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Multilingualism
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| 60. |
26 Feb 2007 Mon 10:00 pm |
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Quoting sophie:
In Greece, English is being taught even in the nursery schools. Officially, in public schools, kids start learning English from the 3rd grade and in the 5th grade they start learning a second one, which is either French or German (which makes two compulsory foreign languages at the age of 10 ). At the same time, Italian and Spanish are languages that kids try to learn, as soon as they enter high school, through private institutes. So, "lazy" is not the word for the Greek kids. |
Quite the same situation in Romania: pupils start learning a foreign language (English, French, German or Spanish) from kindergarten.In the 4th grade (age 11) they start learning the second one, the aim being to pass the Cambridge, DALF or their Spanish, German or Italian equivalents in advance levels when they graduade highschool (age 18). The third foreign language is taught at the University. Studies on the so called "rare" foreign languages (eg Japanese, Chinese, Finnish, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, etc)are also for the university level.
A certificate in advanced English/French/German/Spanish is definitely a criterion for selection here; usually Enghlish is considered a must, the second foreign language is viewed as highly desirable and the third foreign language- well...this makes the difference
As for learning a foreign language for the sake of learning itself, I have met such characters (most of them driven by the desire to read Plato,Kant or Dostoievski in the language these authors wrote). I am among the "lucky few" studying Turkish as a "labour of love" and ... Arabic is the next on my list- for the same reason
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| 61. |
26 Feb 2007 Mon 10:57 pm |
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I grew up in an area where they didn't teach languages until high school either and when I moved and went to high school most of my new friends were taught french from a young age becuase they were from an area that taught it at a young age.
Half of my high school was taught German and Spanish and the other half (me included) was taught German and French. I wasn't very good at French, ecpecially with my friends already ahead of me. Thankfully I made up for it in German, with the help of my German nanny 
I still wish I was taught Spanish instead of French because spending a long period of time out in Spain (Costa Del Sol) when I was younger (couple of years before I started high school) helped me to be ahead of most people in that but I wasn't picked to do it  but now I am making up for it by studying it now.
Having half my family being Turkish I used to speak a little when I was around 5/6 to my favourite uncle (who I have lost contact with now) as he used to teach me and loved it, and laughed when I couldn't pronounce some words right  .
Anyway I grew out of it and spoke to him in English all the time after and forgotten what I learnt which is a shame and then I went to Turkey last year and I just wanted to learn it again for the sake of it but ended up giving up  ....well, slowly giving up
At the moment I am concentrating mostly on Spanish and hope to become fluent in it as I hope to do a college course in it. Also, better because I have my own private tutor 
Then I hope to learn Arabic, though it will be a long shot because of its difficulty, so I know that will take a lot of studying to do. A friend of mine has also offered to help with Arabic when I begin learning which is helpful.
At the college I will be attending to this year they teach soooooo many languages....chinese, japanese, russian, sign language (I know a little of due to a deaf friend), spanish, french, German, Polish etc but the two languages I wanted to go into (Arabic and Turksih) they didn't teach  and the closest school they did teach it was in the central of London and 2 hours away. I am tempted but wont apply until I finish my other courses. So a couple of years at least yet
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| 62. |
26 Feb 2007 Mon 11:16 pm |
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Quoting robyn : Quoting reBooped: Quote Robyn.... wish languages were taught earlier in english school.they are not even started until secondary(high school) age ...
not so, I was taught french from the age of 5... |
well its not the case in essex schools. |
Or Cambridgeshire or Norfolk - maybe in private schools, but definitely not in bog standard primary schools. I learnt Spanish for one year age 11 - 12 and French from 13 - 15 that is it! The rest I have taught myself.
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| 63. |
26 Feb 2007 Mon 11:19 pm |
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Quoting kai: I grew up in an area where they didn't teach languages until high school either and when I moved and went to high school most of my new friends were taught french from a young age becuase they were from an area that taught it at a young age.
Half of my high school was taught German and Spanish and the other half (me included) was taught German and French. I wasn't very good at French, ecpecially with my friends already ahead of me. Thankfully I made up for it in German, with the help of my German nanny
I still wish I was taught Spanish instead of French because spending a long period of time out in Spain (Costa Del Sol) when I was younger (couple of years before I started high school) helped me to be ahead of most people in that but I wasn't picked to do it but now I am making up for it by studying it now.
