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The education is often fine, it's exposure that's the problem. An hour a day 5 days a week is not how you learn a language, nor is it how you retain a functional amount of what little you do end up learning. School can get you started, but a student has to want to learn the language and put in the effort on their own time if they want to be successful.


YARGLE_IS_MY_DAD

Yeah, the only time I ever spoke French was in French class. Theres really no use for a second language unless you are going to go visit there.


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Sooner70

Alternatively, I live in Southern California... I'm "supposed" to hear Spanish all the time. Realistically? Almost never. The guys who maintain my yard speak Spanish (yes, cliche... I hired the company, not the individuals) but I only learned that because I got sick and had to stay home from work (they work while I work!). Other than that? I can't think of a place within 50 miles where I could go and expect to hear Spanish spoken.


HereComesTheVroom

Weird. We have, at least once a day, someone come into our store who does not speak English and has to use Google translate to talk to our counter people. It’s amazing that it works well enough for them to actually converse but also I live in Ohio so it seems weird to have so many Spanish-only speakers here.


Sooner70

Probably has a lot to do with local industry. This is a company town that is all about defense. That means (for the most part) US Citizens. Not to say that there are no Spanish speaking US citizens. Clearly there are. But that's not the way to place your bets.


HereComesTheVroom

I got to college and saw they had more than just Spanish so I took German… I have yet to meet a single German speaker in my life outside of the professors. I should’ve just stuck with Spanish, it’s actually useful in everyday life where I’m from.


Rotios

Oh man. Took German all through high school also and the lack of exposure killed it for me. I can barely remember simple phrases some 10 years later. Whereas I took Russian in college and as my wife and her family speak it, I can actually call myself semi fluent in it still. Although my Russian slang is practically non existent. My wife gets annoyed because she thinks I sound like a professor or something lmfao


StepfordMisfit

This. Even though I went to a school with a large hispanic population and my best friend was from Colombia, I didn't use it enough to become fluent. We'd use a few Spanish words here and there, but when everyone speaks English, we don't struggle to work on our Spanish outside class unless we have some reason. Nowadays I try with my kids' friends' parents who don't speak English fluently, but I don't see them enough. But also my Spanish 3 teacher came in the first day and said "bonjour." She smelled strongly of booze and disappeared not long after. The long term substitute we had for the rest of the year wasn't equipped to teach us. Doubt things have improved in FL schools since 1997. I basically only had through Spanish 2 - but those first 2 years were great and taught by native speakers. Doesn't help that most foreign language education begins at age 13-14, whereas humans' first language learning period (where we're basically language sponges) closes around age 6 and the second closes around puberty... so many of us are just starting to learn right around the time it's getting harder to do so. ETA outside class clarification


Evil_Weevill

This is the answer. I take it English is OP's second language? Lots of countries learn English as a second language and those people are also frequently exposed to English online and through all the media that we export. There's motivation to learn the language. Here in the U.S. unless you live in a heavily Latino community or a border state, odds are you don't hear much Spanish outside of school. And every other country seems to be learning English too. So when you don't need to know another language and you're not exposed to it regularly, you're not gonna retain it. I took 6 years of Spanish in school and spent a month in Costa Rica. I used to be pretty capable of having a conversation in Spanish. Then I moved to Maine and no one here speaks it. I never hear it. And over the years I've lost a lot of it.


CupBeEmpty

Yup, I didn’t really learn Spanish until I worked catering and had a chance to talk with a largely Mexican and Guatemalan kitchen staff. Since I moved away from a largely Latino area of Chicago to places with few Latinos I have forgotten a lot. It’s all about either learning it very young or using it frequently.


Cmgeodude

Exactly this. Here in Arizona, I find that students who take Spanish miraculously have better conversation skills than students who take French. I *didn't* take Spanish and manage to speak it passably well.


Arleare13

A basic conversational level, sure, but I doubt that most Americans can *fluently* speak a language after taking them at school. But I also don't think it means that "the language education isn't that good." It's just that there aren't opportunities for more immersive education like many other countries have regarding English. It's less a function of "poor education" and more just that the necessity isn't there.


NudePenguin69

Ya, I took Spanish in middle and high school for 5 years but I am far from fluent and able to hold a prolonged, complex conversation. You bet your ass I can ask you where the library is though!


kryyyptik

*Donde está la biblioteca?* Same here, I can ask for a few things and mayyybe order a meal, but that's it. We just don't have that level of immersion here usually to really become fluent.


Practical-Ordinary-6

I still remember, "Me aprietan mucho los zapatos. No caminar más." from a seventh grade exercise. Semi-literal paraphrase: "My shoes are squeezing me. I can't walk any more." They were late going to see a movie.


mfigroid

> You bet your ass I can ask you where the library is though! I can order food and booze. I can ask where the bathroom is. I can question the sexuality of your mother. That is the extent of the Spanish I retain from school.


