re: Enormous waste of time in schools

quote:

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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.