Quake3World

I have to write a paper on bilingual education in public schools and I want to know your guys' opinion. Especially tnf and anyone who is working for a public school or has worked for one.

I need to write a paper on why public schools must put more funding into bilingual education in order to adapt to future generations of bilingual students and to ensure their future succes (in this case success is defined as being able to make money after schooling is complete).

It would depend on the country and what languages are in daily use I'd say. Otherwise it should be optional for the student.

This is for American public schools. The topic is broad enough that it doesn't specify any languages.

Well I think that'd be important. Not that i'm talking out my ass about this either I used to work for a french school in a primarily english area in a bilingual province and country but this province is much more bilingual than any other. I'm also french.

But around here it's important to teach kids french because it's the areas ancestry has a lot of french heritage and a lot of french speaking people still abide in the area.

Otherwise if it wasn't the case like in a primarily english area with no real other culture unless spanish would be concidered in the US seeing as there are so many I'd say it should be optional to take secondary languages as it isn't a necessity whereas over here some people simply do not speak english.

Yeah, I lived in California most of my life and I am glad that I studied Spanish.
However, the counter argument is that US public schools have so little money already they would have to cut back on other programs - atheletics and arts.

So why would you want to then? I mean if you do it voluntarily it's likely classes that teach other languages might not be so crowded and would need less funding which wouldn't cut into other programs that are important like atheletics and arts, which languages could be concidered arts too btw... Are you arguing to make it a mandatory class?

I'm not saying I'm for or against it - I need to write an argument for it for the paper. The best way to do it is to start looking objectively at both sides and to weigh the pros and cons - that's what I'm doing and I'm asking for anyone else to post their opinions on it because I'm sure I'll read some stuff that I haven't thought about.

The best way to write an argument for it is to already know the counter argument.

Perhaps you could argue that it might depend on the the students hertiage overall, either spanish or english, if 50% or more are spanish then it spanish class should be mandatory...

I don't think we should be adopting spanish like it's our official language. We speak english and the people coming here should learn that, not the other way around.

yes but if you accept them into your country they live here too.

bitWISE wrote:I don't think we should be adopting spanish like it's our official language. We speak english and the people coming here should learn that, not the other way around.

i suggest you all start brushing up on your Cantonese

I support blingual education, but not for the reasons its becoming a necessity at the moment. I think it's a sad state of affairs that the so many hispanic imigrants, legal or otherwise have moved to the US and not learned English.
I'm all for cultural diversity, but the idea of the American Melting Pot is to assimilate, not polarize.

Nightshade wrote:I'm all for cultural diversity, but the idea of the American Melting Pot is to assimilate, not polarize.

Great quote :icon14:

Well not talking about the illegal immigrants if you accept immigrants into your country that don't neccessarily speak english that well and another language is their native language and communities gather that speak those languages it's the goverments job to say hey, these people are still equals even though they don't speak the main language and deserve the right to be able to speak this language just like anyone else, it's the freedom of expression. If there's a significant ammount of people in an area that speak a language it's fair to them to provide them service in that language if neccessary just as it wouldn't be fair to those children who were born in the US that speak spanish for example because of their parents which may or may not have been immigrants at the time. They have rights too.

Jesus Kracus, talk about failing to speak English. What a horribly shitty paragraph.
Rewrite it and I might read it.

Nightshade wrote:Jesus Kracus, talk about failing to speak English. What a horribly shitty paragraph.
Rewrite it and I might read it.

Hello my friend, I think it's the perfect thread for this test.
Any of you would like to try to translate Kracus's paragraph in french?

Don't cheat with a translator.

fuck man. RUN ON SENTENCE
Well not talking about the illegal immigrants if you accept immigrants into your country that don't neccessarily speak english that well and another language is their native language and communities gather that speak those languages it's the goverments job to say hey, these people are still equals even though they don't speak the main language and deserve the right to be able to speak this language just like anyone else, it's the freedom of expression.

we should be taught chinese at kindergarten so we can cuss in it like in firefly :icon14:

Here in Quebec Canada the first language is French but at a certain time until around the 70’s, all business were done mostly in English, so we all had to learn English if we wanted to get a good job. Until the government adopt the law 101 that French should be the first language in everything…Some business had to change their logo for French ones and imagine this one…We had stop signs written in English <STOP>, they all changed them for <ARRET>, what a waste$.
Some 10Y ago they mandate that any one ‘’immigrant’’ coming to reside in our province ( as many Chinese ) must learn French and go to French school.
BTW I read that if you want to do real business in the not too far future you better learn a third language…Chinese/Mandarin. And if you are not computer literate that might be even worst.
Montreal and New-Brunswick are renowned as being both the capitals of telemarketing because they are the towns with the most bilingual people.
Almost forgot this one I am not sure about the statistics now but I read that 10% of the people were illiterate in the 80's.
P.S. I hope I didn’t give you a headache in trying to understand my frenchglish.

Kracus wrote:Well not talking about the illegal immigrants if you accept immigrants into your country that don't neccessarily speak english that well and another language is their native language and communities gather that speak those languages it's the goverments job to say hey, these people are still equals even though they don't speak the main language and deserve the right to be able to speak this language just like anyone else, it's the freedom of expression. If there's a significant ammount of people in an area that speak a language it's fair to them to provide them service in that language if neccessary just as it wouldn't be fair to those children who were born in the US that speak spanish for example because of their parents which may or may not have been immigrants at the time. They have rights too.

They should have the ability to learn english. If you move to a new country, you should adapt to their culture.

I went to school in Chile and in Brazil. In both countries, english or french is taught along side of spanish/portuguese. To be frank, I think it is phenomenal. If you walk to any Chilean and ask him/her a question in English/French, chances are they'll be able to answer it.

In contrast, you can walk up to 99% of Americans and ask them a question in any language and they won't be able answer it.

I found that bilingual education broadened my understanding for my own language. It also made me a more diverse person.

edit: as an addendun, there are so many spanish speakers in the U.S. that it would not hurt to have a mandatory Spanish education.

people should learn to speak american dammit!

duffman91 wrote: edit: as an addendun, there are so many spanish speakers in the U.S. that it would not hurt to have a mandatory Spanish education.

Fuck that. You move to my country, learn to speak the language. I'd never dream of another country changing to accommodate my dumb ass if I moved and failed to learn the local tongue.

i dunno i cant really see a downside, cept that it shoud be alot more than two only ey

Nightshade wrote:

duffman91 wrote: edit: as an addendun, there are so many spanish speakers in the U.S. that it would not hurt to have a mandatory Spanish education.

Fuck that. You move to my country, learn to speak the language. I'd never dream of another country changing to accommodate my dumb ass if I moved and failed to learn the local tongue.

I think you misread my statement. In other countries, the local language as well as another one is taught throughout primary and secondary education.

I'm suggesting a similar thing be done in the states. Spanish would be a good candidate given the large number of hispanics here. I never suggested English not be mandatory.