Canadian here with Ukrainian background. My school did English and Ukrainian from kindergarten to grade eight with French thrown in from grade 4 to grade 8. I can speak bits and pieces but barley anything. I failed almost every french test I had even when I studied. Same with Ukrainian. Then again I almost failed a bunch of spelling tests in English when I was younger so... I just can't do languages well.
I'm Canadian, and I "learned" French at elementary school for 5-6 years, and I barely remember any of it. Yet, in High School I learned German and I can still remember every translation and I'm practically fluent. Sehr seltsam.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a spanish speaking house but I'm currently learning another language bc I'd like to actually learn a new writing system and characters & culture
I had started learning english and my mother tongue (hindi) at the same time and then learnt sanskrit from 6th to 8th grade, I want to learn more languages tho and wish that my school had more languages available to learn.
I'm Dutch. I've had English lessons since I was about 9-10, and French and German from age 12-13. Now, I speak English fluently, and can hold simple conversations in French and German.
I feel the same about England, but I actually learnt Spanish at school and at college, but languages are optional so they should do something to get more people learning languages
And then throw in the South African 11 official languages. I'm fluent in English but then have been taught isiZulu and Afrikaans. Some of my kids at school can speak four languages fluently
But in Spain many public schools are bilingual and I can tell you that many people can speak some English, but even after studying for 15 year English they still have problems. I actually learned most of the English I know from being in England, and I went to a private school that teached me English since I was 3
I think we can all agree that the american public school system has room for improvement. So we all have a choice: 1)be the change you want to see in the world. 2)dont be the change and accept it for what it is. 3)whine, piss, and moan about how much of a victim you are to this rechid society.
Choose wisely
Every high school I've seen, and many middle schools, have world languages as elective classes. Take a language. You think it's harder at 14 than at 8? Is e erything worth doing easy? Or actually, you just want the result without putting in any work.
But only thanks to the internet. French people suck at teaching languages
I learnt what's supposed to be taught here in my country in like 3-4 grades above me in the internet ^^
Choose wisely