![]() Diane Mufson: Americans must speak more than just English
Huntington Herald Dispatch, WV - Mar 14, 2008
"While many recent immigrants speak a foreign language and have various
degrees of facility in English, the great majority of Americans are
monolingual; they communicate only in English." …
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages indicates that about a third of American students in grades 7 to 12 are taking foreign languages, but more than 95 percent study only Spanish, French, German, Italian or Latin." …
"The same article also noted that the Chinese have more than 200 million
students studying English, but fewer than 24,000 Americans are studying
the Chinese language. In everyday terms, this means that millions of
Chinese will understand our conversations but only a tiny fraction of
Americans will comprehend theirs."…
"In the 21st century, teaching foreign languages should be viewed as
just as important as math, computers, science and social studies.
Schools should be offering a variety of foreign languages to all
students from an early age.Our traditional way of teaching foreign languages to mainly
college-bound high school students is ineffective. Developing fluency
or even familiarity within another language also tends to …"
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Tags: ForeignLanguage, Foreign Languages, Chinese, Chinese language, French, Spanish, German, Latin
By Shareen Aguilar
The romance languages of Europe, has familiar similarities to each of them. This is because the languages such as French, Italian, and Spanish all came from the mother language, Latin. This means that there are functions and words that are in relation with each other among the languages mentioned above.
If you already know portions of speaking French or Spanish (either of these languages), you are actually helping yourself in enriching your foreign language vocabulary. This is because when you start learning either of the romance languages, you are opening to chances of learning other European romance languages as well.
This doesn't mean though that starting to learn the Italian language doesn't require your complete understanding of the lessons. You still have to start from the simplest Italian language lesson to the difficult part. We all know how to obtain Italian lessons as well. An online course is one thing or taking a formal course from a university is also a good option.
If attending a complete full course of the subject does not appeal much to your busy schedule; try taking lessons that you can learn in a daily basis. Or better yet, take one Italian word each day. No need to worry in moving on to the next though, because the more you understand its meaning and purpose; the better you are able to use it with other Italian words.
Enriching yourself with more than one language is a great way of maintaining and putting your brain to constant work. If the Italian language is a completely new experience for you, so it is to your brain. For all you know, you are actually helping your brain maintains its efficiency by inputting new information to it everyday.
To help you remember the words more, try putting up posts of the lesson you have for one day around the house. This will clearly help you remember more the current lessons you're trying to learn.
About the Author: Shareen Aguilar is a writer for Learn Italian Program which has Memory Improvement Books and Memory Game Software for better Italian language memorization.
Howell parents set up Chinese classes
Lansing State Journal, MI - Jan 28, 2008
Parents of a Howell Public Schools fifth-grader have found a way to continue a Chinese language class that the district's curriculum committee canceled.
The ever-growing awareness of China as a global economic force has other Michigan school districts offering Chinese language and culture classes to their students.
Lansing, Van Buren, Traverse City, Berkley and Lamphere school districts have classrooms where students spend half the day learning in English and the other learning in Mandarin Chinese, officials said. …
More… Howell parents set up Chinese classes
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Tags: language, languages, foreign languages, Chinese, Chinese Language, Mandarin, Mandarin Chinese
We must learn foreign languages
Wilkes Barre Citizen's Voice, PA - Jan 27, 2008
"… language instruction has become a national security issue. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the military and civilian security agencies found that they had a severe shortage of people fluent in key languages. …
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, at least 16 other states include foreign language courses in graduation requirements …
Read more… We must learn foreign languages
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Tags: language, foreign language, foreign languages, languages, foreign language courses
LANGUAGE BARRIER
Centre Daily Times, PA - Jan 26, 2008
Klein demonstrated another stretching position, leading the kids in more foreign languages: French, German, and Japanese. By spring, the students also will learn to count to 10 in Russian, Greek, Mandarin and Hebrew. …
"…Chinese [is the] the second most common foreign language spoken in the nation, according to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau data.
Spanish is the most common. French is third.
About 20 percent of Americans ages 5 and older speak a language other than English.
…
The long-range goal of Young Scholars is to see its graduates proficient in both Spanish and Chinese by the time they reach eighth grade — when students at most other schools are just getting started learning a foreign language.
Read the full article here LANGUAGE BARRIER
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Tags: foreignlanguage, foreign languages, languages, language, Chinese, Chinese language, Spanish, Spanish language, French, French language, Russian, Greek Hebrew, Mandarin, Japanese, German
Italian American Assoc. to open center Jan. 31
Atlanticville, NJ - Jan 23, 2008
"[This year] will mark our 32nd anniversary as an organization that is dedicated to children, families and the fostering of the Italian American heritage and culture," said Cultural Committee Co- Chair Nick Sestito of Interlaken in a press release. …/
IAATO's Cultural Center adds to the association's ongoing community contributions, including weekly Italian language classes for children, annual academic …
Read the rest of the article at Italian American Assoc. to open center Jan. 31
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Tags: languages, Italian, Italian language
Spanish skills giving workers an edge
Daytona Beach News-Journal, FL - 17 hours ago
many public and private employers are seeking professionals and other skilled workers who can communicate in English and Spanish.
The need is especially immediate in health care, educational and emergency service areas.
"There's a need for bilingual telecommunicators," Assistant Fire Chief David Faer with the Deltona Fire Department said Friday. "Although you may have someone who can speak English in a regular conversation, under certain circumstances, such as an emergency, they may feel more comfortable speaking in their native language."
Recently, the fire department hired two bilingual dispatchers to help provide Spanish-language assistance around the clock, Faer said. …
Read the full article Spanish skills giving workers an edge
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Tags: foreignlanguages, languages, Spanish, Spanish language, bilingual
We must learn foreign languages
Wilkes Barre Citizen's Voice, PA - 18 hours ago
Multi-language education is the standard in many advanced countries around the world, including Japan and most of those in Europe. The United States has lagged in foreign language education partially due to the fact that English, for a long time, has been the predominant language of world commerce. The second language that is learned most often in other countries is English.
But the nation now faces a different environment as the global economy diversifies. And language instruction has become a national security issue. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the military and civilian security agencies found that they had a severe shortage of people fluent in key languages. …
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, at least 16 other states include foreign language courses in graduation requirements …
Read the full article We must learn foreign languages
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Tags: languages, foreign languages, foreign language courses