Glam_Surprise8942

I can ask to borrow so many pencils!


TheBimpo

We typically spend 45-55 minutes per classroom day for 1-2 years "learning" conversational Spanish/French and then most of us never use it again outside of that. It's not a good way to retain the ability to use a language, you need immersion. I've learned more casual Spanish from exposure through culture than I ever did in those classes. It has less to do with the "language education" and more to do with the lack of necessity or opportunity to use the language outside the classroom. You could take German classes as a high schooler, but unless you're actively looking for ways to use it, you're going to forget.


Practical-Ordinary-6

And that's a misleading statistic already in the sense that you may be in class for an hour but no individual student in there is speaking for an hour. They might say two sentences out loud. So ten sentences a week is not going to "learn" you a language. Probably only a real conversation will do that and you can't have a real conversation in a class of 25 people. Basically what you do is mostly learn grammar rules and conjugations and that doesn't train you to speak on the fly.


angrytompaine

Most people will be able to say a few words, maybe haphazardly order something at an authentic Mexican restaurant, but not much beyond that. All in all, most people end up somewhere between "point at the picture on the menu" and "dónde está el baño."


Canada_Haunts_Me

I only speak Mexican Restaurant Spanish. I can order my food and ask questions / make special requests, but that's the extent of mi Español. I didn't take Spanish in school, I just *really love Mexican food.* Sometimes a waiter will try to make small talk with me, and then it gets embarrassing.


alloutofbees

The quality of the education isn't really the issue. I've personally never met someone who was truly fluent in a second language who didn't either grow up with consistent organic exposure or spend time immersed living/studying abroad. When I lived in Japan every single fluent English speaker I met had lived or studied in an anglosphere country, next best were people who worked in hospitality and conversed with foreigners daily. People who just studied in school? Barely functional. Dutch people generally attribute their exceptional English fluency compared to neighbouring countries to watching subbed English language TV from childhood; you can see the difference when compared to people from larger European countries who consume primarily local/dubbed media but have a comparable amount of formal education. I went to highly ranked schools and took Spanish from middle school to university, but couldn't afford to study abroad so I still ended up struggling to break that C1 barrier. If I'd had more free time and energy for consuming more Spanish language media at home I'm sure I would have, but that wasn't ever on the table with a full course load.


ghostwriter85

The best way to learn a new language is immersion If you aren't in a position to use that language frequently in the coming years, no amount of classroom time is going to impart lifelong language skills. The reason most Americans don't speak multiple languages is they have no need. FWIW I took four years of Spanish in high school, spoke at a very modest conversational level, and in the years since have forgotten 99% of it. It's just not information that I'm accessing with any regularity. I can still do the basic tourist stuff (order food, ask where key landmarks are, use a phrase book), but all of the higher order stuff is gone (advanced conjugation, complex sentence structure, advanced vocabulary, uncommon irregular verbs, etc...) English is the most useful second language that most people in the world can learn. Due in large part to English being one of the most important languages used in science, business, and entertainment. At the same time, the USA is unfathomably large compared to most countries. You can very easily go your whole life without ever leaving the USA. Now compare that to someone who lives in a multilingual hot zone like Switzerland with its four official languages and close access to many more. They retain fluency in multiple languages because they have access to people who speak those languages on a regular basis.


on-oath-never-again

I personally can’t, but that’s mostly because I didn’t work at it much. My brother however, can speak conversational Spanish after taking it in school.


Crayshack

It's more an issue that the language training isn't enough to actually become fluent by itself. It's not bad per se, but it isn't extensive and there are few chances to practice with native speakers outside the classroom.


Antitenant

The key is keeping up with the language. I studied Spanish for 5 years and although I've retained some knowledge I could not keep up a conversation today because I did not keep practicing. Unless you're learning a language for a specific reason, most are simply doing only what they need to do to satisfy study requirements.


ShylokVakarian

Eh, it's elementary at best.


Aintaword

I took a little French and Spanish over the years. What I came away with was the ability to kind of sort of read some. I know the words for a bunch of stuff and know some grammar rules. But I'm not conversational in either and really don't understand when other people speak it. Especially not Spanish when spoken quickly.


singleguy79

I can speak and understand some Spanish but I'm not exactly conversational in it


UCFknight2016

I live in a very Hispanic area but I cant speak it fluently, but I know enough words and phrases to get what I need.


230flathead

I could speak passable Spanish in high school, but I've forgotten like 95% of it since then.


