Mandatory Arabic classes coming to Mansfield ISD

I've been working on my Russian lately, might prove helpful as we've doing lots of exchange missions with the Ukraine lately.

The problem is...what if the parent or the child hates arabic?  ^*

If it were elective it would have been fine. If there were atleast 13 other choices to choose from it were fine. But forcing all those kids to learn a language that they'll probably never use or care about?

The same problem applies to any mandatory language courses that don't let you choose the language...it will always be biased towards the speakers of the language.

edited 8th Feb '11 7:59:17 PM by Signed

@Barkey: Isn't Germany also working with the Ukraine? I heard something that the Ukrainian military was stepping up security around the Chernobyl NPP in preparation for construction there.

I'm not sure. The last mission I heard about was one a friend of mine in Personnel went on. She's an extremely knowledgeable Senior NCO, but it wasn't for Security stuff. It was for administrative advice.

They probably won't want my skillset for the actual exercise itself, but we've sent Ravens on each mission, and having one that speaks the local language would be invaluable. We only have one person on the base who is fluent.

But yeah, off-topic.

It would interesting to see more widespread tutelage in Pashtu, Turkic languages or Urdu, as obscure as they sometimes appear. Just saying.

I don't think making one language mandatory is a good idea. Requiring foreign language is, though. I feel that everyone should at least learn a bit about another language, because it does give a better understanding of one's own language.

I took 2 years of German in high school (loved the class, and I do have a knack for language) and both learning the cultural aspects of Germany and the language was fun as hell. I think schools should offer a range of languages, and not make a certain one mandatory.

I would like to learn Arabic though, and Russian, Swedish, and maybe Spanish. Not so much for practical uses, but to try and score with foreign chicks.

The only problem I have is that the US doesn't have an official language. For no other reason that it should be pretty obvious to pick at least one, preferably the one most widely used.

I've seen arguments for and against, in Europe and America, requiring multiple languages within a state.

I wish I could learn Spanish and Portugese. South America is being quiet for a reason I am sure of it.

Being Finnish, we already have 2 mandatory foreign languages: English starts at 3rd grade (at the latest) and Swedish starts at the 7th grade (at the latest), which is also when you're encouraged/required (depends on the school whether or not it's mandatory) to start a third foreign language, usually either German, Russian, or French.

English and Swedish runs to the end of mandatory education (9th grade is the last grade of mandatory), but almost everyone goes to vocational school or high school, and both of those include 2 or 3 more years of mandatory English and Swedish, plus most take a 3rd or 4th foreign language in high school.

Gotta love that we still have mandatory Swedish because we used to be part of Sweden until we were annexed by Russia (in 1809). They still haven't got round to removing it or making it elective, but yeah, it's only been 200 years.

There's a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. It numbers about 300 000 people, or 5.5% of the population, so of course everyone else has to learn Swedish. Of course, they're also required to learn Finnish, except that some of them aren't and they can do everything in Swedish because our law requires that all public officials have to be fluent in Swedish just for these 5.5%.

Off-topic, but I thought another country's language policy might give this thread some perspective (not that it necessarily requires it).

Read some of the comments on that article:

I say we drop a big bomb over there blow them all up and eliminate them and their language!! And anyone who agrees with them or is "tolerable" of their ways send them there to so we can blow them up as well, then we take the oil and be done with it!!!

