Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: rpm on October 18, 2007, 11:46:31 PM
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My favorite blog Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen (http://skattershooting.blogspot.com/) has struck gold once again.
I just visited with an elementary teacher from the Dallas ISD where she estimated that 90% of the students in her particular school were Hispanic. I asked her about language issues that she faced and was shocked to learn this: There are signs in the common areas of her school that proclaim Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as "Spanish Days" and Tuesday and Thursday and "English Days." That means that all students and teachers (when not in class - i.e. in the hallways or at lunch) should speak that designated language.
link = Wow (https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14419062&postID=7270000134377174843)
A front row VIP seat has been reserved for Lazs...
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I love it.
nice girls in that blog:aok
(http://bp1.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxfAqKjchpI/AAAAAAAADk4/PvyccN1siOc/s400/85669525jtk6ny4ohy6g986wb6.jpg)
(http://bp2.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxOMiajchJI/AAAAAAAADhE/GdGUUXKvrwA/s400/kendra.jpg)
(http://bp2.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxTDyKjchPI/AAAAAAAADh4/ekW-qFWNjr0/s400/Screenshot12.jpg)
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Originally posted by 1K3
(http://bp1.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxfAqKjchpI/AAAAAAAADk4/PvyccN1siOc/s400/85669525jtk6ny4ohy6g986wb6.jpg)
(http://bp2.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxOMiajchJI/AAAAAAAADhE/GdGUUXKvrwA/s400/kendra.jpg)
(http://bp2.blogger.com/_2XdbIDH0Cwg/RxTDyKjchPI/AAAAAAAADh4/ekW-qFWNjr0/s400/Screenshot12.jpg)
....
i'm sorry....what were you talking about?
something about spanish?...
:aok
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I like his morning "pick me up's".;)
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If that were my kids school, the first phrase I'd have them memorize would be "kiss my english-speaking ass."
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Gotta tell ya, I was shocked. I was only offered Spanish after the 6th grade.
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Originally posted by rpm
Gotta tell ya, I was shocked. I was only offered Spanish after the 6th grade.
About when I entered my Junior year, they began teaching Mandatory Spanish to 3rd graders and up til the end of grammar school.
I heard that they began teaching it in middle school, in 6th, and then making it an elective in 7th and beyond. But I haven't verified this.
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we have several foreign languages taught in my school, spanish, german, french and chinese
you're required to take at least 3 years of a foreign language, anything past that just looks good on a college app
and yea....i'm takin spanish:rolleyes:
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english should be taught ~ and all 90% should be trying to ace it
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Originally posted by texasmom
english should be taught ~ and all 90% should be trying to ace it
agreed
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Originally posted by hunter128
we have several foreign languages taught in my school, spanish, german, french and chinese
you're required to take at least 3 years of a foreign language, anything past that just looks good on a college app
and yea....i'm takin spanish:rolleyes:
Watch some Spanish Telenovelas to get you to enjoy your Spanish class. :aok
Watching/listening to foreign mass media is also part of learning a foreign language. This is how most foreigners (including me) in this country learn English and enjoy the American pop culture... by watching the latest Hollywood flick, or listen to the new music videos on MTV.
Without the mass media you will burn out quick and start to hate the language you're learning.
I highly recommend this show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkZkVhbw3L8) to get you to enjoy Spanish. Turn on your CLOSED CAPTION on your television so you can read along in Spanish. Now I'm just wondering if they still air it on Univision or Telemundo
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dont get me wrong, i enjoy spanish class
just kinda ironic considering the main topic of this here discussion.
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Personally, I think everyone should know at least 2 languages. It only makes sense to be able to communicate to others. It's a tool to be used.
Requiring a student to speak in a non-native language in their native country without any option makes no sense.
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Originally posted by rpm
Requiring a student to speak in a non-native language in their native country without any option makes no sense.
Then shame on their parents for allowing them to be placed in a failing situation. Now those kids can either choose success & work hard toward that or whine about failing & wait for everyone else to pick them up.
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I think it is good to know at least two languages.
I think it is bad to make it so that at least half the students going to school can't understand what is being taught half the time.
If you have to teach in two languages that means that... asside from learning a new language... you will be able to learn half as much in the same time period about the subject.
If you have to stop to explain in two languages that is.
This would be fine but does anyone here think that the schools are doing such a great job that they can afford to throw away half the day teaching reading and simple math?
It is simply another good reason for vouchers to reign in the out of control public schools and their whining teachers.
lazs
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Oh... and while I feel that it is a good idea for everyone to know at least two languages...