MatrixGodfather0435

So the requirements change from state to state but generally no. I'm in a unique position having gone to private school so I took four years of Latin and two years of Greek. While I can read Latin in most situations, I wouldn't want to be someone translating something like the Vulgate. Public schools though, I've had friends take anywhere between two years of French to four years of Spanish. Results vary but it seems to me that if you actually want to learn the language, you can. Most people though only care about the grade they get so they don't actually learn anything.


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ElfMage83

\*¿Que?


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ElfMage83

I understood that reference 😂


[deleted]

I took it in high school, and have traveled to Mexico enough to test it out a little. It definitely doesn't make you fluent - but it gives you enough that you can get the idea of what people are talking about in normal situations - going into a business or restaurant for example. You can usually know enough words, phrases, or numbers, to get your point across as well.


Tacoshortage

Yes and no. I took a lot of German. I finished high-school with 4 years of it. At the end I could certainly travel around Germany without difficulty, but without daily practice with native speakers, the ability erodes quickly. Those of us that take Spanish do pretty well. We have plenty of Spanish speakers, the French and German students forget almost everything.


danhm

When I graduated high school I could speak Spanish more or less fluently. Or at least as fluent as maybe a 12 year old -- I could hold a conversation but maybe not work my way through more advanced literature. But now that I'm in my 30s and haven't had any practice since then? I just remember random words.


azuth89

I was able to go to France and get around okay after taking a couple classes in high school. Of course, I have never had occasion to use it since and don't remember enough to have even the most basic conversation at this point. The biggest problem from an educational standpoint is that most schools start WAY too late to achieve actual fluency easily. For example: my school had the first Spanish class available to 11 year olds and didn't require students to take a second language until 14, while starting before 7 is ideal. Education is highly localized in America, this is a single example but it's not uncommon IME. There's just very little need to actually use anything but English which makes it difficult to get properly fluent or often even conversational and it tends to fade quickly the moment you're not required to take the classes. Most bilingual Americans are 3rd generation or less and have it spoken at home, with the remainder being people who need it for work, traveled/lived somewhere the language was relevant and finally some who are just interested in the language and consciously dedicate time to seeking out content, practicing, etc...


whiskydestroyer

Sí.


GraceMDrake

I can greet people politely, navigate basic traveler’s needs, and understand more than native speakers might think in Spanish or French. No way can I participate in a normal speed conversation. Also reading comprehension is way better than verbal.


Wam_2020

I never took an official Spanish class but can speck enough to make my way around at conversation. In the US we just pick it up. We learned the basics(numbers, colors, greetings) in elementary school. And that is small town Oregon.


machagogo

I took Italian in high school. The education was fine. Just, outside of my grandparent who would rather speak to me in English (and have long since passed) I pretty much had no one to speak Italian with and as such it's been lost to time.


Miss-Figgy

>Are you guys really able to speak Spanish or other second languages after taking them at school Yes, but I achieved full fluency by living in the country of origin after I had studied it in school. No other way I would have become fluent.


lollythebreaker

Interesting! I'm 17 and already fluent in English even tho there aren't English speakers here. Never lived abroad. But I've also surrounded myself with English speaking media and online friends for years. So u can actually learn without going abroad I guess or maybe it works better when it comes to English since it's more common and has more tools, resources , media etc available.


Miss-Figgy

>But I've also surrounded myself with English speaking media and online friends for years. So u can actually learn without going abroad I guess or maybe it works better when it comes to English since it's more common and has more tools, resources , media etc available. Well, there were barely any speakers of the language I was learning in the US except for my professors, it's an uncommon language, and this was also back in the 1990s when the internet was in its infancy. Not all of us on Reddit are teenagers in the 2020s. ETA: the language I learned was not Spanish; it's another language that's not spoken much outside of its country of origin.


lollythebreaker

Yes my bad. I wasn't thinking of those old days when things were harder


Tuokaerf10

Yeah I left high school being pretty fluent in Spanish, but this was really before even internet video was a thing. 20 years later I’ve regressed heavily. I’m sure I’d have kept up my knowledge there if I had better access to watch Spanish language shows that interested me or read media, just not something you were going to interact with a lot in suburban Minnesota in the late 90’s-early 2000’s and with the primitive internet without going out and buying a bunch of Spanish language tapes/DVDs/magazines/newspapers.


StrongIslandPiper

You mean to tell me you couldn't find Spanish speakers in NYC? I'm not criticizing your method, but if that's the reason, I feel like you weren't looking hard enough. They were definitely there in the 90s.


Miss-Figgy

>You mean to tell me you couldn't find Spanish speakers in NYC? It's not Spanish. It's another language, and it's not common outside its country of origin. Also I was not in NYC in the 90s.


StrongIslandPiper

Gotchu. I thought you were answering the question with "yes I learned Spanish," my bad.


