How key is it for youth to learn at least a second language?

Where we live, Indonesian will do the trick.
If my daughter is to make a fat pile of cash to assist in her having a happy life, English and Mandarin are very likely to help.
I, just in response to the hate filled post just a little up the page, am teaching her American and British English. I'll move on to common errors in Chinese, Indian and so on English as she gets a bit older.
She'll be following a multi cultural course English course that's designed to show the basics of various cultures as well as their quirks when they use the English language.
Understanding is the key to friendship.

 

Apart from the stupidity in that post, it's inaccurate. I'm British so that means you're using my language.
As for native American, up to you if you want to be a 'windtalker'.

 

Another language is key; but very often I feel ashamed to only speak English (as foreign) and French (as native) when in contact with others: wishing I spoke a third language etc I've picked 6

 

Learning a language as an adult is very difficult, even if you live in that country. German is my mother tongue, I went to Australia as a four year old and was fluent in English in a couple of years (as far as "child speak" went for that time) and English progessed into academic English as I became educated. My spoken German is only so-so because I rarely use it now, even with my parents. I can't read or write German because I never went to school there.

In 2007 my wife and I went to China to work. Our plan was to stay there for two years. Becasue of the work situation we stayed three months. During that time I engaged a young Tibetan man who worked with my wife. He's a teacher trainer and he set out to teach me Mandarin. For two months every week night he would come to our apartment in Chengdu. What a task that was. I've forgotten everything he taught me.

I'm slowly learning Lao, spoken only. On occasions a Lao friend (also a teacher trainer) will come to our house and give me a few hours a week of Lao language lessons, just conversational Lao. I've picked up most of my Lao from our housekeeper. When she started working for us she knew almost zero English, so learning Lao from her was almost a necessity. It was kind of fun playing Charades and using a Lao English dictionary when I hit a blank. Very slowly I'm picking Lao up. Her English is now heaps better than my Lao.

I know just the basics. I can go to the market to buy fruit and vege etc, order food at a restaurant, count, even tell the guy at the pharmacy I've got a head or stomach ache and use the pleasantries in Lao language.

Tonal languages are very difficult for the English speaker. You may think you are saying one thing but really you're saying something totally different. For example the Lao word "sii". It can mean the number "four", the word for colour as in "sii khao" (white) or the Lao word for fcuk,,depending how it's toned.

 

I know since I have basically learned to speak English for the first time in high school (US (before it was only Frenglish)) mine is far from fluent; but don't push it

 

Don't worry about it. We al learn French in school but forget every word as soon as we can.
My French teacher had really nice tits.

 

What do you remember of her (or his) French ?

 

To survive today we need to know more as three or four languages.If you want it or not.

 

I have done business all over the world, the only place I needed the local language was in Spain and I can speak spanish good enough to get by. In the rest of the world you can get by just fine with English and a few words in the other language---thanks, hello, goodbye, good food, see you tomorrow, where's the bathroom, beer, wine, booze, etc.

 

Mine had tits that went to the floor.

And she had a face that could sell at Halloween.

 

I agree that you can "get by." Was John Galt interested in just "getting by?" I found that doing business was more productive in the native language and the after business hours activities was a great deal more fun. Not for my liver, or waist line. But otherwise much more pleasurable.

 

Sarcasm aside, you're not wrong that some Americans have reacted just that way. I participated on another forum some years ago that when that was the issue and there were several Americans who frankly were just opposed to any foreign language training in school. I can't say I understand it. I've studied Spanish and German and in fact I met my wife in German class. I think another language study should be mandatory in K-12 schooling, at least for the college bound.

 

Maybe they are just very very parochial.

 

Klingon is more widely spoken than Esperanto.

 

Esperanto is the Solyndra of language.

 

LOL.

Probably so.

Btw, on a sort of related theme, I thought some of you may like this thread...http://www.politicalforum.com/off-topic-chat/269817-guess-national-flag.html

 

She was British ?

 

Well, she looked more like a Golum to be honest, but yes, she was.

And she taught it in a boring way, everyone just turned off to it.

Language must be engaging and fun to learn.

 

Well, she looked more like a Golum to be honest, but yes, she was.

And she taught it in a boring way, everyone just turned off to it.

Language must be engaging and fun to learn.

 

Common phone apps will make learning new languages pointless. On top of that frankly the world really needs to settle on fewer languages. English is already the primary language of international business and music and film as well. Unless you are moving to work at a local company overseas or in Lousiana or just want to live in another part of the world (or Lousiana) learning a new language seems a bit inefficient.

I worked for a couple of businesses that did some international work and all the representatives from Japan, China and South America and probably some other countries all of them spoke english. Requiring everyone to learn several languages is just silly and stupid. Pick one or two languages for universal use and keep the others for local use.

 

No!

All this phone apps nonsense is not as good as real life/dialogue/exchange etc...

 

Es comico. Mi maestra de Espanol nostros deciamos que no debemos utilizar un tranducio, porque lo mientira.

 

That's only good for certain situations. What happens if you get lost in town? What happens when they give you directions, and you barely comprehend them?

 

if you live in America, not very (unless you count computer languages)

if you live in a country we or others are outsourcing jobs too, then very very important


.

 

Exactly. Rote learning and drilling just doesn't work.

I teach ESL in the evenings. The best approach is task based learning where the fundamentals of a certain language point is pretaught, then students use and practice this language in discussions and role play.