Learning Foreign Languages

[Harry Smiith]

I'd like to speak about how native English speakers learn foreign languages.
Are they full of enthusiasm while learning a foreign language? Or maybe they don't even make an effort to learn one, knowing that the most spoken language in the world is their native tongue. Any ideas?

[Jamie (K)]

Yours is a complicated question, Harry, and I'm sure it depends on where people live.

In the US, most people don't have enthusiasm for learning foreign languages. One of the reasons is that people think that English speakers don't need a foreign language (which is a foolish assumption, in my opinion). Another is that they think that learning a foreign language is almost an impossible task, so that if they meet an American who speaks one or more foreign languages well, they think he was able to learn them because he was "talented" and that normal people can't achieve what he has. One reason many Americans give up on learning a language is that they don't know the difference between learning to speak or write a language and learning facts for a test. Another problem is that many Americans -- even school administrators -- don't know what it means to learn a language to a useful degree, so they now offer languages as a form of "cultural enrichment" that does not require attaining any degree of fluency.

Another issue is deciding which foreign language to learn. For people in other countries, the natural choice of a first language is either English or the language of the most influential neighboring country. In the US, there is no natural choice of a first foreign language to learn, so people use various criteria to decide. One criterion is what choice of languages their school offers. At some smaller or poorer high schools, the only two choices are Spanish and French. At high schools like mine, which offer more languages -- German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin and Russian -- most people stampede into the language they think is the easiest, which is usually assumed to be Spanish. If a student is not worried about the language being easy, and he has several choices, he's more likely to take the language of his ancestors, if he can, which in my case was German.

French used to be considered the most important language for Americans to learn, because the French had so much influence on American ideas, but that's no longer true. Now French classes usually consist almost completely of girls, because France is mainly associated with fashion and cooking, and because boys think the usual textbook picture of Louis XIV in a giant wig, showing off his sexy legs, is gay. In fact, American boys generally think everything about France is gay.

In the 1980s, there was a big trend toward learning Japanese, because of Japan's importance in business, but that quieted down after several years. Now there's been a resurgence in interest in learning Japanese, but the instructors are having to change their approach, because most of the kids taking it now want to learn it because they love manga and anime. The instructors have switched from focusing more on practical Japanese to concentrating more on the general culture.

One of the most important things to note is that Americans have a big obstacle to learning foreign languages, which is that foreigners usually won't let them practice. Foreigners in the US and abroad usually insist on speaking English to Americans, so that they can practice, and they generally aren't willing to provide the same patience and assistance in language practice that they expect us Americans to provide to them.

Also, although there are lots of immigrants in the US, who, in theory, we could practice with, many of these foreigners start mixing English into their own language very quickly, and they lose the ability to speak purely in their own language. I can't practice Arabic with a close friend of mine, because, after only five years, she has forgotten how to speak a full sentence of Arabic, and has even begun to forget how to read Arabic, even though she had a higher education in Iraq.

[Englishuser]

Hi,

[Alan]

Jamie, to quote that American icon, You cannot be serious!

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a driving instructor

[Yankee]

.
My 13-year-old nephew just completed his second year of French and I'd say that it's the subject he shows the least enthusiasm for. Besides the "I-don't-feel-like-studying" attitude that sometimes befalls teenagers, what he's told me is that he sees no personal benefit or purpose whatsoever in learning French. To him, French is simply a required course -- a necessary evil.
.

[Jamie (K)]

[Lost_Soul]

[Jamie (K)]

No. She has a very large vocabulary, for a foreigner, but she speaks quite broken English -- much worse than that of most people from her country who have been here as long as she has. (She would freely admit this.)

[Lost_Soul]

Broken English is one of the things I shun most. I witness lots of my colleagues speak broken English on the phone on a daily basis and it just cripples me, makes me sick. Maybe I'm an idealist, but seeing a man unable to put 2 works together is a pathetic sight I think. That's why I always try to spend every free minute on honing my English skills

[Englishuser]

Hi Jamie,

[Jamie (K)]

[Englishuser]

Hi Jamie,

Should we pity all those American boys who are forced to deal with feminine topics such as cooking and fashion if they want to learn French at school? Aren't they required to study home economics, one wonders.

All the best

EU

[Jamie (K)]

[Englishuser]

Hi Jamie,

Is there anything that could be done about this "problem", in your opinion?

All the best

EU

[Jamie (K)]