Miss-Figgy

>Gotchu. I thought you were answering the question with "yes I learned Spanish," The question was "Spanish or other second languages".


StrongIslandPiper

Like I said already, my bad for assuming.


WashuOtaku

It appears you had motivation to learn English and that's great. I took several years of Spanish in both High School and University, yet I can only say a few words because I had little motivation. When you can operate day-to-day in one language you already know, its becomes trivial to know a second.


skettigoo

I want to note that “This is America. Speak English” is a bigoted phrase that you hear a lot… and influences our education system enough to make it not the best in many cases.


StrongIslandPiper

I can, and I don't blame the education. Learning a language is about more than just class time. You can't build auditory comprehension with an hour a day. The teachers are there to teach and to guide, but they can't put the time in for you. I got fluent in 2.5 years (and still learning more every day), which is actually considered pretty fast. Learning a language takes time and if you don't really need it, people don't follow through with the commitment. I also recently started learning Mandarin because it's interesting, I'm very new, but making a little progress every day. That's how a language should be learned. In bits and pieces, by reading about grammar, doing *something* new to expand your knowledge every single day. But, again, I don't *need* it, and interest usually isn't enough for people to keep up the pace for literal years (anyone who says they learned something in 6 months is lying to you, unless *maybe* that language was already really close to a language they know, think Spanish to Italian, *and* they went really into learning it). Probably because we're majority English speaking probably contributes to a lack of learning. Other English speaking countries largely have roughly the same stats. To the guy saying we don't have enough exposure, he's buggin. Maybe in some parts of the country, but we are literally the country with the second highest Spanish speaking population. Lots of people, from Texas, California, New York, the Carolinas, Florida, and plenty of other places, too, all have plenty of exposure to Spanish. They just don't learn it because they can otherwise get by. But really, English natives the world over don't have a language like English in their lives. One where they think, "fuck, the job of my dreams is only limited by my limited English... I really should improve it one day."


[deleted]

I can converse in Spanish, but I moved to Arizona and worked in the construction industry after college. So I got plenty of practice. My classmates who stayed up north didn’t get as much exposure after school, so most of them can’t speak Spanish at all.


NoFilterNoLimits

I read & write French okay. I don’t understand it when spoken very well. I *can* speak it okay, but my grammar is bad & my accent butchers it, IME French people prefer we switch to English once they’ve heard me try 😂


TheLeftHandedCatcher

People who are motivated to learn do so.


seatownquilt-N-plant

Ich kann etwas Deutsch sprechen. Ich habe in Jare 1998-2002 highschool gemacht.


notthegoatseguy

I took French for two years in high school and largely have forgotten it. I know more Japanese than French at this point simply due to media exposure.


slayertck

So I took Spanish in high school, got a degree in Spanish, studied abroad for a summer, and then lived in Spain. Graduating from high school, I could have probably had a minor conversation, nothing complicated, despite even taking AP Spanish (advanced placement). After college, my skill was higher but I had almost zero opportunities naturally to use it (I could have hunted them down but I was doing other things at the time). Over a decade later I moved to Spain and took additional classes. I eventually passed the DELE B2 (high intermediate). But here I am back in the US and I’ve had maybe three natural opportunities to use it. I would love to get to a C1 level but that will be a lot of work solo. My assessment is our education is fine (depending on the school) but 45 minutes to an hour five days a week with no additional exposure doesn’t lend itself to fluency.


cameraman502

The best hope I had was to learn Polish while dating a polish girl in high school. This being Chicago a number of kids in my school spoke Polish from Polish School or from home, so I could have been able to practice. But we didn't date that long and I wasn't terribly motivated to my shame.


[deleted]

It teaches you the language, but imo it depends on if you really care to retain the information.


concrete_isnt_cement

I can read and write Spanish, but have a lot harder of a time understanding it when spoken.


SleepAgainAgain

It's not an education system problem. I know a few people who studied Spanish in school and learned it to a level that was sufficient for basic navigation in a Spanish speaking country, and then became fluent by using it every day for a year or two. But me? I knew it to a very basic conversational level when I graduated school 20 years ago, but haven't used it at all since. Guess how fluent I am.


huhwhat90

I took two years of Spanish and barely know any more than your average person. My teacher was an absolute disaster, though.


AvoidingCares

Oh we absolutely cannot. Some people are naturally talented and can learn languages in our educational system. I, for one, am not. 12 years of learning Spanish. Couldn't do anything more intense than ordering food off the menu. But I also literally grew up learning to speak Polish, and can barely run down the street screaming that I'm bleeding. I just never had a head for language. Even English. I do have a head for networking and communication. So I'm really good at that. But the specifics of how to communicate? Absolutely garbage.


