The way you use the words 'need' and 'useful' says to me that you see no benefit to learning another language beyond its immediate practicality in using it to communicate with someone who does not speak english .... but i tell you true Lino, there is a lot more benefit to it than that .... i've got quite a verbal rap to support that point, no time to type it in now, not sure it would translate over anyway, but trust me on this - there is more to it, often weakly summed up as 'broadening the horizons', but that's more than cliché, it got to be a truism because it's true .... once you get your mind well started on this branch of learning, other facets open up ... for one thing, you automatically get much better at the language with which you started out, in the process of picking up another ... it's not like learning your mother tongue, it's a door to a whole new thing .... ah, i can't explain it, got to go soon
Is it 'social structuring' to mandate language in an education system - sure it is ... we mandate english, don't we, and rightly so - communication is basic to a society .... remember that all parent-child relationship is inherently dictatorial, it can be no other way .... french immersion here in BC has been a superior education for kids, i know parents who have moved from where they felt attached, to get their kids into it .... i would definitely make compulsory in the system two languages minimum, i think you're right though in that french need not be one of them this far west ..... cheers |
