Kindergartners urged to learn key languages

The first-graders in Grace Yuan's class are playing "Jeopardy," eagerly responding to clues about animals and their habitats, diet and movements.

[Peste]

Wish the Feds would pony up money for citizens to learn English.

[DonnaJ]

I agree with you Peste. I am learning Chinese right now, but English is and always will be, my first language. I'm not above making grammatical and spelling errors, but I am above average in my knowledge of the English language and grammer. There are far too many people in this country today who have minimal knowledge of the language they "speak" and I put that in quotes because many of them can't speak correctly, much less write a sentence. I am by no means trying to sound holier than thou or saying that everyone other than me is stupid. I am saying though that there are too many people who can't speak their own language properly and that's sad.

[its about time]

i have always thought this. People though i was crazy. I though why are we learning Spanish. Not trying to be mean or anything but we don't get anything from Mexico. We don't do any negotiating with them. We don't buy high ticket items from them. We're not learning anything from them. All we are doing with learning Spanish is bring more people in our country that don't know English and giving them a reason not to learn. We should learn the language of countries we trade with and can benefit from know the language. China, Japan would be the first. It's about time. We brought something into our children's lives that will help them all their lives that's not necessarily fun but Great for them.

[hola]

its about time wrote:

i have always thought this. People though i was crazy. I though why are we learning Spanish. Not trying to be mean or anything but we don't get anything from Mexico. We don't do any negotiating with them. We don't buy high ticket items from them. We're not learning anything from them. All we are doing with learning Spanish is bring more people in our country that don't know English and giving them a reason not to learn. We should learn the language of countries we trade with and can benefit from know the language. China, Japan would be the first. It's about time. We brought something into our children's lives that will help them all their lives that's not necessarily fun but Great for them.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking about my future! Like when I'm 65 and have to fill out those medicare forms in Spanish. Maybe I'll luck out and medicare won't be around when I'm 65. But then I'll still have to renew my driver's license. And the way things are going in the country I'll probably have to fill out an employment application and there's no guarantee that it will be printed in English. Well maybe it'll be online and bilingual. That'll be nice.

[Surf52]

So for this sort of crap, five year olds must be subjected to full day kindergarten.

Over the past fifty years, I've never felt deprived because I didn't know Chinese.

[Surf52]

Old Hippie wrote:

You better learn to speak Russian because when Bush and Putin start WW3 over this Georgia/Ossetia bs, knowing their language will make it easier for Americans to survive in the gulags.

We don't have the troop levels to start WWIII. The Russians don't have the supply capability to maintain an army in North America.

So I'll take a pass if you don't mind.

[uh-yeah]

Kindergarten these days has become way too advanced imo. Some children are not ready for such intense study, especially boys. In turn, they sometimes act out in class and often get labeled with ADD or some other "disorder." And then of course the ritalin is not far behind that.

[Surf52]

BWUSA wrote:

<quoted text>
We don't need troops. A few well placed W88's should do the job.

Well then its settled! I still shouldn't need to learn Russian!

[Doug]

Yes. Teach them to say," America for sale, to the highest bidder" in 7 languages