I know that it is essential for anyone who speaks a foreign language to learn the language of the country he will be staying at.
the people most in need of learning two languages are the people who don't speak english and wish to stay in an english speaking country... I have found that they rarely can even speak one language tho.
lazs
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I think english should be the primary language, no matter. I also think that all students should be required to learn a second language. Not just one or two years in high school. It is just plain ignornant otherwise.
I took German in high school and then a few years in college. The interesting thing about the experience is that I learned more about english language and structure than I ever did in any of the english classes. I haven't had the need to speak German, and don't recall a whole lot of the specifics, but it was still a very worthwhile experience.
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It is VERY hard to be successful in America if you cannot speak fluent English.
I took 2 years of German prior to going to Germany, and spoke German exclusively while I was there. The family I stayed with was cool enough to teach me some limited Plattdeutsch (a Northern Germany regional dialect..kind of a Dutch/German mix). I learned some Dutch by listenting to Radio Nederland Weredomroep on a shortwave radio.
In my high school (late 1970's) German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Norweigian were offered.
Our school was 50% Caucasian, 30% Black, and 20% Latino. While Latino kids spoke some Spanish in the hallways, they ALL spoke English...very well.
Of the Caucasian kids...most came from Yougoslavian, German, Polish, Armenian, Lithuanian, Norweigian, Finn, Greek, and Irish backgrounds, and many spoke their own mother language in addition to perfect English.
Now, that same school district is 10% Caucasian, 10% Black, and 80% Latino.
Any school district that graduates kids who cannot FLUENTLY speak English in America are doing those kids a terrible disservice.
All kids need to be ready to go out in the real world and be successful.
Unless you plan to work in a Latino Groceria all your life...you are unprepared for the real world here.
I can see someone who is only here to work a year and split not learning the language...but if one plans to put down roots and stay here, learning fluent language is the only way to succeed.
I'd like to see them succeed. That's America.
68ROX
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I speak two languages, English and American. Seems good enough for me, it's the language of my country of birth and the language of the country that "I decided" to reside in. Like it says I decided to come here they didn't make a special request for me to come here, with it being my decision to come here it's only reasonable for me to abide by all laws and speak the language of this country not expect them to conform to me.
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Let's all move to Mexico and make them teach us in English...
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America is in its final stages of glorification.
Thanks to liberal political correctness, we have now apologized for everything we are, everything we do, the language we speak, the business we conduct, and the industries we created. We have made concessions to every conceivable group, let them take us apart, piece by piece.
There was a time when America was known for kicking bellybutton and doing what it takes to make the things Americans need happen. America is now becoming known for taking it in the ass, and letting others have their way, just so we can continue to say that we occupy the moral high ground... Following right in the steps of the Europeans.
Liberal America has betrayed the spirit that built this nation, and it will not stop until everything has been handed out, and this landscape is once again leveled with the ground.
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I don't see anything wrong.. in fact I think that school is doing a good thing.
Its an out-of-the-box approach to teaching a 2nd language.
The hardest thing you face when learning another language is that you do not get to practice it often.. or practice it with a native speaker. The school has addressed those issues in a rather elegant manner :)
The hispanic students get their english-only day and the non-immigrant students get to their spanish-only day.
Personally I think all schools should teach 3 languages. And each language from a different hemisphere. I'd make it: local language (in the US it'd be English), Eastern Language (any asian/pacific or middle-east language) and Old World language (any european or african language except arabic which falls under middle-east).
Each language carries with it a different way of thinking (word-thought-patterns) and nothing broadens a kid's mind like being able to think in 3 different ways.. not to mention any kid like this has a lot more options in life.
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We have enough trouble getting kids to read and write in English... now you are wanting to force a 2nd language on them.
If I go to France, I would take the time to learn French, not expect them to do everything in English.
God forbid this was the school district my kid goes to, the members of the school board would need to stock up on Tums and Aspirin cause I would be the biggest thorn in the side they ever saw.
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I will learn Spanish to get along as long as in turn they learn Imperial.
I hate metric....
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Tiger,
Your first sentence is the source of the problem. "We have enough trouble getting kids to read and write in English... now you are wanting to force a 2nd language on them."
If the kids have trouble reading and writing in their own native language they are either retarded or their parents are not involved in their education or their school sucks. More than likely, its all of the above in measured doses.
as for the 'force' comment... what's next? Lets not 'force' physics or chemistry on them because its already too hard for them to understand basic algebra? or should we not 'force' them to take world history because US history already too hard?
Lowering the standards is a bad idea.