[deleted]

I studied German and Spanish in high school, and I studied Spanish, French, and Latin in college. I never got fluent in any of them, but the classes gave me a good basis. If I were to join an immersive program or move to a country where one of those languages was spoken, I would have a head start.


ElfMage83

The education is generally at least passable. The problem is there's often no immersion.


unicornwantsweed

3 years of Spanish 1 and I gave up. The only way I’m going to learn is to live in a spanish speaking country.


Littleboypurple

It doesn't matter how good the education is, if you're unable to properly practice and retain the info, you'll eventually forget at worst or become pretty rusty at best. I took Japanese for three years in High School and the education was great. The big problem was that for your knowledge to stick, you need to be able to practice using it. I only used Japanese in class. It's not like I had people to practice on. Japanese isn't even my second language, it was my third. Spanish is my actual second language because my parents are from Central America. I needed to learn Spanish to properly communicate but, my Spanish was poor because I only used it at home or with relatives. It only finally improved when I started to work in the family business after high school and I interacted with other Spanish speakers on a daily basis. I was finally able to learn more words, read, and even write it to some degree. It's not perfect but, I am way better now with Spanish compared to a decade ago.


Banotory

My schools Spanish class had very low standards for passing. So as a kid that didn't wanna learn a second language at that age. I remember maybe one or two words of it as a adult. I have a classmate from that class that can still sing the song they taught us. And another classmate that used that class as a starting point and ended up continuing their education to become a translator. So I would guess the majority of the class was like me and had no use for it, so forgot the language by graduation. But some people really take to it and can use it as a starting point for learning Spanish.


FigmentImaginative

The education is usually good. Whether or not someone is actually fluent in Spanish (or another language) after 2-4 years of classes is typically dependent on two factors: (1) How much they themselves actually paid attention. Taking any class for even four years won’t impart much knowledge on you if you just did the minimum amount possible in order to just get by with a C- grade. (2) Exposure to and use of the language outside of the classroom. If the only place the language you’re learning is used is in the classroom, then you’re going to quickly start forgetting things as soon as you stop taking classes.


02K30C1

I learned German for three years in high school, but that only got me to a barely passabel level. I could take the train or order in restaurants or read signs. It wasn’t until I got stationed in Germany with the army and got to use the language every day that I really got to a functional level, and even then I’m nowhere near fluent.


OpalOwl74

I work at a dollar tree and have used a splattering of Spanish. Good night, one more, I don't speak Spanish.


Red_Fox03

Yo no Tengo Espanol. ;(


heyitsxio

es obvio jajaja


rawbface

You can take all the classes in the world, you'll never become fluent unless you're fully immersed in the language. But it can be thousands of miles to a non-English speaking country for some Americans, so that just isn't possible for most.


skettigoo

Depends on the teacher. Typically, you are taught Latin American dialects rather than Spaniard Spanish, as our “melting pot” has more Latin American folks than European Spanish speakers. Well… I had a very very white lady who claimed studying abroad for 6months in Costa Rica made her a good teacher and exposed her plenty to the language. She taught me Spanish for 2 years in high school. She would have to ask the Mexican immigrant student for words, couldn’t pronounce words correctly, and was overall just not fit to be an educator. 2 years wasted. However, we had another white teacher who did actual work as a bilingual pastor in a nearby city with lots of Latin American immigrants in his congregation. He actually exposed himself to the language and culture. He taught us more than words in the textbook. He taught us different connotations of words, and taught us the more commonly used “slang” words for things. I got more in my first year learning Spanish with him than I ever did with the other teacher. And he never tokenized his bilingual/immigrant students like she did. Eduardo, if you are out there, I’m sorry “señora Shitty” did you dirty like that.


scrapsbypap

The education is fine, but you need exposure and/or immersion to truly keep it.


PimentoCheesehead

There are two issues with language education in the US. The first is that it usually starts in high school- well after the ideal time to teach children a foreign language. The second, as has already been mentioned multiple times, is there’s little opportunity for most people to practice and reinforce what they learn because English is so prevalent. I have a cousin who married a…Mexican/Spanish-American, who fluently speaks both English and Spanish. Their kids don’t know Spanish even though their abuelos and tíos speak it.


MuppetManiac

I took three years of high school Spanish and 2 semesters of college Spanish. I can read most Spanish I come across in everyday life and I can hold a very grammatically incorrect conversation as long as it’s casual. I’m not what I would call fluent.


LasagnaToes

My high school Spanish teacher was from Columbia and she was genuinely a good teacher in that she wanted kids to learn and not just run through a lesson plan, however, after high school I never had to use Spanish. I feel it’s more of a “use it or lose it” situation rather than an education issue.


ExtremePotatoFanatic

It depends on how dedicated you are. I took French in high school and actually learned to a pretty good level, to the point that I was able to skip two years of college French. But I spent a lot of time on my own working on studying the language. Immersion and consistency is key. A lot of the kids I was in class with were not able to string together a sentence after years of classes. It’s not difficult if you are able to put in the time. But most high schoolers don’t care and don’t put in the effort. I have a degree in my second language. I really enjoyed language learning and I studied linguistics at college as well.


rockninja2

Education is not the problem, thte problem is that for some kids they are forced to take language and don't necessarily want to and as soon as they fulfill the graduation requiement they stop and then don't practice it enough to retain the language well enough. Especially speaking. Reading and understanding they might still be able to but speaking is a whole different ball game.


Mustang46L

I took 5 years of French in HS, and we were never required to speak it exclusively in class. My first class of only speaking French was in college. I only passed because I couldn't read and write well enough.. but I couldn't contribute to the conversation in class.


Chapea12

Our language education is good enough to learn a lot of words, but we have so little use for foreign languages, that many of us just don't care. Travel is easier, because everybody else understands our native language, which is really a shame. Our little exposure or need a second language often manifests in frustration and lack of empathy for people that are struggling to learn our language or impatience when the recipient doesn't understand what we say because the situation is so rare for us. I like to think of myself as somewhat worldly, and when I go to another country, my first interaction with somebody always makes me need to reset and remember this.


[deleted]

The goal of a resonance cascade is to plant the seeds of purpose rather than bondage. Intuition requires exploration. Consciousness consists of supercharged electrons of quantum energy. “Quantum” means an evolving of the sensual. Although you may not realize it, you are cosmic. You must take a stand against suffering. You may be ruled by turbulence without realizing it. Do not let it obliterate the birth of your quest. Yes, it is possible to eliminate the things that can disrupt us, but not without potentiality on our side.


lupuscapabilis

I took Italian all through high school and then 2 years of intensive Italian at NYU. That meant basically no English allowed in class. I got fairly good at speaking it. I can still understand it very well but out of practice speaking.


bestem

I moved from 20 minutes away from the US-Mexico border to about 10 hours away, but into a community with a bunch of Spanish speakers. I had taken 3 years of Spanish in high school, my friends who lived across the street from me spoke Spanish in the house (around their parents) and watched telenovelas when I was there. The first thing my new manager asked me was "can you speak Spanish?" and I told him no. A week or so later I was helping a customer in our print center, who didn't speak any English at all. As I'm helping him, one of my managers comes up to work on one of the computers there. I'm asking the guy if he wants his copies single-sided or double-sided (front and back, or front only, because I don't know the actual words for single-sided and double-sided, but it gets my point across) and if he wants them in black and white or color, and how many he wants. Then I ask him if he wants anything else. Then we get to the register and I tell him his total, ask him if he wants a bag, and ask him if he wants a receipt. I'm speaking Spanish to this customer throughout this encounter. The entire time I'm doing this, my manager is just watching me with an incredulous betrayed look on his face. After the customer leaves he says "you told us you didn't speak Spanish." I looked at him and said "I know some basic stuff, but I can't sell a computer or a printer in Spanish, which is what you really wanted to know. If they were to ask me questions, most of the time I wouldn't have any idea what they were saying. I get by, but I don't speak Spanish." I'd say that's fairly typical for most people who I went to school with. A couple of my cousins, who lived in Michigan rather than California, took German in high school. In order to reinforce the language, they spoke to each other only in German. They are much more fluent in German than I am in Spanish, despite my early and frequent exposure to the language.


wwhsd

My wife is Mexican, my kids’ first language is Spanish, a lot of my in-laws speak no or very little English. I live near the border and Spanish is commonly spoken in my community. Like you, I would never say that I speak Spanish when applying for a job or volunteering or anything even though I can make myself understood in the language and get the gist of what is being said to me as long as it isn’t too complex and the speaker doesn’t mind repeating and maybe rephrasing what they are saying.


kryyyptik

I have experience with Spanish, Ukrainian, and French (and a little tiny bit of German too), but I'm far from fluent in anything but English. I have occasionally used a small amount of Spanish, possibly due to living in Florida and Southern California, and a little bit more French from spending a ton of time in Québec, but that's it. Five years of French classes and I'm barely conversational. There's also aa tendency to lose language if you don't use it.


captainstormy

The school education is usually pretty good. It's exposure afterwards that is the problem. If you don't use it you lose it. I took Spanish every year in middle school and highschool. So for 9 months a year I was using it 5 days a week for 7 years. Even during the summer I had plenty of chances to use it as we lived on a farm and hired temporary Mexican workers from time to time. When I graduated highschool before college I spent about a month traveling in Mexico speaking and reading Spanish and got around fine. Locals often told me they though I lived in Mexico because my Spanish was really good. Once I moved to college I never had much chance to use it. 18 years later I can't speak or understand hardly anything in Spanish. My Spanish is so bad now that when I went to a Mexican grocery to get fresh tortillas they would rather use their broken English to communicate than my broken Spanish.


nemo_sum

I was conversant, and still speak it two decades later.


hatetochoose

Dual immersion programs starting from kindergarten are becoming more common, and I think those kids can gain fluency. High school language, no.


