4 ms·

To make the counter argument, it is rather unfortunate that the way foreign languages are normally taught in U.S. schools (grammar first to make it painful) lea

To make the counter argument, it is rather unfortunate that the way foreign languages are normally taught in U.S. schools (grammar first to make it painful) leads to the cliche of “I took 4 years of French in high school and I can only speak very little.” On this line, make computer languages a foreign language, as schools do a poor job overall teaching a foreign language so that it can be truly acquired. The advantage of computer languages as a foreign language is that picking it up for the learner does not require the learner to deal with frustration and embarrassment in the context of interacting with other people, like they would learning to communicate in a foreign language. > Within this subset of multilinguals who are well-versed in a non-English language, 89% acquired these skills in the childhood home, compared with 7% citing school as their main setting for language acquisition. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/13/learning-a-foreign-language-a-must-in-europe-not-so-in-america/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/13/learning-a-f...

snek 8y ago
Well four years of a language won't result in you being a very good speaker anyway. The key here is that foreign language classes also teach you about other cultures, which is definitely important.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Yes, that's probably the best justification for a high school curriculum that includes some number of years of foreign language. If classroom high school language isn't supplemented with more immersive or day-to-day use, you're probably not going to get to the point where you can write, speak, understand the language comfortably. I had 4 years of high school French and I was even relatively good at it, albeit not quite top of class. Today, I'm more comfortable in a French-speaking country than someone who knows no French at all, but my skill level is really pretty low.

snek 8y ago

Well four years of a language won't result in you being a very good speaker anyway. The key here is that foreign language classes also teach you about other cultures, which is definitely important.

ghaff 8y ago
Yes, that's probably the best justification for a high school curriculum that includes some number of years of foreign language. If classroom high school language isn't supplemented with more immersive or day-to-day use, you're probably not going to get to the point where you can write, speak, understand the language comfortably. I had 4 years of high school French and I was even relatively good at it, albeit not quite top of class. Today, I'm more comfortable in a French-speaking country than someone who knows no French at all, but my skill level is really pretty low.