yeah but i’ve never had a non-english speaking person get all pissed or act like we should speak their language.
IMO…American’s think that everyone & every place should adapt our styles, traditions, beliefs, etc… & if not then fuck them or we force them to.
i think taking a foreign language was the biggest waste of time. World cultures would be time well spent but learning french did not enrich my life one bit. Big deal, i can order scambled eggs in french, wow I really accomplished something. To make it valuable you would have to know it as well as you know your own language. So you have a HS kids that took 4 years of a language, now they can talk on a 4th grade level in that country…what’s the point? I think thou LATIN would have some value as its the root of much of english.
if i go to england i expect to adapt to them, if they come here i expect them to adapt to us. thats my view.
That’s my point. It was a waste to spend so little time “learning” it in high school. Start much yonger and for a more extended period of time. Since language is part of culture how is it a waste of time? That’s why I enjoyed my sign language classes in college much more than the bs French classes in high school. We learned a great deal more about deaf culture and how the language is part of the culture and the culture is part of the language. Plus we were forced to get out in to the community and there was no faking your skills when you are signing to a deaf/blind person. I learned way more in the half hour I was talking to the deaf/blind lady about sled riding when she was a little kid than I did in the years of French in high school.
Plus there are studies that show learning another language helps other parts of your brain function, and that’s obviously a good thing.
how were you signing to a blind person, seriously?
Learning just a language is pointless because its only a piece, “Wow i can sure put this intake on but what do i do with these piston thingys?” IF they are gonna teach a language, teach about the whole culture. But you hit a chord, EVERYONE SHOULD LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE IS SCHOOL!!! You are more likely to encounter someone that is deaf than a person that is gonna speak the langauge you learned in HS.
They hold their hands over yours while you sign. It’s crazy. I was scared, but the lady was amazing. I’m amazed at how she understood me and I was far from the best at signing. That’s actually why I took it, I worked in a garage with a guy who was deaf and no one could sign. I felt kind of bad. So I took it and I’m glad I did - I just helped someone the other day who was deaf and no one else around could help them.
What good are these piston thingys with out an intake? It goes both ways, to fully understand a culture you need to know the language as well. You can know a little about the culture with out speaking the language and you can speak a little of the language with out knowing anything about the culture, but you really need to know both. And we are actually kind of together on this point - that’s why I enjoyed the asl class because we went out and got involved. Sitting in some crappy class room waiting for the class to be over did not encourage me to learn more about the French culture or the language. If we would have gotten more involved than talking about French food I would have been more motivated.
i feel the same way about alot classes in school. Had we watched the history channel in school instead of tryin to just read dates in books I would have crushed every test they could throw my way in school. Putting in to action what you study is how you learn. You can’t build an engine by just reading it in a book, you do it by getting out there and getting your hands dirty.