Why not learn at least 2 languages in North-America ?

Question

Why don't we change our educational system so that every child will be fluent in at least two languages - English and Spanish in the U.S. and Mexico, English and French in Canada. Make it mandatory and give it a generation and we'll all get along much better. I'm not talking about 3 hours of Spanish a week, but a full-blown 1/2 and 1/2 immersion, Biology in English, Chemistry in Spanish, History in Spanish, Geography in English. Switch every year....

kengoward : Ignorance breeds contempt. Speaking a second language never hurt anyone.

Jaye G : you might want to read the whole question.
English and Spanish in the U.S. and Mexico; French and English in Canada. We'll all have English in common but will be able to understand our neighbours and country(wo)men better. It would do a lot good in Canada if EVERYBODY were to speak both English and French - the question of Quebec separatism would never come up again.

Dianna: I agree - once you speak a second language it is MUCH easier to pick up a third or fourth. I know - my children speak three languages fluently, they grew up with all three simultaneously.

foxnews/aira.. if you try to insult in a foreign language (to you), at least try to do so correctly. But given that you named yourself after the most rightwing news network in the free world, what's to expect.

hadenough : Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, India, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, parts of Russia, China,.... I do know history and I also think that we can learn from it. The world would be a better place if we could communicate with each other in each OTHERS language. As we can't learn 1000s, we can at least learn two.

I don't see this as an immigration issue but as an issue regarding neighbours. Austalia and Greece are not neighbours, so no, I wouldn't expect every Austalian to learn Greek. Yes, I think people emmigrating to a country ought to learn its language(s), but it also doesn't hurt to learn the language of your neighbour(ing country).
Mexico and Canada do not border and the Mexican population within Canada is not a big one. French would be the better choice here (yea, I know, more Chinese in Vancouver et al), but we're trying to keep the country together, I'd hope.

How is suggesting to learn a second (or even third) language an insult to Americans ? Would you feel better if I were to state that Americans (those of the U.S.) are too ignorant or too stupid to learn another language and understand another culture ?

schneids91 : you're obviously an ignorant right-wing idiot - Canada is already officially bilingual, it's not an English-speaking country only.

Answer 1

Now this is an interesting idea, and I love it......I already know English and Spanish, but would be willing to learn French, infact I wanted to learn it in high school, but they didn't teach it as my school.
If we could all understand and speak to each. It would greatly cut down on the large amount of ignorance the seems to plague this country.

Answer 2

We can't mandate that kind of curriculum because we would be giving preferential treatment to Spanish speaking folks. They need immersion in English only schools because the already speak Spanish. As for American kids it is essential to learn a second language, but they shouldn't be forced into speaking Spanish. They should have a choice of immersion languages. French, German or better yet Chinese. Spanish speaking kids could choose to participate in a third language once they have proved their proficiency in English. I am all for a multilingual culture, (I speak Spanish) but we shouldn't be forced to speak Spanish just because 20 million are slow to learn English.

Answer 3

That would make the only common language throughout the whole continent, English. Since French and English are the official languages in Canada and Spanish and English are the official languages in the USA, how are you going to get the Canadians to learn Spanish and the Americans to learn French? The school systems are different and neither country sees the importance of the other language.

Answer 4

Well I guess that'll be good for you guys interested in understanding other cultures.
i am from India,donno how much you know about my country,but we have 23 official languages here.
In schools here we have a 1st language,2nd language and 3rd language.
I can speak 2 different non native languages namely English and Hindi apart from my native language so i know 3 languages in total.
I have been toying with the idea of learning French coz since i know English i guess picking French will be pretty much easier,donno where i got that idea from:-)))))
But i dont think you have to make it mandatory for people to learn chemistry in spanish/french,instead why dont you just introduce a concept of having 2nd language in school let kids decide what language they wanna learn as their second language probably a German-American might want to learn German if he got a chance and he might find the 2nd language thing his chance to learn German,the language of his ancestors.

Answer 5

Spanish is the language of bull fighters and drug dealers.

There is no academic reason for learning Spanish.
French is the language of diplomacy and finance.
Latin is still the language of law and medicine
German and Russian are good languages
for engineering.
Greek is the language of biblical scholars.

I guess spanish would be helpful
if you plan to only eat fast food,
or supervise coolie labor
in a strawberry patch,
or work with spanish speakers.

English has replaced French
in almost every venue except romance.

In every Asian country -
ENGLISH is what they learn after their native language.
Learning Spanish in China, Japan, Thailand,
Vietnam, Malaysia and on and on just doesn't happen.

English is the language of
International Business and Aviation.
English is used
in nearly every International Business transaction
to negotiate the deal.
International flight crews speak English
because the control towers are operated in ENGLISH.



Any butthole Mexican who comes to the U.S.
and doesn't learn English
is just being an @$$.

Answer 6

How about no, Canada and America are ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES. English and only English should be the language taught in schools !!!!!!! This is an absolutely stupid question and you are a liberal hippy p u s s y for asking!!

Answer 7

Any person arranging on traveling to a Spanish-speaking nation sometime in the up coming months or so have to make a course so that can make a dissent conversation in Spanish or just to understand when folks talk to them because by the time your journey rolls close to you need to be conversationally fluent or fairly shut to it with the assist

Answer 8

Because some people are too lazy to learn a second language. And others feel that by not speaking english and only english, that makes you somehow less of an american.

Answer 9

Because there isn't enough funding for education as it is, and most of the special funds are used for ESL programs. When you have 12 to 20 million more poor people than you should be subsidizing for education it really drains the funds and degrades the schooling. In LA, if you want PE, the parents have to pay for it. At my kids' school we also fund music and computer lab, or there wouldn't be any.

The illegal immigrant kids and kids of illegal immigrants end up bilingual at our expense, but that is just one more thing we can't afford to give our own kids.

Answer 10

I agree with Jaye G. I think what she/he was trying to say is if you are trying to promote language as a better way to get along, then all three countries should speak all three languages. By each country only speaking 2 languages, there will still be barriers between them.

As for ALL Canadians learning French. It still wouldn't do a bit of good. The people of Quebec want sovereignty to foster their own economic, social, and cultural development. Quebec sovereignists are generally not in opposition to federalism as a concept, but are opposed to the present federal system of Canada and do not believe it can be reformed in a way that could answer what they see as the legitimate wish of Quebecers to govern themselves freely.

Their argument that by not becoming a sovereign state their French language will die out, is ridiculous as French is one of the two official languages of Canada and is taught in our schools.