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 Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:03 am
Romania:
We start learning foreign languagea in first grade (I started in the 2dn, but the sistem has changed since then) with English, Franch, Russian or German (we also have Spanish and Italian, but I don't know if there are schools where you atart with these...). Until the 5th grade, you work with the language you started with, after that you start studying your second foreighn language (English is my first and Franch is my second language). As for number of classes per week... 1st to 4th grade- you have two classes a week (if I recall corectly), after 5th grade, when you start you second language: first language - three classes a week, while the second - two classes.
In 8th grade you start studying Latin (it's compulsatory for everyone, but most teachers don't take it seriously).
In highschool is where things start to differ depending on your profile. If your profile is maths, you go on with the two languages you've been studying so far, with about the same number of classes per week as you did in school and you have Latin only in the 9th grade.Same goes for arts highschool, only you don't have Latin at all. If you go to filology (like me), foreighn languages are very important and you end up having about five or six classes a week for each one of them (if it's filology-binligual, you start on your fourth language as well) and you have Latin until the end of highschool (and you can also choose it for the exam wink ). I havo no idea about the other profiles though (economics, scienses, practical schools... I gues it's about the same as maths).
In theory, by the end of highschool, you should be fluent in atleast two languages (I'm sorry for the people who can hear me speek in Franch sweatdrop )....
I almost forgot... you rarelly find a school where you have more than just English and Franch, in some areas you also have Hungarian and those of gipsy origin can have Rromani classes...
I think that's about it... sweatdrop
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 12:38 pm
Here in Saudi Arabia, in my school, wich is the only school I know in my region that teaches two forieghn langauges, French and English.
We take English once everyday except on sundays where we take two.
And French twice a week, thats for my school.
And in genral, in privates school we take English since 1st grade.(French too in our school)
and in public schools, Englis starts at 6th grade.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:17 am
My school here in Britain is a language college, so I know we have the option of more languages than other schools. French, German and English are mandatory in years 7-9 (I don't know what the American equivalent is - the first three years of secondary school here) Latin is mandatory in year 9 as well, then in the last two years we have to take at least one language (either French, Spanish or German) but Latin isn't counted as a language because no one speaks it any more, so it's classed as a humanity. Which means I don't have to take any other humanities, like history, religious studies or geography. surprised At my school there are also classes at lunchtime in Mandarin Chinese and Russian.
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Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:42 am
In Sweden we start to learn English in first, second or third grade and English is a compulsory subject. In sixth or seventh grade, you can pick another language, you can choose between Spanish, French and German but you don't have to. In the gymnasium there's more choices, and which languages you can pick depends on the school.
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Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:03 pm
Most elementary schools around here have no language program (except for ESL, which is a pretty big deal in Southern California) unless an individual teacher decides to do some with her students, but because she only has them for a year, it's obviously very limited.
Some middle schools do offer language, and a year of one is considered equivalent to a semester of highschool language. These programs are very limited though, usually only one language and only for 'qualifying' students.
All accredited highschools offer at least one language. To graduate, one needs either 2 years of language or 2 years of fine arts, but for the Cal State and UC colleges, it has to be the language.
Nearly every high school has French and Spanish, others are sometimes German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese or occasionally Arabic. My old school had French and Spanish with a very limited Italian program (only two levels, and designed for singers), while my current school has full programs (Levels 1-4 plus AP) for German, French, Spanish and Chinese.
Many times, a student can get through a class without learning more than a couple of words, and still be passed on to the next level.
Private schools are often somewhat better, offering or mandating a language through Elementary school (usually Spanish), and then giving a choice between a few languages at middle school or high school level.
As most of the private highschools are parochial, Latin (and in one school I know of, Ancient Greek) is usually included among the choices.
People can sometimes go to the local junior college and take a language there which isn't offered by their high school, but that's pretty rare for a handful of reasons (I'll spare you the list).
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:36 pm
mindgroom Hi all ^^, I was wondering, as we are at school or in our studies (I guess), how does your school system works with languages ? Which are the most spread ? Which ones are compulsory ? How many hours do you have a week ? How do lessons take place ? I know I ask much ^^, but please add your country just to compare biggrin ... And for the most brave ^^, how is it that people in your country speak fluently English or not (except Canada, UK, USA, Australia ...) ? Which factors do you think matters in speaking a foreign language in a country ? I'm asking this question because I've heard that in my country few people spoke English, and not necessarly because of History (I'm speaking of France exclaim ) ... Thanks ^^ ((sorry for quoting it all, but its for the accuracy biggrin )) well, for starters- i live in Lithuania and study at the state school (national programme) so, ive been studying Lithuanian from the first class and i started learning english in 2nd grade...in 6th grade i started learning my 2nd foreign language- russian. English is the most spread foreign language here smile but its not compulsory in the state i think, its only compulsory in my school (schools can decide that here) its also compulsory to choose a 2nd foreign language. in my school we can choose from 3: russian, german and french. i chose russian. in other schools it may be different smile i have 4 lessons *45 mins each of english per week and 2 lessons *45 mins of russian smile and we also have 4 lessons of lithuanian language every week. and last thing: older people dont speak fluent english- they speak better russian, but after regaining independence 17 years ago, english started spreading fast and now young people can easily comunicate in english smile had fun answering smile hope you like my answers smile
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 3:01 am
You're making us sound ignorant gonk
Actually , english is mandatory in pretty much all schools in France, and since school is mandatory till 16 years old too, I can hardly see how someone could NOT know english :/ You can't escape the system XD
Mhh... In classical high schools you have 3 hours a week for each foreign languages. And you've got to choose at least 2 foreign languages.
