Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank, Not directly to your point but close: at my daughter's school, an international school, you are required to be functionally tri-lingual by the end of your sophomore year. The French section fills up first, then Spanish, and last German. This year they are starting a Chinese section and I suspect that will fill up before the German section. An informal poll of the parents reveals that French is pretty, Spanish is easy and useful in the U.S., German is way too hard, and Chinese is cool but don't make me learn to write it. One of the reasons the German section is hard is that it is operated as if you were in Germany with curriculum, textbooks, and requirements all set by the German government. I believe the other sections are operated more closely to the U.S. standard which is not so rigorous. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Frank Dernie Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 3:26 AM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: Re[2]: [Leica] Proposed visit to Solms I was more interested to know how widespread the teaching of second languages is, and which is the usual language chosen. I don't think it counts as a second language if it is because of a large immigrant population in a particular area. Where I live it is mandatory to learn at least one second language, usually French, Spanish or German - it actually seems to be more dependant on teacher availability than parent choice. Frank On Friday, November 21, 2003, at 06:47 pm, Don Dory wrote: > Frank, > I don't know about where you live, but in a rather large triangle > running from Corsicana to someplace south and west of San Antonio there > is a whole lot of German spoken. In fact, if you can get along in > German or Spanish you wouldn't need any English at all. Likewise, in a > broad swath of the upper Midwest, Danish and Swedish will do just fine. > > Don > dorysrus@mindspring.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Frank > Dernie > Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 12:07 AM > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > Subject: Re: Re[2]: [Leica] Proposed visit to Solms > > How many people in a small town in the USA would you expect to speak > German? Is it widely taught? > > > On Thursday, November 20, 2003, at 08:50 pm, Sonny Carter wrote: > >> Jerry wrote: >> >> JL> Whaaaat? When I visited Leitz at Wetzlar many years ago, half >> JL> the office people spoke English! >> >> JL> Jerry >> >> Leica moved to Solms several years ago. It is a small town not far > >> from Wetzlar. Last time I visited, the tour was mainly in German, >> because I could follow it. Others on the tour were from Adox and >> spoke no English at all. I was surprised, in fact at how many >> people, especially in the service trades do not speak English. >> >> When I lived in Wetzlar in the late fifties, many people spoke >> English. I was told that the reunification brought a number of people > >> to that region who had never learned English. >> >> By the way, while you are in Solms, an interesting place to have lunch > >> is at the Castle in Braunfels. As you are leaving Solms, turn right >> and go up the hill a short ways and you'll see the charming town. >> >> http://www.sonc.com/castle.htm >> >> SonC >> http://www.sonc.com >> >> >> >> Natchitoches, LA USA >> >> -- >> To unsubscribe, see > http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html >> > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html