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This! The reason Germany has a high level of proficiency for a country that doesn’t translate media (movies, tv shows etc don’t act as language learning agent),
by ricw 7y ago
This! The reason Germany has a high level of proficiency for a country that doesn’t translate media (movies, tv shows etc don’t act as language learning agent), it has a deep and well trained set of teachers. How? Famously the last German emperor insisted that every kid learn English in school. Over 100 years later and this has lead to well trained teachers, who can teach kids properly.
I guess the take away is that teaching a whole country a new language takes time and is hard to accelerate.
- narag 7y agoIt's more general than for learning a language. For a whole country, teaching quality is a virtuous circle, you can't simply put a lot of money and expect inmediate results, but need to iterate through generations. That's why I think importing a lot of native speakers was a good idea: you can step ahead iterations.
- jacobush 7y agoSweden started after WW2 and it is way ahead of Germany. So I’d say it is possible to accelerate. I think English really started to take hold in the 60s and 70s. Relatively low educated people born in the 1950s can make themselves understood in a pinch
- anoncake 7y agoSource? Although that sounds like something Willhelm II. would have done he couldn't make laws on his own and I think education was a state matter anyway. At least it was according to the constitution but that doesn't mean much. Often laws that modified the 1871 and 1918 constitutions did not change its text but overrode its meaning. Imagine the US constitution but longer you get to hunt down the amendments yourself.