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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) Morgawse Send a noteboard - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM

1) Which languages did you learn in school, and for how long?

English, German and French all the way to the end of secondary school. If we're counting ancient languages, Latin and Greek as well, and if study outside school counts, I did three years of Italian with the local branch of the Dante Alighieri society.
2) Which languages would you say you speak with some degree of fluency?

Dutch (obviously), English to native-level fluency (due to having lived in the UK for 7 years now), Frisian, and German I can speak without too much trouble, although in German I'll make mistakes. I can scrape up enough French and Italian to get by but I wouldn't like to call it fluent by any means. Sadly I've not managed to learn more than a smattering of Welsh in my time here.
3) Do you think languages get too much attention in the school system you went to, too little, or just about enough?

When I went through the system, it'd recently been changed and it was possible to partially drop German and French after the third year - students who did that would still be taught German and French but in a way that was focused only on reading and understanding, not on speaking and writing. While that kind of passive study of languages has some value, I question just how much. Other than that I do like how much emphasis the Dutch education system places on languages, but then I love language and I would say that.
4) What do you think of the remarkable dominance of English that appears in the data?

Language teaching in schools is mostly utalitarian, and English is without question a very useful language to speak in today's world. That is not to say there aren't others, but I don't think it is a bad thing so many people are being taught English.

Jennifer

Mornings are still not for me.
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/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM 1305 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 01:49:32 PM 719 Views
Answering the survey myself... - 24/09/2010 02:04:39 PM 724 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM 712 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:20:45 PM 854 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:24:01 PM 740 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:14:52 PM 770 Views
We have a similar situation in Belgium. - 24/09/2010 02:32:25 PM 640 Views
It is all double dutch to me - 24/09/2010 02:41:41 PM 720 Views
Hah! - 24/09/2010 06:58:49 PM 800 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM 666 Views
That is rather sad to say the least. - 24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM 889 Views
Indeed - 24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM 704 Views
That's just Paris being a city of nasty people. - 24/09/2010 06:32:40 PM 849 Views
I never noticed that - 24/09/2010 07:05:18 PM 743 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM 777 Views
I didn't mean just in Sweden, or Scandinavia. - 24/09/2010 04:19:32 PM 773 Views
Well... - 24/09/2010 10:50:09 PM 672 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM 743 Views
Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM 693 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM 840 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM 749 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:21:24 PM 862 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 08:18:30 PM 725 Views
Re: Interesting. - 25/09/2010 08:02:30 PM 797 Views
American who just got a C+ on a French quiz reporting in. - 24/09/2010 06:09:31 PM 800 Views
What was it on? - 24/09/2010 06:22:35 PM 710 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 06:16:22 PM 655 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM 841 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM 826 Views
Real quick - 25/09/2010 12:03:51 PM 803 Views
Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose - 25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM 798 Views
Certainly it can. - 26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM 796 Views
You know, gen eds typically include a language. *NM* - 26/09/2010 07:28:57 PM 314 Views
Yes, but other things as well. - 26/09/2010 08:08:20 PM 734 Views
Interesting - 27/09/2010 03:14:00 AM 890 Views
Re: Interesting - 27/09/2010 11:04:37 AM 803 Views
You don't have to prove it's economically valid? - 27/09/2010 08:31:46 PM 819 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM 936 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM 860 Views
The amount of German is more surprising. - 25/09/2010 07:55:29 PM 614 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM 876 Views
They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages. - 26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM 730 Views
Aye, they should have. - 26/09/2010 12:26:51 PM 836 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM 772 Views

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