The most spread here were English & German ( because I live at the border), but I think Spanish is spread than German in the rest of France.
Anyways, I was in an international High school, English section. We had 4 hours of english ( or the language of the section you had chosen [ Polish, italian, spanish or German [ although it was a bit different, it was the Abibac ] lit' a week and 2 hours of english [ or one of the other languages ] history.
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Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:12 pm
In Croatia we learn English (in some schools German) from 1st grade of primary school (last two years) and before from 4th grade of primary (like me). We study it 3 times a week and we have 3 big tests and lots of small tests. In middle school (thats high school in USA) we learn 2nd foregin language (depends on school, it can be German, Latin, or in one type of school you learn English, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin and classic Greek).
When you finish all schools in Croatia (17 years) you MUST know English, (or some other foregin language) because noone in other countries knows Croatian neutral
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:35 pm
I live in the USA. In elementry school, Spanish was required from Kindergarten through 5th grade, unless you had tutoring. In middle school, during 6th grade, you had an introduction to 4 languages for 1 quarter, and the rest of the year, you had to take Latin. In 7th and 8th, you got to choose between Spanish, French, Chinese, and Japanese. In highschool, you are required to take 3 years of one language, or 2 years of one, and 2 of another. Language classes are 4 times a week, two of them being 45 min. periods, and the others being 1 hr. 5 min. Overall, not as great as I'd hoped, but still fairly good.
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:08 pm
I'm from Georgia-the-state, and at my High School we have Spanish (which I'm taking), French, Latin, and German. A few of my friends take French and German, but they're taught by the same teacher and Spanish has two. Latin only has one teacher as well, but it's probably as popular as Spanish. My Spanish class has been pretty good so far, and judging by what my friend who's taking French has for homework, hers is too. However, we're both dedicated, and it is pretty easy to pass the class without putting any real effort into it.
I don't know about other high schools in my area, but at my old private school, I took Spanish for 7-8 years, though the teachers would get switched out so much you'd have to start all over again (that, and she only came once a week). Still, I'm much better at Spanish than most of the other kids. razz Apparently they took Spanish in middle school too...
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:24 am
I'm from the US and these things very from state to state and are even different depending on county (parish, bourough or whatever you call it). Despite there being a huge influx of Hispanic immigrants (mostly Mexican) in my area they don't offer foreign languages until middle school, grades 6-8. It's only mandatory in high school if you're going to university.
Where I'm from they go by the principle of supply and demand. Most schools offer Spanish but anything else is offered only if enough people sign up for the course. That being the case, my high school did offer French and a very small Japanese class that I didn't even know existed. xd
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:26 pm
I'm a US college student. for university it depends on your major, I have to take four years of Spanish for my major in Biology. Where I'm from(same place as mangachan) foreign language isn't pushed too hard so most people take it in high school. English is required for every year of grade school.
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:41 pm
I am from the USA and my experience with foreign languages has been. . .strange.
I'm homeschooled so my mom determined our school courses. When I was little, my older brothers were learning German, and I picked a couple words. But they stopped learning German because they could not progress without help from a native speaker.
After that, we learned Spanish for a couple months. Then my second oldest brother was going to France so we all started learning French. At first I hung around, but my second oldest brother would chase me off. . .Oh well. Somewhere in those years, I also memorize Latin and Greek roots, but that was to learn how to deconstruct English words.
When I was thirteen, I started Spanish (again), but this time it was in an actual classroom with other (homeschool) students. I took from that teacher for two years and after that, my younger brother and I have been tutored for almost three additional years.
Recently (as in the past weeks) I decided that I should start learning Arabic on my own (I've wanted to learn it for a couple years now).
I haven't had many chances to learn other languages (besides my older brother trying to get me to take Chinese with him).
But learning never stops. =]
I have my whole life to learn after all.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:10 pm
When I was in high school here in a small town in the US (20+ years ago xd ), our only choices in our school were Spanish and French. Larger schools sometimes offered German or other languages in addition to French and Spanish. My son went to the same school, now three times larger, and they STILL only offered Spanish and French.
The same school district was supposed to implement Spanish for elementary (ages 6-10), but the local parents fought it down and defeated it. ARRRRRRGH. I was not a happy parent, but I was in the minority who thought it would be worth losing 30 minutes a day of social studies for language studies.
My daughter went to a charter school and took mandatory Latin and Spanish in Middle school. She and the son mentioned above now live with my ex-husband, and they are at another school where only Spanish and French are offered.
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