Having half my family being Turkish I used to speak a little when I was around 5/6 to my favourite uncle (who I have lost contact with now) as he used to teach me and loved it, and laughed when I couldn't pronounce some words right .
Anyway I grew out of it and spoke to him in English all the time after and forgotten what I learnt which is a shame and then I went to Turkey last year and I just wanted to learn it again for the sake of it but ended up giving up ....well, slowly giving up
At the moment I am concentrating mostly on Spanish and hope to become fluent in it as I hope to do a college course in it. Also, better because I have my own private tutor
Then I hope to learn Arabic, though it will be a long shot because of its difficulty, so I know that will take a lot of studying to do. A friend of mine has also offered to help with Arabic when I begin learning which is helpful.
At the college I will be attending to this year they teach soooooo many languages....chinese, japanese, russian, sign language (I know a little of due to a deaf friend), spanish, french, German, Polish etc but the two languages I wanted to go into (Arabic and Turksih) they didn't teach and the closest school they did teach it was in the central of London and 2 hours away. I am tempted but wont apply until I finish my other courses. So a couple of years at least yet |
Kai learn to walk before you run!! Dont take on so much, and did you know that sign language is more or the same all over the world?
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| 64. |
27 Feb 2007 Tue 01:27 am |
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Quoting libralady: Kai learn to walk before you run!! Dont take on so much, and did you know that sign language is more or the same all over the world? |
I am only doing Spanish, like I said, I'm giving up on Turkish ...well for now anyway.
And no I didn't know that about sign language. I thought it would have been completely different if anything....I mean BSL - BRITISH sign language, so I thought it would have been different for every language :-S Ah well, you learn something new everyday
I don't know to much of it, I know the alphabet and a few sentences and words but nothing much. I used to contact through letters most of the time, but that wasnt too often either because I used to make what I was saying clear so she could lip read because she hadnt yet learnt BSL fluently...she was taking classes.
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| 65. |
27 Feb 2007 Tue 01:41 am |
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from what i know, there is a difference between sign languages.
american sign language (asl) is different from british sign language (bsl). these are also different to australia sign language (auslan). and also japanese sign language (jsl).
however, auslan and bsl are very very similar.
i don't know all the differences, but some sign languages mostly use the fingers, others make use of mouthing along with the fingers.
asl uses finger spelling alot in forming it's words, whilst jsl doesn't.
asl uses one hand in spelling out the alphabet, whilst auslan/bsl uses two hands.
check out this website for the asl, bsl, and auslan alphabets: http://www.dictionaryofsign.com/main.php
there is also turkish sign language:
http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/
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| 66. |
27 Feb 2007 Tue 01:55 am |
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Quoting gezbelle: from what i know, there is a difference between sign languages.
american sign language (asl) is different from british sign language (bsl). these are also different to australia sign language (auslan). and also japanese sign language (jsl).
however, auslan and bsl are very very similar.
i don't know all the differences, but some sign languages mostly use the fingers, others make use of mouthing along with the fingers.
asl uses finger spelling alot in forming it's words, whilst jsl doesn't.
asl uses one hand in spelling out the alphabet, whilst auslan/bsl uses two hands.
check out this website for the asl, bsl, and auslan alphabets: http://www.dictionaryofsign.com/main.php
there is also turkish sign language:
http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/ |
Ohh thanks Gezbelle cnm
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| 67. |
27 Feb 2007 Tue 01:58 am |
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Quoting kai: Quoting gezbelle: from what i know, there is a difference between sign languages.
american sign language (asl) is different from british sign language (bsl). these are also different to australia sign language (auslan). and also japanese sign language (jsl).
however, auslan and bsl are very very similar.
i don't know all the differences, but some sign languages mostly use the fingers, others make use of mouthing along with the fingers.
asl uses finger spelling alot in forming it's words, whilst jsl doesn't.
asl uses one hand in spelling out the alphabet, whilst auslan/bsl uses two hands.
check out this website for the asl, bsl, and auslan alphabets: http://www.dictionaryofsign.com/main.php
there is also turkish sign language:
http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/ |
Ohh thanks Gezbelle cnm |
bir şey değil kai canım
i learnt the auslan/bsl alphabet many moons ago. though i can't remember most of it now. but i knew there was a definite difference between what i learnt and the asl alphabet
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