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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) Morgawse Send a noteboard - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM

1) Which languages did you learn in school, and for how long?

English, German and French all the way to the end of secondary school. If we're counting ancient languages, Latin and Greek as well, and if study outside school counts, I did three years of Italian with the local branch of the Dante Alighieri society.
2) Which languages would you say you speak with some degree of fluency?

Dutch (obviously), English to native-level fluency (due to having lived in the UK for 7 years now), Frisian, and German I can speak without too much trouble, although in German I'll make mistakes. I can scrape up enough French and Italian to get by but I wouldn't like to call it fluent by any means. Sadly I've not managed to learn more than a smattering of Welsh in my time here.
3) Do you think languages get too much attention in the school system you went to, too little, or just about enough?

When I went through the system, it'd recently been changed and it was possible to partially drop German and French after the third year - students who did that would still be taught German and French but in a way that was focused only on reading and understanding, not on speaking and writing. While that kind of passive study of languages has some value, I question just how much. Other than that I do like how much emphasis the Dutch education system places on languages, but then I love language and I would say that.
4) What do you think of the remarkable dominance of English that appears in the data?

Language teaching in schools is mostly utalitarian, and English is without question a very useful language to speak in today's world. That is not to say there aren't others, but I don't think it is a bad thing so many people are being taught English.

Jennifer

Mornings are still not for me.
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/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM 1334 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 01:49:32 PM 745 Views
Answering the survey myself... - 24/09/2010 02:04:39 PM 759 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM 744 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:20:45 PM 882 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:24:01 PM 767 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:14:52 PM 793 Views
We have a similar situation in Belgium. - 24/09/2010 02:32:25 PM 668 Views
It is all double dutch to me - 24/09/2010 02:41:41 PM 744 Views
Hah! - 24/09/2010 06:58:49 PM 829 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM 688 Views
That is rather sad to say the least. - 24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM 913 Views
Indeed - 24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM 734 Views
That's just Paris being a city of nasty people. - 24/09/2010 06:32:40 PM 879 Views
I never noticed that - 24/09/2010 07:05:18 PM 773 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM 808 Views
I didn't mean just in Sweden, or Scandinavia. - 24/09/2010 04:19:32 PM 801 Views
Well... - 24/09/2010 10:50:09 PM 699 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM 773 Views
Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM 717 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM 869 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM 780 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:21:24 PM 892 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 08:18:30 PM 754 Views
Re: Interesting. - 25/09/2010 08:02:30 PM 824 Views
American who just got a C+ on a French quiz reporting in. - 24/09/2010 06:09:31 PM 826 Views
What was it on? - 24/09/2010 06:22:35 PM 740 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 06:16:22 PM 685 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM 871 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM 860 Views
Real quick - 25/09/2010 12:03:51 PM 833 Views
Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose - 25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM 824 Views
Certainly it can. - 26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM 822 Views
You know, gen eds typically include a language. *NM* - 26/09/2010 07:28:57 PM 325 Views
Yes, but other things as well. - 26/09/2010 08:08:20 PM 760 Views
Interesting - 27/09/2010 03:14:00 AM 919 Views
Re: Interesting - 27/09/2010 11:04:37 AM 832 Views
You don't have to prove it's economically valid? - 27/09/2010 08:31:46 PM 855 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM 966 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM 888 Views
The amount of German is more surprising. - 25/09/2010 07:55:29 PM 644 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM 906 Views
They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages. - 26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM 756 Views
Aye, they should have. - 26/09/2010 12:26:51 PM 864 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM 800 Views

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