Foreign languages should be required classes in schools.

[Felya]

Simple answer.....no. Not everyone plans on traveling overseas and I expect anyone visiting the US to speak the main one we do. English. I am not going to learn to speak their language unless I planned on traveling to their country. Then I should. Would be wrong for me to expect them to know English.

Learning another language makes you think in different ways. Language follows different composition and logic, to produce the same results. There is nothing better than learning languages, in teaching your brain to approach the same problem, from a multitude of perspective.

Your response implies a deep misunderstanding of education.

Edit: It should be... its extremely important to teach people how to interpret. Consider what that means and how fundamentally important it is for logic.

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I think US schools should definitely be required to teach student’s Spanish. There’s a large Spanish-speaking population here, afterall.

That’s just a bonus...

Edit: I want to sing in French and argue in German...

[Krakan]

I mean maybe if you insist on a useful language like mandarin. There isn't a point to learning a useless language.

[Felya]

I mean maybe if you insist on a useful language like mandarin. There isn't a point to learning a useless language.

Outside of logic and reason...

Anyway, here is an example to what I said above:

[Shadowferal]

Learning another language makes you think in different ways. Language follows different composition and logic, to produce the same results. There is nothing better than learning languages, in teaching your brain to approach the same problem, from a multitude of perspective.

Your response implies a deep misunderstanding of education.

Edit: It should be... its extremely important to teach people how to interpret. Consider what that means and how fundamentally important it is for logic.

Yea...I'm a believer that language can influence how a person thinks and thus a person's perceptions. (Linguistiv Relativity I believe it's called)

[XDurionX]

I learned 3 languages in school, 2 of which were mandatory. I was today's years old when i learned, this isn't the case everywhere.

[callipygoustp]

Back in the early 80s when I was in high school I was required to take a foreign language in order to graduate and my high school was nothing special: just a standard public high school.

[Ursus]

Why require that students learn a skill that is going to be virtually obsolete in 10 - 20 years? Technology will be able to take care of all translation needs in real-time.

Yes there are benefits to learning a foreign language besides communication, but there are other subjects that should be a higher priority in schools. If you want students to learn a foreign language to improve their reasoning and logic skills, why not require a logic course instead?

[Fencers]

I agree with this notion. I think you should have to take a foreign language course for each phase of education; elementary, high school, and college.

[kail]

I actually disagree. Took 4 years of German between middle and high school, aced the classes but today I wouldn't be able to hold a simple conversation in German. Language might be one of those things we lose when it remains unused.

Maybe someone here experienced the opposite but due to the high amount of Spanish speaker where I live, I understand more phrases in that language than German.

[Thereturn]

In my country most schools are already struggling teaching a good part of the kids the native language. You can question how effective a 70/10/10/10 language education is for all languages learned.

That said english, and a choice of french and german have always been standard here during highschool with an additional option for latin, greek and spanish.

[Tuor]

Took 4 years of German between middle and high school, aced the classes but today I wouldn't be able to hold a simple conversation in German.

I have the same problem with french.

[Krakan]

So much for the US being a melting pot!

"Speak English or go back to your own country!"
-Ghostpanther

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All the stupid, meaningless and useless shit you have in your head right now that you've learned, yet you refuse to learn something actually very useful in life like a 2nd language.

So many people carry this mentality and I'll never understand it.

I mean I know three languages ( well 2 one I can only read one of three and then at a grade school level at best).

Unless it's a marketable language it's pretty worthless. It's also a rather difficult subject I wouldn't really want it enforced unless it was an extremely useful language to learn and not one that maybe pays an extra dollar an hour in a service industry.

[Adam Jensen]

........

You mean English?

No.

We don't spell it "colour."

[Nihilist74]

Here's my hot take of the day: Students should be required to take foreign language classes in school to graduate. Knowing how to speak more than one language is a great skill that will make you more attractive to future employers. Studies show that foreign languages help critical thinking skills.

If you know Spanish and English well, there are a lot of jobs in America that you can get that are entry-level where you make a dollar or more an hour than people who just speak English.
They say learning another language helps you understand your own language better and it's good exercise for your mind. I think in America we need a lot more reform to our education system first though.
We need a higher amount of teachers per student ratio.

[cors8]

While the idea is nice, unless it's easy to immerse yourself in the language (like Spanish in the USA), it's very hard to retain that knowledge.

[PC2]

My 2 years of Spanish in highschool helped me a little bit but I wouldn't say it should be required. Not every single person needs it and it should largely be based on whether the person is interested in the subject. People who aren't interested in a subject won't learn it at a deeper level and they could be using that time to studying a subject that is more meaningful to them.

[Slirith]

It sadly wouldn't happen due to the parents of idiot children(you know the ones that go "omg, addition and subtraction is too hard for my high schooler, change it! mind you this is an exaggeration but you get what I mean)

[Nnyco]

In germany you learn english by default. It started for me in like the 3rd grade.

[Doctor Amadeus]

I would have liked to learn German, Russian, Latin or Chinese, but no it shouldn't be mandatory.

[Monster Hunter]

They almost are in the UK (needed for university application) and guess what, hardly anyone can speak spanish or french anyway,

Is Spanish even offered?

My high school had French and German with optional latin.

Don't know of any school that offered Spanish, its a bit useless compared to French or German here.