A question for all native English speakers ...

[Imke]

I only started learning English in 7th grade. I think it's normal in Germany now to start learning English in primary school though.

The English classes here are a big problem though ... we have tons of teachers who actually don't speak English that well ... they teach the students English, some those students set out to become English teachers etc.

I've had 4 English teachers in my life, none of them was a native speaker and I remember that my first one taught me lots of crap (especially when it comes to pronunciation).

 

So I don't neccessarily think that we take learning a language more serious over here. :thinking: I actually was quite shocked when some French and American students told me something like "Well, you're German of course your English is good." There are tons of people here who can't really talk English either, it's not neccessarily an American thing to not take learning another language seriously.

[Imke]

¡Por favor, no más frances! D:

 

Bonjour, ma chère. :lips:

[Violet]

Está bien :nice:

 

Qué bueno. :cheesy:

 

I only started learning English in 7th grade. I think it's normal in Germany now to start learning English in primary school though.

The English classes here are a big problem though ... we have tons of teachers who actually don't speak English that well ... they teach the students English, some those students set out to become English teachers etc.

I've had 4 English teachers in my life, none of them was a native speaker and I remember that my first one taught me lots of crap (especially when it comes to pronunciation).

 

So I don't neccessarily think that we take learning a language more serious over here. :thinking: I actually was quite shocked when some French and American students told me something like "Well, you're German of course your English is good." There are tons of people here who can't really talk English either, it's not neccessarily an American thing to not take learning another language seriously.

 

Wow, really? I wouldn't have thought that. I've learned a lot from this thread. We as people only know what we are exposed to in terms of topics like this, I suppose. :shrug:

[Megalomania]

I only started learning English in 7th grade. I think it's normal in Germany now to start learning English in primary school though.

The English classes here are a big problem though ... we have tons of teachers who actually don't speak English that well ... they teach the students English, some those students set out to become English teachers etc.

I've had 4 English teachers in my life, none of them was a native speaker and I remember that my first one taught me lots of crap (especially when it comes to pronunciation).

 

So I don't neccessarily think that we take learning a language more serious over here. :thinking: I actually was quite shocked when some French and American students told me something like "Well, you're German of course your English is good." There are tons of people here who can't really talk English either, it's not neccessarily an American thing to not take learning another language seriously.

 

Really? I find that surprising. . . I guess wherever you go some people are dedicated and others are just lazy. . . :shrug:

[Lore]

It's so funny when some people here is wearing tshirts with funny messages in english, but they don't know what that means :freak: People think they know english but just a small percentage really knows how to keep a basic conversation.

 

[/random]

[Imke]

Wow, really? I wouldn't have thought that. I've learned a lot from this thread. We as people only know what we are exposed to in terms of topics like this, I suppose. :shrug:

 

Maybe the percentage of people here who know the basics of English is still higher than the percentage of Americans who know the basics of another language.

 

There's one example I have though: One big perfumery here in Germany had commercials that ended with "Come in and find out" ... they got rid of that slogan again eventually, because apparently a lot of Germans thought it was meant as "Come in and get the heck out again" ... tons of people here still have problems with the really easy things, because they never quite took learning English seriously in school.

[мaямellata]

I'm horrible with language, just failed a Spanish test. However I wish to learn French, it's my favorite.

To answer the question, it is important to know other languages.

can I be your tutor? :blush:

[Ohemul]

I'm learning Spanish and I like it :wack:

[Cyan Kat]

I'm english and I took spanish it seems Universities over here like it if you have more than one language and I kinda like it too although our teacher is pretty bad

[an angel]

I've always been interested in foreign languages, even when I was really young, I've just never had much of an opportunity to learn one really well.

In middle and high school I had to learn Latin, which I loved but it's kind of useless to know. It does really help to increase your vocabulary skills though.

Then I learned Spanish the last two years of high school, but not enough to speak it very well, and I've forgotten pretty much everything.

 

I'm actually changing my major today and I'll be either minoring or double-majoring in French :wacky:

[Gitta Rensolo]

I'd love to speak more languages as fluent as english....I only know some basic french though....

I might llearn another language just for fun one day....don't know when, but if I go to uni again after my apprenticeship and have some time left I should consider doing it.

