I just don’t see the point. (A) you already speak the most popular language in the world, better to learn to speak it well rather than learn a secondary language you will immediately lose due to lack of use. And (B) how do you even go about picking which secondary language to study? You could argue Spanish or French due to shared borders… but is a kid from Connecticut really more likely to go to Mexico than say, Italy? You could do it by popularity but that would be Mandarin followed by Hindi… unless you are going into international business - probably not going to serve you too well. Whats left other than learning for the novelty of it?
Edit: for clarity I am not saying there is no value in learning a second language, just that any given student would find more value deferring that learning until college where they can pick a language that better aligns with their field of study.
CrimsoniteX t1_j9dicc1 wrote
Reply to [OC] % of American students taking a foreign language class by state by ASoloTrip90000
I just don’t see the point. (A) you already speak the most popular language in the world, better to learn to speak it well rather than learn a secondary language you will immediately lose due to lack of use. And (B) how do you even go about picking which secondary language to study? You could argue Spanish or French due to shared borders… but is a kid from Connecticut really more likely to go to Mexico than say, Italy? You could do it by popularity but that would be Mandarin followed by Hindi… unless you are going into international business - probably not going to serve you too well. Whats left other than learning for the novelty of it?
Edit: for clarity I am not saying there is no value in learning a second language, just that any given student would find more value deferring that learning until college where they can pick a language that better aligns with their field of study.