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From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (Michael Maxwell)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Americans and Foreign Languages
Message-ID: <779@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Nov-86 11:59:09 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.779
Posted: Fri Nov 14 11:59:09 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Nov-86 06:34:03 EST
References: <480@pedsgo.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (Michael Maxwell)
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 34

In article <480@pedsgo.UUCP> evan@pedsgo.UUCP (Evan Marcus) writes:
>I have seen some complaining about how Americans are lousy when it comes to
>learning foreign languages...
>The problem, in my opinion, is the way it is taught.  We are not taught
>conversational French/Hebrew, but instead we are taught for hours how to
>conjugate verbs, and subjected to short, stilted conversations on tape.
>...In addition, in America it is viewed as less important to learn
>a foreign language, since everybody for hundreds and hundreds of miles in
>almost every direction speaks English too (or at least is expected to!).

My personal opinion (I am certainly no expert!) is that the two problems are
related.  We don't learn conversational French etc. because there's no one
except the teacher and the other students to talk to.  I too took several
years of a foreign language in High School (Spanish), and got quite a good
background in grammar and (surprisingly) pronounciation.  When I got to Latin
America more than 10 years later, I was given a placement test for Spanish
classes which tested mainly for knowledge of grammar.   I did very well, but
found I could hardly understand any of what I heard in class, nor could I
say much.  *But* the hearing and speaking came very easily; within a
matter of days I was understanding everything in class, and could carry on a
conversation.  My conclusion (insofar as you can conclude anything from a
single case) is that the grammar etc. that I had learned in HS was really
useful, and merely needed to be supplemented by exposure to real conversation.

BTW, there's certainly no lack of people around here to speak Spanish with,
and our public schools (if foreign languages are still taught there!) are
probably missing a real opportunity by not using that resource.  I suspect a
number of native speakers of Spanish would be happy for the added income,
too...  Likewise with some oriental languages (probably less so for French and
Hebrew, at least in this part of the country).
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Advanced Technology Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm