English as a Universal Language?

English is the world main language followed by french/spanish. In schools childrens should have the decision if they want to study it as a optional language or not because not everyone will need a foreign language.

I don’t think we need an official language. Certainly when people come here they are going to be more comfortable speaking their first language. I see no problem with enclaves of foreign born citizens that predominately speak another lauguage. Schools should offer bilingual education for students who English isn’t their first language.

When I visited Scandinavia almost everyone spoke English well and I met young adults that spoke several languages. That really made me feel like a slacker. I did take French in college though living in Texas Spanish would have been a lot more pracitcal and I would actually get chances to practice it. I forgot almost all the French I took. OTOH studying French does help your English vocabulary a great deal since so many highfalutin phrases in English come from French, any plus ultra, fait accompli, raison d’etre, nom de plume (should be nom de guarre), etc.

I certainly think any educated person should know more than one language. I regret not applying myself more dilligently toward this persuit.

Actually Chinese, Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world. http://www.photius.com/rankings/languages2.html

English is the American language so, of course it should be America’s language. As for the students learning a different language, no I do not think forcing any student to learn a foreign language. My opion is that it is a choice to learn one and only if he/she wants to.

yes, I think it should be an option in school. however, america is a VERY diverse country, so it’s probably best to learn a second language for better job opportunities. and as for the suggestion of kids learning a different language every semester, I don’t think it would even be possible. when you take a semester in a foreign language, all you learn are the pretty much useless basics, like how to count to 1,000 and HELLO and GOODBYE. to actually fully learn a language you have to take like 4 or 5 semesters in regular school.

I think that children, up to the age of 12, should be able to hear and learn from native speakers, as many different languages as possible, simply because that is when language is the easiest to learn. It will make it much easier to really learn the language later in school, just by having that small amount of exposure, if they so choose. English is what most of the American population speak, but almost 75% of the people that I talk to or chat with in English from the USA really don’t even know their own language that well. Even if it WAS made to be the national language, you cannot FORCE someone to speak it, so it would be pointless to make it so. I don’t know where you went to school, but all the 7 highschools I went to offered French and Spanish as ELECTIVES, which means that you don’t HAVE to take them if you do not wish to.

American is an English speaking country. English is also recognized as the international language of Business. . While french is the international language of political diplomacy. A second language should be optional not a requirement.

English is the universal language of the whole world, and has been for quite sometime.

First off, I don’t think people should have to be forced to learn English in school. They are almost forced to learn in everyday life anyway, b/c once they step out of their communities (ie. Chinatown for Chinese), then the majority of people speak English anyway. That is, unless they speak Chinese or Spanish, among others. I see a lot of Chinese and Hispanic people on a semi-regular basis.

Second, students should be given the choice to learn a foreign language, like they are now. That’s pretty much how I learned Spanish and French (although I’m not a master or anything, btw).

Third, YES, theys should be able to choose! Some people merely take their first language as their foreign language class, for an easy “A”. This can really help their grades if they just need that 1 “A” to meet their goals! Also, if you don’t wanna do something, it just gets harder to do. I’m sure some, if not most, have had this sort of experince. I used to HATE math, b/c I felt I was forced to do it…and almost failed my 7th grade math course.

Finally, we come right back to the matter of choice. If students are forced to drop one language for another every semester, how are they going to really learn anything? Here’s the answer: with language courses as they are currently (on a basis of level, ie. Spanish 1-4), it’s impossible to learn anything outside the basics that quickly! Some of the students that do this can NEVER master their chosen, then dropped languages! However, as I said, the choice SHOULD be presented, to give struggling students a chance to try something else. For some people, certain languages are HARD. My personal hard language is Chinese, b/c I have to deal with a LOT of memorization…In High School, where I have to memorize a lot else, too. It just never worked out for me, and I ended up dropping the class.