All-Star Disqualifying Cheaters

[Cheerhastakenovermylife]

I took 4 yrs of Spanish in High School but never felt like I could actually speak it. Now they start in Elementary with twice a week spanish but it doesn't seem to be sufficient since there isn't any Spanish in middle school. Then in High School they are required to take 2 yrs. Again I don't see kids actually being able to speak the language even if they were to complete all 4 yrs. in high school. I don't know what other countries do to be more successful. I would think if they incorporated Spanish as a required course right from Kindergarten through Graduation it may be more successful.

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[Fiercecheermom]

Other languages are offered and at my HS it was a requirement to take 2 years of a foreign language. But, 2 years is not nearly enough time to become comfortable with a language at the rate that a HS teaches it at. I took 5 years of Spanish and I lost most of the vocab and grammar skills when I stop using it.
Now, I've heard of some elementary schools incorporating Spanish into their curriculum at an early age, but that is in California where Spanish is very useful to know. In Illinois, I know that some private schools offer classes for a second language for an extended amount of years. However, private school = price tag.
I feel like the US encourages learning other languages but they don't require it or the schools don't offer the students enough time to actually be able to adopt the new language.

In our area, children can begin taking a foreign language in 8th grade. In order to obtain an "advanced" diploma, they must take 3 years minimum. My CP is now in Spanish 5 and I am very happy she continued with it. Hoping she can continue in college so that she doesn't lose it.

 

[CheerBank]

I took 4 yrs of Spanish in High School but never felt like I could actually speak it. Now they start in Elementary with twice a week spanish but it doesn't seem to be sufficient since there isn't any Spanish in middle school. Then in High School they are required to take 2 yrs. Again I don't see kids actually being able to speak the language even if they were to complete all 4 yrs. in high school. I don't know what other countries do to be more successful. I would think if they incorporated Spanish as a required course right from Kindergarten through Graduation it may be more successful.

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In our area, children can begin taking a foreign language in 8th grade. In order to obtain an "advanced" diploma, they must take 3 years minimum. My CP is now in Spanish 5 and I am very happy she continued with it. Hoping she can continue in college so that she doesn't lose it.

Our school district starts with language in 6th grade every other day, then it moves to every day starting in 7th grade. My oldest took French from 6th through 12th and cp and her brother both take Spanish. I think without some immersion experience it is very hard to pick up a new language when the only exposure is 40 minutes a day in school. My oldest can understand a lot of French and reads it relatively well but tends to balk when it comes to speaking. Cp is also taking ASL now and hopes to continue that through the rest of high school.

 

[123jump4!]

In Sweden kids learn English, and usually German, French or Spanish. Everyone gets better at English than the other languages. Because we have plenty of exposure to it on TV (undubbed shows & movies) and in popular music.

I do ok with German when forced to but was always way better at English. Yes it's hard to learn to speak only from classes!

 

[cheernerd5678]

+ @Cheer Dad
Are languages offered at schools and students don't take them, or they are just not offered?

I took 5 years of Spanish (4 levels) and could never speak well. I could read it decently but now that I've been out of it for almost 2 years I've probably lost that ability as well. We needed 2 years of a language to graduate high school and if you took four levels in HS you don't have to take it at Mizzou. But my major doesn't require it anyway so I definitely could've stopped at two.
My mom taught at a private school that had their kids start learning it in Kindergarten. They must not have done much of it though, b/c a lot of those kids would switch to public school once they got to HS and they never really knew it better than any of us


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[Cheer Dad]

+ @Cheer Dad
Are languages offered at schools and students don't take them, or they are just not offered?

Definitely offered and a requirement for some but it just isn't taken real serious by most students because the rest of the world speaks English.


**please raise your hand if you're related to Jocelyn**

 

[njallday]

Our school district starts with language in 6th grade every other day, then it moves to every day starting in 7th grade. My oldest took French from 6th through 12th and cp and her brother both take Spanish. I think without some immersion experience it is very hard to pick up a new language when the only exposure is 40 minutes a day in school. My oldest can understand a lot of French and reads it relatively well but tends to balk when it comes to speaking. Cp is also taking ASL now and hopes to continue that through the rest of high school.

Agreed with this. I can probably read an entire book in Spanish and while I may not understand 100% of the words, with context clues I can figure it out or at least the basic concepts of what the story is about. If you give me a sentence in English and have me translate it, I'm usually okay. Ask me to speak it on the fly and converse and I'm a mess. I went through a phase of watching the only "Spanish channel" our TV got and my language skills definitely improved but then I lost it all when I stopped taking it.