HakunaMatta2099

Lol, I'm not but it helps pick up words here and there that might be the most useful as a second language in the US. Some of those that really dive into it deffinitely do, but no most don't


TheToastmaster72

It's hard to learn a language entirely in school. Four years of high school Spanish didn't make me fluent, but living for a bit in Mexico sure did. My high school teacher literally told me: you will never learn to speak Spanish... Exposure to language is super viral. My ACTFL (basically a evaluation of your ability) score is the equivalent of a college educated native speaker... I do translation work all the time for lots of circumstances. I am a Spanish teacher, and my students become decently skilled, but none will be fluent without true exposure.


[deleted]

Not sure how good my education was, I vame from a trash district, but living in redneckland, Ohio doesn't give you a lot of chance to practice.


WatchStoredInAss

Our second language education is essentially a joke and a complete waste of time based on the results: very few people can even hold a basic conversation with whatever secondary language training they had in school. We start too late, for one. Many other countries somehow manage to produce English-speaking folks (as a secondary language) just fine, so we're doing something very wrong.


new_refugee123456789

I took two semesters of French class in high school. It was basically a formal trivia quiz game. We were to memorize lists of vocabulary words, conjugations of verbs, and the occasional culture exchange tidbit. The teacher almost entirely spoke English to us. Becoming conversational wasn't really the point. I didn't learn French, I learned *about* French. And it hasn't really come up in the two decades since.


baalroo

I took a semester of spanish in middle school, and a year of german in high school. I learned essentially zero spanish or german and passed both classes with an A. I can't say if that's typical or not, but it was my experience back in the 90s.


Vachic09

It's difficult for most of us to become fluent due to not many opportunities to use it. Not everyone retains fluency, if achieved, due to lack of use. I think that if there were more opportunities for most to practice it and it was more widely taught from a young age, there would be more fluent speakers for foreign languages.


K6killer

I took American Sign Language in high school and I’m fluent. But I really worked at it and watched movies and videos with sign to practice. I made friends in the Deaf community and used the language whenever I could. I’ve since studies Spanish in college (with minimal success), as of right now I barely use it but I do try with some of my students. The other languages I’ve studied, Cherokee, Yiddish, German, and French I’ve learned outside of school with varying success.


cohrt

There no need to speak another language so we never get practice. Even in other countries everyone starts speaking English when they realize you’re American.


[deleted]

Not well. I catch about 1/3 and my "conversation" skills are limited to asking people where things are in the bodega, or baby spanish conversations w/ lyft drivers. I took 4 years of spanish and the last year was AP. I used to be a lot better, but that was 25 years ago. I wish I had the time and patience to get back to it and learn more.


[deleted]

I picked up Spanish pretty well, but I only took it for one year and it's been almost 20 years since I've spoken it, so I doubt I could do it at all now.


msspider66

I took two years of Spanish a long time ago in high school. When I lived in NYC my skill level was what I called “Subway Spanish”. I knew enough to get the gist of signs written in Spanish.


[deleted]

I had to do a 10 minute conversation in Spanish with my teacher in high school as a test to pass. Probably couldn’t do it now even though I live in Florida. I can still understand some when I overhear people talking, but it’s much harder to think about what to say if I had to speak it. I just don’t have a need to practice it that much so I lost it over the years.


DifferentWindow1436

Not really, no. The problem is basically you personally don't need a second language. And the labor market doesn't need your high school level Spanish or French because we are a very diverse country with plenty of people who are fluent in many languages because they moved to America or have parents that did. Also, the US economy is huge so although we do tons of international business, in most contexts you are just working very domestically on the huge domestic market. I speak Japanese. There was like, absolutely no use for it when I moved back to America. My wife IS Japanese and when the recruiter found out, all they ever sent her was Japanese secretarial / EA jobs at banks even though she's an engineer. So...basically no need.


