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Post by Jaga on Aug 19, 2011 4:45:05 GMT -7
There might be some truth to it. Still, people should learn foreign languages not for grammar exercise but to apply it in real life...so I am not sure that today ediucation should really include everybody learning Latin and GreekHungary’s government wants to dethrone English as the most common foreign language taught in Hungarian schools. The reason: It’s just too easy to learn. Getty Images “It is fortunate if the first foreign language learned is not English. The initial, very quick and spectacular successes of English learning may evoke the false image in students that learning any foreign language is that simple,” reads a draft bill obtained by news website Origo.hu that would amend Hungary’s education laws. Instead, the ministry department in charge of education would prefer if students “chose languages with a fixed, structured grammatical system, the learning of which presents a balanced workload, such as neo-Latin languages.” blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/08/18/english-too-easy-for-hungarians/
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Post by kaima on Aug 19, 2011 9:01:45 GMT -7
Fascinating Thanks for posting!
PS. I take the reference to "neo-Latin languages" to refer to Latin based languages, such as Spanish, Italian or French. Latin and Greek seem more for academic purposes, and neither would fall in what I understand "neo" to mean.
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Post by Eric on Aug 19, 2011 11:15:13 GMT -7
Compared to Hungarian, which is an extraordinarily difficult language, I'm sure English does seem easier! But which level of fluency is "too easy" for Hungarians? I'm sure far from every person aged 15-30 in Hungary is capable of communicating in "too easy" English at an upper intermediate or fluent level.
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