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.
Mornings are still not for me.
/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM
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That is rather sad to say the least.
24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM
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Indeed
24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM
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Interesting.
24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM
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Re: Interesting.
24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM
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Re: Interesting.
24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM
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Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose
25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM
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Certainly it can.
26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM
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They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages.
26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM
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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM
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