Enormous waste of time in schools

Como estas?

muy bien


All you need to know.

Teaching kids to "check the box"

They will make great middle management.

Doulingo baw.

With all of the time we use on Spanish, they’d be better off completely immersing us for two years in the middle of our education instead of using 1 of 7 of our classes in Spanish. I would love to speak Spanish well. But the American system ain’t doing it right.

:)

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I have three immediate relatives, one is class valedictorian, with multiple years of Spanish credit and yet none can speak or read very much of the language. Why are schools wasting time providing a subject with no value? Does anyone on the OT know of a success story?

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Because, generally with languages, they're "use it or lose it."

I took two semesters of Latin in high school, successfully tested out of the early classes in college and continued on to take a few more semesters there. I have retained a lot of my Latin knowledge because I actually enjoy it and practice it decently regularly.

On the other hand, over the years I've taken Spanish, German, and Ancient Greek as well, and never retained any of it because I didn't bother to practice any of it.

You cannot learn a language in a classroom.

You can only learn a language by living where it is spoken.

I think high school is more about exposing you to what's out there and see what sticks.

I took 4 years of PE but I'm not an athlete.

Schools aren't there to make sure your tyke is fluent in Spanish. They just have to provide the opportunity to convince you that they tried.