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Is it inappropriate for American kids to learn Spanish?

Posted on 12/25/2008 11:53:50 AM PST by I can has Low Taxes?

I have a cousin in 8th grade who's taking a "sampler" class in which she's taught the minimum basics of Spanish, French, and German. The point is to give her a better grasp of languages so that she can choose which class to take for her mandatory language requirements in Highschool.

I believe that the highschool she'll go to also has Russian and Latin in addition.

Do folks here feel that Spanish would be a bad idea, politically/culturally? Her parents consider it somewhat gauche, and there's also a concern that encouraging kids to learn Spanish would delay assimilation of US immigrants, since it gives them less incentive to learn English.

Would you advise she take Spanish, since it's more "useful" in terms of having native speakers in the US? Or should she take one of the other languages? I don't think Latin is a likely option, being that her family is quite anti-Catholic.

Advice?


TOPICS: Education; History; Society
KEYWORDS: bilingual; education; language; spanish
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To: Cinnamon Girl

And she is in this country legally. . .right?

I would hope so, but usually illegals don’t speak English.


81 posted on 12/25/2008 4:11:24 PM PST by Hulka
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To: I can has Low Taxes?

I already speak Spanish, but once amnesty is passed we will have to learn it as it will become the national language. Eitrher that or arabic the way things are going.


82 posted on 12/25/2008 4:24:19 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: I can has Low Taxes?

I don’t consider Spanish a bad idea, but I would prefer my kids learn Korean, German and then Japanese. This is because of my work, and personal life, however.

Learning spanish may help them communicate better with their employers later on in life and build goodwill across culutures. :-D


83 posted on 12/25/2008 4:46:04 PM PST by hnorris (Deserve Victory)
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To: I can has Low Taxes?

LOL@ your screen name


84 posted on 12/25/2008 4:55:55 PM PST by Canedawg
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To: Cacique

“I already speak Spanish, but once amnesty is passed we will have to learn it as it will become the national language. Eitrher that or arabic the way things are going.”

Arabic really seems a stretch. Per the 2000 census there were 1.2 million Arabs in America, and 70% of those were Christians. I used to live in Southern California, and it seemed like all the liquor stores were run by Syrian, Lebanese, or Iraqi Christians.

Most Muslims in America, presumably, aren’t Arabs, but are Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, etc. I tried getting info on the Muslim population, but there aren’t any official stats, and guesses range from 1-8 million, which is a huge margin of error.

I’d imagine most Muslims don’t speak Arabic, outside of rote reciting religious verse, any more than most Catholics speak Latin or Orthodox speak Greek/Slavonic.

So yeah, Spanish is going to be the most influential language in the US, for better or for worse, for the foreseeable future. Chinese might be good for international business, but I don’t see it coming up much domestically.


85 posted on 12/25/2008 5:46:59 PM PST by I can has Low Taxes?
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To: freespirited

Thanks for the tip. That’s a great idea for a book. It’s a wonder it’s not currently in print.


86 posted on 12/25/2008 7:11:52 PM PST by Cinnamon Girl (G-d Bless President Bush. He kept us safe.)
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To: I can has Low Taxes?

Well, like other people have said, the Latin taught in schools isn’t the Latin used in churches... can her parents actually stop her from taking it if she just signs up anyways? For one, it’ll help her immensely with her SAT scores and such. Also, I took two years of high school Latin before going to a school where that wasn’t an option, where I took one semester of Spanish and one semester of French. I can say that, thanks to taking classical Latin, learning those two languages was literally effortless, and even with only a single high school semester of each, I can mostly understand and read Spanish and French.


87 posted on 12/25/2008 8:09:40 PM PST by Hyzenthlay (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: I can has Low Taxes?

It’s not inappropriate.

But the sad part is that it may be necessary.


88 posted on 12/25/2008 8:11:00 PM PST by djf (< Tagline closed until further notice. Awaiting bailout >)
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To: I can has Low Taxes?
Encouraging kids to learn Spanish will delay assimilation of US immigrants, since it gives them less incentive to learn English.

Count on it. Last thing we should be doing is speaking Spanish to the illegals.

89 posted on 12/25/2008 8:26:45 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: I can has Low Taxes?
Advice?

She should take them all. Russian is beautiful, though reading and writing Cyrillic requires a bit of work at first.

I found that French and Spanish conflicted. The Spanish sort of pushed the French out of my memory. Too many similar words.

90 posted on 12/26/2008 12:23:26 AM PST by TChad
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To: Cinnamon Girl

“My housekeeper thought I fired her...”

TOO FUNNY!!! Please share!!!! What happened?!!!!

(My first language was Spanish because my parents wanted us kids to have a good basis for Spanish before attending Canal Zone schools. I have always been extremely grateful to my parents for that.)


91 posted on 12/26/2008 5:33:15 AM PST by GatĂșn(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: nmh

Your hermitically sealed mind in almost every subject never ceases to amaze me.


92 posted on 12/26/2008 5:37:28 AM PST by GatĂșn(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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