

It's irrelevant.

There is no need to waste time reading Elizabethan English. And besides the stories are boring and hackneyed.

You probably have no greater capacity to understand just what that post makes you look like than does any other farm animal mindlessly going about its aimless, un-reflected life.

Tell me how on earth did reading Shakespeare help you reflect on your life? The stories are blase' The writing is in a dead form of English.

Man's search for meaning is a much better choice than Romeo And Juliet for that.

I suppose I should go through the motions of asking what makes you think you are qualified to judge and dismiss some of the greatest literature in the history of the English language. Go ahead. You already look stupid, so this shouldn't matter.

If you want to read that shit go ahead but wasting weeks reading that junk in school does nothing to help you in the world unless of course you want to be a play write or a literature professor.

 

[Unkotare]

I suppose I should go through the motions of asking what makes you think you are qualified to judge and dismiss some of the greatest literature in the history of the English language. Go ahead. You already look stupid, so this shouldn't matter.

If you want to read that shit go ahead but wasting weeks reading that junk in school does nothing to help you in the world unless of course you want to be a play write or a literature professor.

You didn't answer my question.