did anyone get taught a language during elementary school?

Question

Every other country in the world does this except America. I have no idea why since kids learn languages better when they are younger. I want to see if anyone was lucky enough to get to learn a language when they were little. Please state where you lived when this happened (State, Country)

Answer 1

Yep. In Belgium we have 3 official languages, Flemish (similar to Dutch), French and German. And being a native Flemish speaker, I started learning French when I was about 9 years old, English at 12 and German at 14.

Though I had to learn some more, now living with a catalan (from Barcelona - Catalunya - Spain) in Madrid. So I also speak Spanish and Catalan. Our son grows up in 4 languages. I speak to him in Dutch, my partner to him in Catalan, in the guardería in Spanish and with my partner I speak English, so he hears it all the time.
He's 2 now and understands all 4 but so far he answers us in Spanish. We think he might have figured out that at least that language we have in common.. It's true children learn more easily. Take advantage of that.

I think it's a lot of fun being able to answer anybody in their native language. And btw, once you know 2 or 3, it's easy to learn more.

Vote for the right guys overthere in the States. Your government has to change the educational system. How is it possible that Spanish is not an obligated course???
And if your government doesn't provide you with classes in school, find them yourself. Good luck.

Answer 2

I was taught some French in 6th grade (which was still elementary school in my city of Long Beach, California), but nothing major. From 7th - 10th grades, took German, but I don't remember much of it now (other than how to say "We're washing the car."). I probably should have learned Spanish, since I am exposed to so much Spanish living here in Los Angeles.

It's hard to remember a language unless you're constantly using it. For example, I grew up speaking Chinese because both of my parents came from China. I'm sorry to say that I can hardly carry on a conversation now because I haven't used it regularly in several decades.

As far as other countries go, English is being taught a lot as a second language because the U.S. has been the dominant country, politically and economically, in the world for several decades. I remember visiting China in the mid-80s and many students were learning English for that reason, amid a gradual shift from away from learning Russian, because of the growing business opportunities with the United States.

It happened here in the U.S. to a smaller extent, back in the 1980s when Japan's economy was booming. A lot of business students, seeing opportunities with Japan, were taking Japanese language courses.

Answer 3

I think its a shame too. Our kids are not very international . If all kids took a foriegn language when they are 5 imagine how many they could learn before 18.
My mom and dad and sister spoke dutch in our house in L.A. , a dialect. I was born in 1970 a couple of months after they got here. I learned their hometown dialect well and excelled at English. My sister has no accent but my mom and dad do. I have no accent either way. When I go there I am a rarity. An American who speaks their hometown dialect almost flawlessly.
They make fun of me because I talk like the elderly. There dialect evolved in the years after my family came here. Time warp.
I do feel I have learned more about life knowing at least two.

Answer 4

Definitely in Singapore. From primary (7 - 12 years old) to secondary (13 - 16/17) and college (17 - 18).

The medium of instruction for all subjects is English, except when it comes to your mother tongue or second language.

You can choose Mandarin, Malay or Tamil as your second language which will be taught from primary right up till college level. This means that all school children will have spent at least 11 years learning a second language.

If the child happens to be "gifted" or smarter, he or she can opt for a third language in secondary school; Japanese, French or German.

I speak Mandarin, 3 Chinese dialects (learnt outside of school), Malay, Japanese and English.

Answer 5

I'm from Iceland. My native language is Icelandic. When I was 11 years old they started teaching us Danish in school. A year later they started teaching us English and both those languages were compulsory for the rest of elementary and high school.

Then in high school, at age 15, we had some optional extra subjects and among the choices we had were German and French (I chose French).

Nowadays they teach Icelandic kids English earlier and they are taught sign language in elementary school too.

Answer 6

My Elementary School offered languages from 1st grade on. We had options of the languages we wanted to take. They were Spanish, French, and Japanese, if I recall correctly.

In High School, we were required to take a language as well, as most now do. My parents moved alot, so I went to 3 different High Schools, and they all had the same requirements. The choices varied school to school, though.

Answer 7

Spanish clearly, French is declining, simply discovered that Gabon has dropped French for English, Rwanda did this lately, its most likely that different african international locations will follw this, Vietnam dropped french a at the same time again. In europe every body is both finding out english or German. Spanish at the different had is at the develop globally, within the US, Latin American economies are fitting extra robust and steady. Spanish may be simpler to pronounce than french. French have an effect on is fading within the face of english.

Answer 8

I wasn't taught a language in school until 6th grade (middle school) - I lived in Milwaukee, WI in all my years of schooling. Though in the '90s (after I graduated from high school) they did come out with Immersion schools in Milwaukee, and they are elementary schools - they still exist - I just looked them up.

They have a French Immersion, Spanish Immersion and German Immersion school. And I believe they are free since they are through Milwaukee Public Schools.

Answer 9

The US demands "English only" in the same way the catholic cult demanded "Latin only" when conducting its business. 30 million Spanish speakers in the US isn't a problem, it's an opportunity, especially since the South American economy (500 million Spanish and 180 million Portuguese speakers) will be the next to boom after Asia.

Monolinguals think that domination by their language shows superiority. Wrong. It shows ignorance and arrogance. Besides that, people who speak other languages can have private conversations that English speakers can't understand. The English speaker has to whisper, and that could still be overheard.

Growing up in Canada, we had mandatory French lessons between grades 6 to 8. How I wish I hadn't been an arrogant little prick and had paid attention, instead of (not) thinking, "They should speak English". Psychologists and linguists will tell you that if you don't start learning a language before age 13, it will be extremely difficult to pick one up.


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Answer 10

I started having some English lessons after class when I was 10. I'm French