Yeah my high school said colleges would like for you to take a foreign language class, but it’s not required to graduate from here. Some students did think it was required to graduate and a couple I talked to at the time were surprised to learn I didn’t take any and still graduated.
People do go to the Caribbean and Mexico, because they are within close travel distance. Most Americans could not afford a transatlantic vacation. You can take your whole family to Florida for a week just on the cost you’d spend on airfare going to Europe. It’s like $1000 per person per flight, 12 hour+ flight, 8+ hour time difference. A $10,000+ vacation is really not in the average American’s budget.
At my high school you needed 2 communication credits, foreign languages counted, so did drama, journalism, year book, cheer squad (this always puzzled me as it was not even a class), and others I am sure I am forgetting as it was 30ish years ago.
11 states have foreign language requirements, but really we shouldn’t even count them. A single 20-30 minute class per day is not going to achieve any proficiency in a foreign language. The only way for an American child to actually achieve foreign language proficiency is to go to a 1/2 and 1/2 school.
I took 3 1/2 years of French in high school, but barely used it after graduation. I do wish we had more language learning in school.
In elementary school half of our day was taught in Spanish, but an ignorant parent (my mother) complained so loudly that the project was scrapped after only a couple months.
most Americans don’t need any foreign language to pass high school.
Yeah my high school said colleges would like for you to take a foreign language class, but it’s not required to graduate from here. Some students did think it was required to graduate and a couple I talked to at the time were surprised to learn I didn’t take any and still graduated.
And most don’t leave the country for vacations either
People do go to the Caribbean and Mexico, because they are within close travel distance. Most Americans could not afford a transatlantic vacation. You can take your whole family to Florida for a week just on the cost you’d spend on airfare going to Europe. It’s like $1000 per person per flight, 12 hour+ flight, 8+ hour time difference. A $10,000+ vacation is really not in the average American’s budget.
At my high school you needed 2 communication credits, foreign languages counted, so did drama, journalism, year book, cheer squad (this always puzzled me as it was not even a class), and others I am sure I am forgetting as it was 30ish years ago.
11 states have foreign language requirements, but really we shouldn’t even count them. A single 20-30 minute class per day is not going to achieve any proficiency in a foreign language. The only way for an American child to actually achieve foreign language proficiency is to go to a 1/2 and 1/2 school.
I took 3 1/2 years of French in high school, but barely used it after graduation. I do wish we had more language learning in school.
In elementary school half of our day was taught in Spanish, but an ignorant parent (my mother) complained so loudly that the project was scrapped after only a couple months.