I also took 3 compulsory foreign language classes and retained maybe 30 words after the exams. I hated it and treated it as a memorization problem. It was a com

I also took 3 compulsory foreign language classes and retained maybe 30 words after the exams. I hated it and treated it as a memorization problem. It was a complete waste of my time due to a lack of interest. I don't think you could have fixed it for someone like me. The root problem was my disinterest in learning another language which I don't think is going to change with a different pedagogy. I'm just simply not interested in the prospect of learning that content, and trying to get that content into my brain was a matter of great subjective displeasure. That's why it should be opt-in. The people that are capable of getting value from it (you) join in and the people guaranteed to get no value due to a lack of interest (me) can do something else. The same thing shouldn't apply to critical/foundational classes like basic math. But foreign languages aren't that.