Here, watch this :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtLcUUjDnK8
(Language Warning)
;)
"If I go to France, I would take the time to learn French, not expect them to do everything in English."
You would take the time to learn French... wouldn't it have been much nice if you already KNEW some French because you took it in school? You send your kid to school to have a better future.. who are you to say a 2nd language is not something that will give him an advantage later on?
My native language is Spanish, English is my 2nd language, I took a little Japanese back in high school and continued taking sporadic lessons in college... and believe it or not the reason why I was hired at my last job was because I had Japanese language experience in my resume! Two years in that job and I barely had to say more than a few basic greetings in that language. Thanks to the classes that I was FORCED to take in high school I was able to land a job that paid me twice what other jobs I could get were offering. Thanks to the classes i was forced to take in high school I discovered a whole new culture which now fascinates me to no end (i've even travelled twice to Japan).
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i think everyone in the world should speak a second language, that language should be English.
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Originally posted by Tac
You would take the time to learn French... wouldn't it have been much nice if you already KNEW some French because you took it in school? You send your kid to school to have a better future.. who are you to say a 2nd language is not something that will give him an advantage later on?
Bah...
I live in the US, we speak English here, I read, write, and speak English. I work for a company who HQ is Taiwan. I am the only one in my section that does not speak Chinese, I refuse to learn it and they know this and under my principles behind it. They are in my country and speak my language when talking to me, they have no problem with that because they are intelligent people. If I were to transfer to HQ in Taiwan, I'd take the time to learn Chinese so that I could conduct business in their native language, that's the way the world should work. I wouldn't go over there and demand they everyone conduct business in English, that would be rediculous.
As far as schools and classes go... that is a totally different topic that I could go on and on about. My wife is a school teacher, I have some nice little horror stories I could share.
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RPM,
That's premium bait there. Hope it didn't cost you too much....
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Originally posted by T0J0
I will learn Spanish to get along as long as in turn they learn Imperial.
I hate metric....
Without using a calculator or google, try to calculate how many yards are there in 1 mile.
sorry, me and the rest of the world would take metric anytime, anyday:aok
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mmm breasts
Wait, what were we talking about
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Originally posted by xbrit
I speak two languages, English and American. Seems good enough for me, it's the language of my country of birth and the language of the country that "I decided" to reside in. Like it says I decided to come here they didn't make a special request for me to come here, with it being my decision to come here it's only reasonable for me to abide by all laws and speak the language of this country not expect them to conform to me.
:aok
Mac
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Originally posted by Maverick
RPM,
That's premium bait there. Hope it didn't cost you too much....
Naa, Barry always comes up with gold at discount prices. He started his blog as a rip on the local paper. I think his numbers are almost equal to them now.
He still has the news evaluation site... The Spin (http://www.wisecounty.com/thespin/main.html)
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I don't get it. My daughter is in french immersion specifically so she can learn another language.
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And I am stuck in spanish immersion even though I live in fricken Oregon thousands of miles from the border.
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Originally posted by Thrawn
I don't get it. My daughter is in french immersion specifically so she can learn another language.
She wants to learn french. It is a choice with her. She is not being forced to use it. That is the difference.
Mark
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I think it's embarrassing that in so many other countries, kids speak their native language and learn another - mostly English. Look at how fluent Germans and many Europeans are in English. More people are studying English right now in China than all the native English speakers in the US. Are you saying that other kids in the world can do it, but Americans can't cut it?
Learning another language is not going to hurt you or your kids. They need to learn how to learn. Are you going to complain about kids being exposed to music and literature too? Even Algebra is a language. Should they not be forced to learn Algebra? All I see here are excuses that one would expect to hear from kids who don't want to do their homework.
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i'm leaning spanish at the Home Depot, all their signs are bilingual.
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What is the purpose of making kids speak a certain language at a certain time. If your in Spanish class learn Spanish, English class learn English. I'm sick of school isd's trying to decide and enforce upon our kids what they think is the new broadened social norms of society. Field trips are nice, but stay the hell out of kids lives and let them and their parents worry about the fine tunings of a kid's personality. Teach them reading, writing and arithmitic and after that school's over at 3pm.
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Wouldnt it be easyer to just teach the spanish speaking people to speak English? Kinda sad if foreign businesses and tourits that wants to start up in the US or go there for a visit also has to learn Spanish to get around. Is the official language of the US still english, or is this not settled yet?
If my kid ever has to learn to speak arabic and all kinds of eastern european languages in addition to english and norwegian i would prolly arm myself and go take down the government myself :D
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Originally posted by 1K3
Without using a calculator or google, try to calculate how many yards are there in 1 mile.
