Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (105062)	2/27/2009 9:01:14 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542839

Whatever. My bottom line is that AP Spanish is not the place for fluent but illiterate students to become literate. It makes no sense to me to demand AP Spanish availability to deal with the problem of Spanish illiteracy. To the contrary, literacy in Spanish would be a prerequisite for taking AP Spanish. If these kids are not literate in Spanish, they need to take Spanish 3 and maybe 4, not an AP Spanish literature course, to achieve literacy. Doing otherwise makes a mockery of AP. Once they become literate in Spanish, if they have the smarts and an interest in the great works of Spanish literature or want cultural enrichment and training in analysis, then by all means take AP Spanish if it's available. But AP Spanish is not a solution to the illiteracy problem.

To: epicure who wrote (105062)	2/27/2009 10:26:32 PM
From: quehubo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542839

I studied hard through 4 semesters of College Spanish. I had two coworkers one from Colombia and another from Peru who I practiced with. I expected to be transfered to a project coastal Colombia (not far from Cartegena) so I was serious, if not gifted with languages. It was a very challenging and a very draining immersion. After about two months we had a contractor visit from Bogota, I heard him speaking and I thought that was the Spanish I learned in college. Anyway after 3-4 months for mental translating I started thinking in Spanish. Soon after I could sit in meetings and not be distracted by 2-3 people talking at once. I agree reading is something much different than just speaking. My proficiency was limited to a rather large vocabulary, but many words were technical. Reading and really comprehending fully literature, not in my lifetime. Even after two years in country speaking almost only Spanish in town and at work I wonder if I was hitting 80% understanding. In town with a local who rarely encounters a person who speaks Spanish as the second language, it was tough. Accents, idiomatic expressions, speed, etc. I wonder how many of these movies are BS with people able to convince others that they are local in many languages.