Has anybody else noticed how stupidly foreign language education is handled in the school system? I'm not saying that teaching foreign languages is a bad thing. I think that's a great thing for anyone to learn. But there are just an amazing amount of flaws in the way that it's taught.
When you learn your first language, what did you learn how to do first, talk or read/write? Talking, obviously. So why the hell do schools put so much emphasis on learning how to spell the words correctly and reading? I can sort of see where they're coming from. I mean after all, if you travel to a foreign country, you're going to want to be able to read the signs, but shouldn't that come after learning how to communicate with your fellow man? Isn't that the whole point, to build cultural bonds and all that other bullcrap?
And why the focus on grammar? Why do we learn the grammar AS we learn the language? Is knowing what exactly the sentence structure is CALLED really going to help me speak the language? No, not really. Shouldn't I learn how to say things first before I prepare to write a damn essay? That would seem to make sense to me.
Not to mention the fact that, in general, this is just a terrible way to learn a language. Taking tests on it and everything, I mean. That's just awful. That just makes you HATE the language. It's seen as WORK. Doesn't anyone else see anything horribly wrong with this?
Oh wait, I'm a student. I'm not allowed to have a real opinion.
The funny thing is, italian is the most slacker class, but miss giribaldi's approach to teaching the language is by far superior to that of the other classes. If you actually pay attention and care about the class, she is teaching you how to speak conversational Italian, the kind of thing you would hear in Italian cities/in movies. Sure, the class uses writing, but it's focused on the day to day language you would hear.
ReplyDeleteIn short, lol, you're in Spanish.