1760 yds....took me all of 5 seconds.
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rolex and others... it is not so much that it is a bad idea to teach kids spanish... or spanish over every other language...but.
The public schools can't even teach the basics of reading and writing in 12 years.
Spanish.. or greek... or german...emersion classes are for students who are already doing well in everything else...
If a kid were doing poorly in every class but spending 3 days a week... eight hours a day.. at say... philosophy... then you would obviously want him to drop most of the philosophy classes to catch up on the others..
For language... there is nothing wrong with a language class that is one period a week or even every day if the student is doing well..
It is much more important however that everyone learn the basics before they get into a sophisticated language class.
As for the spanish only students... if the only language you speak is not english... you are most likely illegal alien and should not be their on my dime.
and that is what it comes down to.. it is our dime the socialist school system. We expect certain results... we want the kid to be able to read a road sign and make change much more than we want him to be able to converse with the landscaper.
lazs
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Originally posted by Rolex
Learning another language is not going to hurt you or your kids. They need to learn how to learn. Are you going to complain about kids being exposed to music and literature too? .
The objection is to the method. Second Language as a classroom course (even required) is just fine ~ but the BS idea of 'let's speak spanish in the hallways on tuesdays & thursdays' and think it's doing anything effective is a crock of sheet. In fact, they know full & well that it's not any effective movement toward teaching the english-speaking children the second language of spanish ~ that was never the intent. The intent was actually just to make sure that 'everyone feels included.'
Don't misunderstand this gesture on the part of that school ~ they aren't trying to do any effective teaching. They just want to make sure nobody's feelings are hurt. They now have something they can check the block in to say 'oh... well.... we did our part by making an effort.'
If there was a serious effort on the part of the school, they'd have required spanish for one course period each school day. Until then, they're pissing into the wind... and they already know it. They just think their students/parents are too stupid to figure that out, so they're going with the 'oh, look what a great thing we're doing' route.
*edit* as for the music and literature ~ those are the true serious efforts to teach the children... for which they correctly dedicated classroom time to. Which is how they'd do it for each second language if that were a true effort to teach a second language.
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"'let's speak spanish in the hallways on tuesdays & thursdays''
just had a vision of gringos walking down the halls saying "we don need no steekn badges"
:lol
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Originally posted by 1K3
Without using a calculator or google, try to calculate how many yards are there in 1 mile.
1760 yards, 5280 feet.
something I learned oh 25 years ago in what 2nd grade?
metric sucks.
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Metric is the only system that makes any sense really.
How many yards in 18,3 miles? ehm... lemme get the calculator
How many meters in 18,3 kilometers? ehm.. 18300
KISS system works! :D
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Originally posted by Nilsen
Metric is the only system that makes any sense really.
How many yards in 18,3 miles? ehm... lemme get the calculator
How many meters in 18,3 kilometers? ehm.. 18300
KISS system works! :D
OK, how many miles in 18.8 klicks? :D
Ya see, I know how far 18 miles is, I know how long it takes me to walk it, drive it, or bike it. A kilometer? What the hell is that?
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Originally posted by Shaky
Ya see, I know how far 18 miles is, I know how long it takes me to walk it, drive it, or bike it. A kilometer? What the hell is that?
yup :aok
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I used to drive 18 wheelers. They are 13 foot 6 inches tall. I went to Calgary, Alberta. Saw a bridge clearance sign that said 4.1 meters. As I tried to do the conversion in my head, I heard the unmistakable KLANNGGG of my exhaust stacks hitting the bridge.:(
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n00b:rofl
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Sorry if I'm off the current topic (skipped 3/4 of the thread)
Our high school only offers Spanish and French. I'm going to have to change my college planning for my future simply because the colleges I want require languages and I can't move to a new high school. I can't stand being in either of the classes, as well.
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nelson.. why would you need to know how many yards in 18.3 miles in any environment where you didn't have at LEAST a calculator handy?
My daughter was enrolled in a bilingual class almost 20 years ago because I thought.... as rolex.. that it would be good for her to learn another language and... spanish was all they offered.
When I went to parent teacher day to see how it worked I was shocked... everything... I mean everything.. was said in both languages... if a kid had a question.. no matter how stupid... it was repeated and answered in both english and spanish by the teacher... In an hour... I would say that about a quarter of what could have been covered in english only was covered..
When I mentioned this to the teacher she said this was not true. I told her that I was withdrawing my child from the program and was dissapointed that she, as a teacher was such a liar and/or idiot. I told her that I moreover... I was insulted that she thought that I was as stupid as she was.
lazs