Can the language you speak at home be foreign to you?

Senior Viraj Parmar takes Chinese 4 Honors. He says most of the kids in his class are sophomores.

Given that they speak a foreign language at home, many students often start out in the advanced levels of foreign language classes. In fact, for most of the kids who take Chinese at SHS, this is the case.

Students who are already well versed in any language should not take it up as a foreign language, since this defeats the whole purpose of the high school foreign-language requirement.

The reason that two years of a foreign language is required upon graduation is that it is widely believed that learning a foreign language will expose a student to a new culture.

Whereas English is offered as a foreign language in Germany and France, surely one can understand why it wouldn’t be offered as one for native speakers in England or the U.S.

Likewise, students who speak Spanish at home, for instance, clearly should not be taking Spanish as their foreign language at school.

Some might argue that although the foreign language they are taking may not be completely foreign to them, they will still get a lot from the class (learning to read better, write better, etc.). Yet others say they want to get better in touch with their roots and view the SHS language department as the
perfect medium to do this. These are all valid points.

However, one must always consider what will be most beneficial in the end. Yes, a student may learn more about his family’s native language by taking it at school, but would it not be more beneficial to learn a whole new language and culture, one the student might be completely unfamiliar with?

In addition, must it not be easier to run a class in which all the students are of a similar level than one in which there is such a disparity in skills? Imagine a student who has spoken a language his entire life being placed in a class with someone to whom the language is actually foreign. The teacher will have quite a tough time trying to teach both students. Either the more advanced student would feel bored, or the beginner student would feel overly challenged.

Even so, students should not be disallowed from taking a language they already know. The purpose of school is to give students the opportunity to take what they feel is best for them.

However, this should just not count as fulfilling any high school language requirement, and students should be prohibited from skipping levels. This change would not only ensure students are forced to expose themselves to new cultures, but would also deter any students who were going for an easy A or an easy Honors or AP credit.

If a student still wishes to take their native language, perhaps the teacher can set them on an individual track for the course of the year, so as to not disrupt the learning of the beginning students.

In other words, perhaps students should take a more active approach to their learning, and the true goals of taking a foreign language.

When choosing which foreign language to pursue, think about what your goal with any foreign language ought to be: to expand your horizons, culturally as well as intellectually.