StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 4 days ago
Around me, the only language spoken with any frequency other than English is Spanish. In a half dozen different varieties. Even that wasn’t all that common until, maybe, 10 years ago. About midway through President Trump’s first administration.
Most schools encourage kids to take a language, but they are kinda a use it, or lose it thing. Unless you just happen to be part of a community or household that speaks a language other than English, you are unlikely to need it.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
i mean… how often do you think spanish is used in the nordics? and yet a third language is mandatory, and most people pick spanish.
Sure it’s not like most swedes can speak fluent spanish, but it’s also not like they completely forget it. If they go to spain they’ll have a hell of a better chance at being able to talk to people than those who picked german.
StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 3 days ago
A point. However, how far do you need to go to reach an area, that doesn’t speak your native language commonly?
We recently moved a fair distance, not too far as things go here. Roughly 2000 km. English language spoken by almost everyone throughout the entire trip. Plus 15 random languages from tourists and immigrants from around the globe. I could have gone another 2000 km and I still would have had to dig to find a community that had a common language other than english.
I would have had to travel 2000 km the other way to reach an area where a single language other than English was spoken by more than 5% of the population.
Maybe 1000 km, I forget about Creole in Louisiana, though I’m not sure how common that language is in the State. I just remember running across the language frequently while driving trucks in that area for a living.
We are a truly massive nation that largely shares a single language. Most of us, rarely ever leave a 250 km radius from where we were born. Most of us don’t have passports and will never leave the US.
Hell, I’m well traveled. I’ve been to 45 on the 50 States, and in all my travels I’ve only needed another language once. In Larado, TX, which is right on the border with Mexico.
There are small enclaves that speak an alternative language, but they are few and far between.
Would it be to the students benefit to learn a second language, sure. But it’s unlikely that the student would ever use whatever random language they were required to learn. Spanish and perhaps Arabic might occasionally be helpful, but not necessarily, depending on what part of the country (or trade) you’re they are in.