Meanwhile, in American private and public elementary schools, only Spanish remains (for obvious reasons) among the old group of options (when I was in school 30 years ago I had the option of taking Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish in public school.
At a certain point in the 1980s, Russian and Japanese became very popular languages in public schools in the better educated parts of the US.
20 years later, most second language instruction is gone. But now we read articles of public schools everywhere adopting new classes in ... Chinese.
What else are we to conclude but that there is an implicit message that language study is to be undertaken as a means of financial integration, and not cultural integration.
So I've come to believe that Americans are sadly handicapped when it comes to learning foreign languages not just because of our cultural myopia but also because of our linguistic ignorance.
I am observing the same in my Czech lessons right now (only the Russian and the Spaniard understand the Grammar: the British are at a loss). Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
So when you try to teach a language with a simple phonetic system and straightforward spelling rules, but heavy on the grammar, heads explode. And part of the problem with teaching in this situation is that you're trying to teach both the grammar and the foreign language.
An (educated/language-aware) English speaker, would need just a crash course in English grammar (parts of speech, tenses, etc) to learn to think grammatically, and then they could learn the new language. If you're trying to teach a language (and from an entirely different family) and the concepts of grammar at the same time, I'm not surprised it was difficult. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
Test: ask three of your U.S. friends to explain the difference between "who" and "whom." If at least two of them don't say, "Well, whom is more formal," or "Who is the colloquial form," you have one very smart set of friends!
And yes, my friends would know the difference between who and whom, and they do say "you and me" instead of "you and I" and one even knows what an ablative absolute is!
Can I have those hours back?
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The whole point of this discussion is that, if you don't have even a basic grasp of syntax, you're going to find it hard to learn a Foraign language. And God help you if you need to learn a flexive (case-based) language without understanding syntax and parts of speech. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
I must admit that as someone with a mother tongue that lacks genders, I still struggle with gender in Indo-European languages (witness the innumerable cases when I write "s/he" or "his/her"). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Do you Americans remember graphing sentences? Limbs shooting off for every prepositional phrase?
A Canadian friend, an excellent writer, was astounded at the knowledge of Americans when it came to grammar because in Canada, you basically read a lot in English class, are read to, and you engage in analysis. Language is supposed to come naturally. In the US, when I was growing up at least, we dissected language as though it were a science.