This is ridculous and unacceptable!! I have 6 and 8 year old children and I will pull then out of any scholl they go to that tries to teach my children anything about arabs!!! They took God out of the schools now they wanna put Allah in them- over my dead body will my children be taught anything about them except to stay away from them and that they cant be trusted!! Have we forgotten about 9-11??? Their "Bible", their Quran teaches that if they cannot convert a person to the Islamic Religion, they are to "kill the infidels"! People say all of the time, well there are Muslims that don't believe that...they are "moderate" Muslims....if they are true Muslims, they are not moderate! Not only that, they want the whole world under Sharia Law....which stones women to death if they are caught in an adulterous affair....they kill their own children if they become too Westernized and call it an honor killing. My children will NEVER be taught this!!! We are Christians and if my kids cant talk about God at school then I will never allow them to be taught about this!!! This country is going to "hell in a handbasket" First they take God out- which this country was based on God!! Then they want to teach of evolution, then they want to tell our children to accept homosexuality and that it's ok and now they want to teach about Arabs... God is going to turn His back on us yet!!!!

edited 9th Feb '11 10:38:25 AM by BestOf

-just in-

Apparently it's not mandatory anymore.

Good. Though I wish Arabic were an option when I was in high school. That or Latin. Of course, the problem isn't desire, but finding qualified folks to teach it.

I think by this point in time, everyone in the US should know some Spanish. The fact that we're an English speaking country has us at a disadvantage; wee should be bi-lingual from the get-go. Nothing pisses me off more than one of my countrymen going to a foreign country and getting pissed because the people there don't speak English.

Good for the school.

At least in California, most people do. I mean, technically, you could do most things (even talk to government officials) entirely in Spanish. You might get weird looks, but it's entirely possible.

I keep asking my sister why the hell she took Latin. Unless she plans on working for the Vatican or becoming a wizard....

I'd like to study Latin, too, but I'm not going to pretend that there's a very practical reason. I mean, it DOES help you understand some of the logic behind English and is a great help in learning French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, but it's generally not a good idea to learn a language just to help you learn another one (though that's one of the justifications for forcing Finnish kids to learn Swedish: "It helps you learn English better", even when we start English 3 years earlier than Swedish).

I just like Latin, and to really complete my English to the level I dream of, there's no way I could avoid learning German and Latin, and some French. Otherwise, there's too many parts of the language that don't make sense. (I'm currently doing a course (History of the English language) that explains plenty of the stuff about the lack of logic in certain aspects of the English language; currently, we're learning the grammar of Old English.)

Of course there's a practical advantage to it - you can creep out folks with Ominous Latin Chanting. That, and you can read Cicero, Jerome or a Papal bull in the original, thus understanding it better. But mostly the first.

Learning Spanish helped me when I went to Italy; I was able to pick up bits and pieces. Then I got older and learned languages that have little to nothing with each other. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian.

Don't say it....

I'm doing a history of the English language class too, it's very interesting.

OT: I guess less people will be complaining anymore since it's no longer mandatory.

edited 9th Feb '11 11:09:09 AM by rmctagg09

Regarding teaching Mandarin Chinese: China has plenty of foresight, it seems.

Arabic isn't as useful as people think unless you were going into some kind of national security job. There isn't much growth potential in the Arab world, except maybe in Morocco and possibly Tunisia, but French would work just as well there.

Spanish and Portuguese are legitimately useful though and rather similar (so the other gets easier if you know one). You could learn both Spanish and Portuguese in half the time it takes to learn Mandarin. There's some degree of growth potential in Brazil, and good growth in parts of Latin America (like Mexico and Colombia).

I'll admit Portuegese is useful because of Brazil, but it'll do nothing for you in any other country but Portugal, which is fairly small.

Arabic is spoken by many in some of the most resource regions of the world and by significant populations throughout Asia.

Well, North African and West Asian Arabic is pretty much mutually unintelligible. I mean, the Gulf States certainly have wealth, but there's very little growth opportunity as their oil reserves become more scarce and oil becomes simply less useful.

Saudi Arabia has socked a lot of money away and is planning for the future. Their soverign wealth fund is larger than the GDP of some island nations.

Plus I'm not entirely convinced Iran won't do something stupid in the not-distant enough future.

Arabic seems like an odd choice, but whatevs.

In all honesty, I wish I could learn Arabic. But I simply have no talent for learning other languages. Or I'd pick up Spanish, Chinese, and Dutch too.