Learn Spanish Says Obama

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='Mercy me' post='1608313' date='Jul 25 2008, 12:07 PM']But this wouldn't be such a big deal it they were learning English. They aren't.[/quote]

And they don't want to. This is the elephant in the room that most people ignore. They carry on about how we should learn Spanish to "help" them, or they complain that there aren't enough ESL resources available to them to ealrn English. None of this is true. The elephant truth is they don't want to learn English.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1608281' date='Jul 25 2008, 11:26 AM']I have no problem with immigrants (or anyone for that matter) speaking whatever language they want in their homes, with their friends and whatnot.[/quote]

Oh my gosh, ME EITHER. I actually WANT American children to be immersed in the culture of their immigrant parents or immigrant grandparents. I think it's wonderful. But they need to assimilate here--for our sake and for their sake. The problem is that people have made "assimilation" a dirty word. This word does not mean they have to abandon the culture they come from. They can be BOTH. Be fully American and fully in touch with their heritage.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1608255' date='Jul 25 2008, 10:53 AM']If you've ever spent time in an ESL classroom, you will notice that often times (depending on where you are), you have children from all over the place. Is the ESL teacher supposed to learn all of those languages in order to teach them all English? Or would it be better for him/her to understand the machanics of English, phonics, etc. in order to teach English?[/quote]


You start the way WE started when were little American boys and girls. We started with our ABCs.

This reminds me of an argument I was in last year. I had a friend who was teaching ESL in Korea. She was saying that she has a hard time teaching them certain things in English becuase there is no equivalent in Korean. My argument was, "You don't NEED an equivalent in Korean. Just teach them the ENGLISH word. You are there to teach English." She argued that you need to know the equivalent, then she got angry and said she's been doing this for 4 years and she knows what she's talking about. Actually, she could be doing this for 40 years and the fact remains that she is wrong. For example, in Korean there is no ONE word for "brother". You call your elder brother one thing and you call your younger brother something different. Same with sister. I was telling my friend, the ESL teacher, to just teach them the word BROTHER and SISTER. That's all you need to do. Period. She kept arguing that they don't understand because in Korean they don't have one single word for their siblings. Man, it was like arguing with a brick wall. Just teach them the WORD in ENGLISH. Period.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1608254' date='Jul 25 2008, 10:53 AM']Unless of course you come here knowing absolutely no English and people are screaming at you to learn the language or go home, and you're afraid and just wanting to get by.

Believe it or not, something as petty as this is not the most important thing to people who just want to get by. You can teach them english and also be willing to help them by also speaking their language for the most important things.[/quote]

This is all nonsense. They can learn English if they want to. You start with the alphabet. The same way we learned as children. No foreign language skills required for a person to teach English to a non-American. Period.

[homeschoolmom]

What I think is funny is that in this thread we have the "you need to teach them English using their native language" folks....

and in Open Mic when discussing various language-learning programs (Rosetta Stone etc), pretty much the consensus is that programs that immerse the student in the language work better.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1608395' date='Jul 25 2008, 01:41 PM']What I think is funny is that in this thread we have the "you need to teach them English using their native language" folks....

and in Open Mic when discussing various language-learning programs (Rosetta Stone etc), pretty much the consensus is that programs that immerse the student in the language work better. [/quote]


LOL.