 

Something like Italian or some scandinavian language like Swedish....that'd be cool.-

[Empily]

I really really want to start learning French again I wasn't too bad at it at school :lol:

Forgotten most of it now, however :uhoh:

but it's just finding the time to do it and finding a good teacher :p

[nouratan]

i speak 5 languages but they are all local languages and English is the only international language i speak:shame:.

i want to learn more languages but i hated learning french coz it's so complicated so i just stopped taking french class:shame: and so now i really want to learn Spanish:rolleyes:

[Wherrwhfer]

I'm learning Spanish and I like it :wack:

 

BOB ESPONJA.

 

lolwack.

[Ohemul]

LA COCAINA NO ES BUENA PARA SU SALUD... right?

[Wherrwhfer]

Right. Bob Esponja.

[EmmaLouiseSmyth]

I think it's cool to learn another language.

I learn Irish and german in school, annoyingly I'm not very good at them.

 

German I started when I was 13 and I'm okay at it.

And irish is compulsory here from the age of 5/6...I'm still pretty shit at it, I would be confident enough to have a proper conversation at all. Most people are that way too and forget most of it in a couple of years.

[Crests]

I don't know if it's important, but French is rather important to me.

[a_face_of_light]

Okay, maybe I should rephrase my question a bit. :anxious:

I mean if you have to learn a 2nd language in school, it still doesn't mean that you're actually able to communicate with it.

Do you think it's important to be able to speak another language well enough to at least have simple conversations in that language?

 

Yes I do definatly, I think it's kind of arrogant how Americans and English people can be when they go abroad, and expect people to speak English, people whos first language isn't English do have a motivation to learn it because of Film,Music etc, and I wish I could speak another language well, I can speak French a bit but I'm not amazing at it.

I've been thinking about learning Spanish as it's such a useful language to know.

[Rabbit]

English people are lazy and most would like others to learn their language.

 

I used to learn German for about 2 years and I've been learning for French for about....7 years now (on and off at school) but recently I dropped it as a subject. I really don't want to forget my French. :cry:, I think I'll have to go to France soon to practice it.

[BerrymanGirl1]

I think it is important to learn another language plus its fun!

[ImLovingGuyBerryman]

i speak 5 languages but they are all local languages and English is the only international language i speak:shame:.

i want to learn more languages but i hated learning french coz it's so complicated so i just stopped taking french class:shame: and so now i really want to learn Spanish:rolleyes:

 

No no no! Don't be ashamed of that!! Local languages are SO much cooler than "international" ones. And it's important that people continue to speak their local and cultural languages. Sadly, 1 language dies out about every two weeks. That's so much, so fast. :freak: And it's because the languages' last speakers die. The younger generations are often less inclined to speak their cultural languages and lean towards bigger languages.

[Electric.Candy]

yes, that would be cool, in factin some fields of career, learning other languages even for just the basic conversational ones, are a plus.

[eff-exx]

I don't like it when people who live at where I live doesn't know how to speak our national language, but instead just knows how to speak other languages.

[Coldplay]

Rosetta Stone is a waste of money. There are torrents around the internet if you'd like to find them, but it's still not going to do much.

The thing is, it teaches you some simple words and phrases like "airplane" and "under the table", but it won't teach you crap about understanding and speaking basic sentences and grammar.

People say that Americans are lazy and that they don't feel languages are important, but it's not that easy to be proficient in a language. I would love to be fluent in 5 languages or so but I get discouraged very easily and I don't know anyone who is willing to invest all of that time to help me for free (or for a low cost, I'm 13 so I obviously don't have much to spend)

I think what I'm most upset about now is forgetting my native language. I was born in Romania and we do speak Romanian in the house, but I only respond in English and even though I can understand Romanian passively, my spoken and written Romanian is broken and awful and I forget half the words. One day when I get older and travel the world, I will live in Romania for a year or so to pick up my fluency.

I think the best and one of the cheapest things to do is to just immerse yourself at home, rent movies in the language with English subtitles, write a journal or blog in the language, or talk to someone on Skype for a few hours a day. My sister knows 5 languages fluently, two of them which she learned mainly from watching TV! This is what I planned to do with many languages, but I keep putting it off, so I guess it's easier said than done.

So, with that long, unnecessary post, I think it's a good idea no matter what, because it's something fun and productive to do that helps you understand a new culture, with new art, music, and literature, and sometimes it could really help you in a career. But you do need motivation, and a lot of it.