@erikah thats a good one. You are right about the British (I'm not one by the way.) My German language tutor did a thesis on the learning abilities of his students from all over the world. He found that his Eastern European students picked up German very quickly. His Spanish and French were quick as well. Irish were in their bracket. But the English and Americans were disasters. The reason being is that the Brits learn no second language. The rest of the countries are made learn ENglish, Russian, SPanish. Even the IRish have their own native language and hence that is the reason that we are with the other Europeans. The German lecturer concluded that you may as well be teaching Chinese to the British as they have no prior knowledge of grammar structure so they are learning from the start. The Eastern European has already learned 2 lanaguages by the time they reach secondary school. Mad isn't it.
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Those who have never learnt another language most likely are terrible learners as it must be difficult for them.
It is not mad at all. You know my mother tongue is Hungarian and the official language here is Romanian. So in the first grade we had both Hungarian and Romanian classes. Then in the second grade we picked up French, then in the fifth grade we started to learn Russian. That is four languages at the age of 10. Is that mad? For us it was normal as that was a must. Then later I started learning English and Italian. Now I can speak 4 languages and when I am asked about it, people think I'm lying.
There is a saying in Hungarian, that you are as many persons as many languages you speak. This may sound stupid, but there's a lot of truth in it.
I meant more mad that the English only learn one. Yeah a bouple of my romanian friends have 4 or more. Very impressive
Whose fault it is if the English only learn one? The education system, parents, the child's, the child once they are old enough to choose for themselves, the entire country?
I'd say it's a gift to have been pushed to learn more languages, not a source of frustration.
The country. The Rule Britainia mentality. They do have a choices of languages in secondary school but they are not that bothered. The time to learn a language is before the age of 9. It just doesn't happen there.
Got it. Thanks. I didn't expect you to respond so fast! I had added a comment to my first reply that I think it's a gift to be pushed to learn multiple language. It may be tougher as student, but the lifelong benefits seem to be worth it.
Working from home so my Im getting Hive notifications . haha. They should have a (usually replies within 5 seconds ) thing on my posts. :-D