I "tested out" of language in undergrad because I could pass their placement test that put me above a basic Spanish II class but I wish I didn't do that and just took it, even if only the basics again to keep up with it. Lesson to all fierce boarders entering college - take a language for fun as an elective. It comes in handy.

 

[Miialovescheer]

In Sweden kids learn English, and usually German, French or Spanish. Everyone gets better at English than the other languages. Because we have plenty of exposure to it on TV (undubbed shows & movies) and in popular music.

I do ok with German when forced to but was always way better at English. Yes it's hard to learn to speak only from classes!

That we do! I took French but canbasicly not remember anything. but English i think im pretty good at! Stupid question maybe but are you swedish? you can answer me in a PM if you dont want everyone to know.

 

[123jump4!]

That we do! I took French but canbasicly not remember anything. but English i think im pretty good at! Stupid question maybe but are you swedish? you can answer me in a PM if you dont want everyone to know.

Yes I am swedish and my kids speak swedish too. :) I've been living most of my adult life in England and the US so my English obviously got better from that. When I first moved to England I would write down every word I didn't understand during the day and look it up in my dictionary when I got home.

 

[Miialovescheer]

Yes I am swedish and my kids speak swedish too. :) I've been living most of my adult life in England and the US so my English obviously got better from that. When I first moved to England I would write down every word I didn't understand during the day and look it up in my dictionary when I got home.

OK! Always fun finding new swedes on here! Sweden is still quite a small country so i love it everytime i here of swedes not living here anymore! Kul!

 

[tumbleyoda]

I took 5 years of Spanish in school, 1 year of Italian, picked up bits of German from my mom that had a lady tutoring her in it, then went off to college and took 2 more years of Spanish and a year of French. Even picked up Swahili from studying it - I loved languages! I was very conversant with Spanish growing up in a Hispanic neighborhood where most of my friends were Hispanic, and going to college in Miami. Most people assumed I was Dominican until I told them otherwise.

Being away from living in mixed communities and having to use it, I lost most of it. I can still read it good, and speak what I am reading good. But I definitley lost the ability to think and speak in Spanish. I am back to thinking in English and then trying to remember what the Spanish words and sentence structure is instead of just speaking. IMO what hinders most Americans from being truly conversant is we learn it because schools require us to, but we know we don't really have to use it much after that.

 

[SarahS]

I took 5 years of Spanish in school, 1 year of Italian, picked up bits of German from my mom that had a lady tutoring her in it, then went off to college and took 2 more years of Spanish and a year of French. Even picked up Swahili from studying it - I loved languages! I was very conversant with Spanish growing up in a Hispanic neighborhood where most of my friends were Hispanic, and going to college in Miami. Most people assumed I was Dominican until I told them otherwise.

Being away from living in mixed communities and having to use it, I lost most of it. I can still read it good, and speak what I am reading good. But I definitley lost the ability to think and speak in Spanish. I am back to thinking in English and then trying to remember what the Spanish words and sentence structure is instead of just speaking. IMO what hinders most Americans from being truly conversant is we learn it because schools require us to, but we know we don't really have to use it much after that.

This is so true. My degree was in Arabic. I can still read a little and write a little, but I haven't spoken it (except for in an orphanage in Djibouti in 2006, and poorly, at that) since I graduated in 2004.

 

[SL&AM]

I can attest to the everyone knows English so why bother---we experienced A LOT of that living abroad. I took several years of Spanish and my husband took German---that was useful, my Spanish is basically gone at this point. They teach it in elementary school now and DP uses Rosetta Stone with her cousin so they are both learning Mandarin together.

 

[CheerBank]

I took French from grade 2 or 3 until grade 8. After that, (depending on the school) we had the option of staying with French, or Spanish, Japanese, or Mandarin. At this point the only French I know is the kind of stuff written on food packages.

Some elementary schools around here are starting to offer immersion programs in Mandarin, which is something I wish was a thing when I was that age.

My friend's sons have that in their elementary school in Queens. They actually taught half the day in Mandarin. I'm so jealous!

 

[randomactsofcheer]

+ @Cheer Dad
Are languages offered at schools and students don't take them, or they are just not offered?

My CP is in a German immersion program. But she spoke German before she went into the program. They start with weekly Spanish lessons in 4th grade and then in middle school you can decide if you want to switch completely to Spanish or continue in German. Our city also has a Mandarin immersion school, a few Spanish immersion schools, and two French immersion schools (one is private). I took German and Spanish in high school and college.

It is fairly common for our area for neighborhood schools to have a weekly Spanish class in their curriculum. But we are also right next to the border so I am not sure if that is the norm.