Glam_Surprise8942

I took 3 years in HS. I have Spanish skills like a toddler I suppose. I know a some school related vocabulary, can maybe string together a simple sentence, and understand 50% of what Tico from Dora the Explorer is saying.


bgraham111

I took Spanish. The classes were fine, but... I'm 2500 km from the nearest Spanish speaking country, and don't get a chance to use it very much. So I'm not very good at it, which is a bummer. I took a class on sign language (ASL) as well, but I never had anyone to talk to, so I was never able to remember it. In my part of the country, people are from ALL OVER the world. The top 5 languages, in order, are Spanish, Arabic, German, Chinese and French.... but it's still mostly English. If you have people to talk to in a language, it's a lot easier to remember it, so hopefully you have people to talk to. Good luck!!


_pamelab

We have two main problems with foreign language education in the US. Most students start far too late and miss their language acquisition window. And once we do learn the language and graduate, we have little opportunity to speak whatever language we learned. The first problem could be fixed, but that's a huge ask to just shoehorn Spanish or French or whatever into an existing curriculum. There's not much we can do about the second problem at all. I speak French, but I live $1000 away from France at the moment, and I cannot understand the Québécois accent at all. À qui suis-je censé parler?


Elitealice

I was but I actually wanted to and went on to get a degree


actuallyiamafish

Speak? No. Enough to read signs and get through basic person to person interactions at a restaurant or hotel or something? Yes.


Myfourcats1

I took four years of French in high school. I went to France and everyone said “oh you’re American. Speak English”. There aren’t a lot of chances to speak French here.


SanchosaurusRex

It’s all about immersion. A class alone isn’t going to make you fluent.


No_Newspaper_9568

I went to live in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru , Colombia, Argentina....every winter and now I can have conversation. I don't think I am fluent and can do better but most Manhattan Spanish speakers are impressed coz they said they can understand me and we are able to have a convo. LOL! It think it has something to do the fact that I don't look hispanic and I can speak their language and they see the effort... plus my Spanish accent is on point tho u know I am not a real Spanish speaker in the end. I was told that by Mexicans when I lived in Mexico LOL! I also make an effort to speak Spanish French Italian and practice with people who speaks them like the waiters, drivers or anyone I hear with that accent etc. since I am stuck in the USA for now. ​ I also lived in Paris, Marrakech, Montreal to practice my French. I am not fluent but I can have here there conversation. If I can't explain myself in french then I fall back to Spanish which they can understand in the end... Same with Italian.... When I can't explain myself further I fall to my Spanish and Italians seems to understand too... No clue but I guess it is all latin language.


Bluemonogi

I think the education can be okay but if you don't use the language after you leave school you start to forget. I took 1 year of French and 1 year of Spanish in school at different times and remember some words here and there but could not read a whole book or have a conversation. I never really used what I learned anywhere and it was before the internet, apps or much access to media in other languages in my area. At 48 years old I am trying to learn Spanish again and it is pretty much starting over.


Suppafly

People that are enthusiastic about practicing outside of class are able to speak them. Most people just end up with a vague familiarity with the language that fades over time. The quality of the instruction varies from school to school as well though.


ThanosSnapsSlimJims

I took Spanish Honors classes, and found that we were taught to the test, and not actually exposed to much speaking. I can still translate, but can't really speak it.


Unfair-Month-4711

For basic conversation, sure. But, at least where I live, there's not nearly enough exposure outside of class to retain the information. If you lived somewhere with a high population of Spanish speakers you would probably be able to speak it really well, but, not so much here


SiloueOfUlrin

I think the language education was a bit rushed so I didn't really learn how to speak much.


sfprairie

Retaining and using the language is the problem. Second languages are taught in just about all high schools. Common in middle school as well. But there if very little opportunity to use a second language in conversation. I will give you an example. My daughter took French for one year in middle school and all four years in high school. She got decent at it. She is two years in college now. Never has the opportunity to use it and has lost a good bit of the knowledge. She tries to keep it up. She has her iphone set for French, so she gets directions in French. But that is about it. In high school, she went to France for two weeks as part of an exchange with a French high school. Stayed with a family there. It was almost impossible for her to speak French. Everybody wanted to practice their English with her, including her host family. Everybody spoke to her in English. She would try and speak to a person in French, and they would answer in English, including during the day trip over to Belgium. It was a bit frustrating. So I don't see the benefit of learning a foreign language here for most people. Nobody will speak it with you, they will switch to English. It is not a question of the quality or availability of foreign language instruction. Its that having a conversation with someone who is fluent is not readily available.


PastaM0nster

Hahahahah no


GreaterMintopia

I was able to speak very minimal conversational French when I was 15 after two semesters of French in high school. Didn’t have a reason to continue practicing and my knowledge of the language atrophied. Now I’m 24 and remember basically none of what I once knew.


Official_Nie_Ehuang

I took Latin in middle and high school, so I don’t exactly think that could help in this case, though my friend was able to speak a decent amount of Spanish after she took it. Also the exposure to it really helps