This is a good one isn’t it.

I don’t think so. Learning a foreign language is certainly a good way of extending your horizons, the real question (for someone whose first language is English) is which one should you learn? From England (and yes I mean England) the easiest country to get to is France and so learning French is perhaps the logical choice. My wife learnt German at school which enabled her to do her university industrial placement in Germany, which she could not have done otherwise.

Today in multi-cultural Britain the languages that it might be most useful to understand would be Polish, an Indian language (Urdu, Hindi … I don’t know which would be best) and maybe Chinese. When I was at school after French and German the available foreign languages were Spanish and then Latin. Where I work I exchange greetings with a couple of my colleages in French and with many of our agency staff in the four words of Polish I now know. So you might say that learning French wasn’t really that useful as it isn’t one of the languages I now wish I spoke a lot of.

The Poles and other nationaities that have recently come to work in Britain are here not only because they can get work here but also because they can speak at least some English. Learning a foreign language has certainly worked for them. I am at present improving my Chinese above the fifteen to twenty words I know, you never know when it will come in useful.

All learning is a good thing and it is impossible to tell what will be the most important things to know in the future, and so I think a broad education is a good thing. Without the ability to communicate on equal terms with the rest of the world our industry is going to find things hard. The basis for anyone studying foreign languages at an advanced level is everyone learning a foreign language at school.

Sorry this has been a bit rambling.

Summary – No it isn’t pointless.

Look at the internet site of the schools you’re occupied with, beneath anything like Admissions or Prospective Students, and there might be data on prime institution direction ideas or standards. You could ought to seek for a bit of. Colleges appear to be bumping up the language standards, however a few are nonetheless two years. When it states *encouraged*, that is what they quite wish to look, even though the genuine mentioned requirement is much less. What will you are taking as a substitute? Maybe if you are taking anything in the direction of your target of fitting a scientist or engineer as a substitute of German, for a university that calls for two years or recommends three years of 1 international language, so as to suffice. Ask your institution’s university counselor. Good good fortune!

I learned another language in school so I personally don’t believe it is always pointless. But if your experience is that students just refuse to take up a new language, it is probably because the language is forced on them or required as a credit. The “Mother Tongue” is always more comfortable so people naturally lapse to what they know. I’ve been through total immersion classes and they can be incredibly slow and frustrating to get through. Unless someone studies a language for several years or is highly motivated to learn over a shorter period of time, they will not begin to “think” in that new language and revert back to the Mother tongue. This is why I think President Bush is mistaken when he believes that teaching illegal aliens English is going to be easy. I live on the Mexican border where my town is over 90% Hispanic. Many here who speak Spanish as a first language feel no incentive to learn English because they don’t have to here. They are surrounded by others who speak Spanish and learning a new language takes more effort that many are willing to put out. They limit themselves and their upward mobility by adopting this stance, but many don’t care and do just enough to get by. Staying local all their lives is fine for them. Not everyone is ambitious enough to become fluent or at least functionally conversant in more than their own first language.

I also think that we as Americans are somewhat spoiled in that we are not surrounded by so many different languages, as the Europeans are. Europeans find it standard to speak two or more language with ease. I believe Americans should do more to improve our understanding of other cultures by adopting that point of view as well, but we have to see more examples of people around us doing that.

no, i dont think it is pointless, although i did not have my schools in an english speaking country. back in my place, we are encouraged to learn at least three languages, being english, malay (our official/national language) and our mother tongue (mine’s chinese). i have always pride myself in being able to speak more than one languages and it proves to be very useful. people just go wowwww when i first arrived in australia.

i understand that these are languages that can be put to use in my country whereas chances of using a foreign language in an english speaking country are not so obvious, but it will become so when you are out in the workforce and it is a competitive advantage. it is also a way you can learn others’ cultures not to mention it will be so useful too when you go traveling etc.

There is nothing pointless about it. Most other countries require their children to learn a foreing language. To do business in the world economy we should be learning at least one other language fluently in our life times. Not only does it offer the practical advantage of being able to communicate with someone from another country, it offers us insights into their culture and also into our own language. Lord knows, grammar on this site is a testament to how badly we need more insight into our own language….

Teaching a foreign language is not pointless – it teaches people to think differently and increases their understanding of other cultures.

it is not pointless ; it exposes people to other cultures. You cannot understand another country and its people unless you can speak their language.

There are lots of pointless subjects in schools but languages is not one of them. It should be compulsory from grade one.

Where do you think foreign languages should be taught?

No, teaching you spelling is pointless…