“Lots of Spanish Spoken”

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Clarissa

July 12, 2012

I keep obsessively reading the reviews of the resort where I will be going the day after tomorrow (because I can’t enjoy the trip until I have tortured myself with every nightmarish scenario possible, of course.) Almost every single review mentions that people in the Dominican Republic speak Spanish and their English is far from perfect. The sense of outrage these tourists experience when they realize that not everybody in the world is an English-speaker is bizarre, to put it mildly.

Yet some universities refuse to introduce the language requirement or to raise it from one year to two. I maintain that any university that allows students to graduate without speaking a second language scams its graduates. A monolingual person with a scholarly degree is a joke.

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7 responses to ““Lots of Spanish Spoken””

Sam W

July 12, 2012

Isn’t University a bit late to start language education? In my home country, language education starts at age 10 latest so by the time you finish high school, you’re at a B1 level or better. That’s more than sufficient for holidays. A second language is started at age 12 but can be dropped only 4 years later which doesn’t form the basis for much. I like the idea of continuing language education at university though on a mandatory basis.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  July 12, 2012
  
  Of course, the sooner the better. But the way foreign languages are taught even in good high schools in the US is truly pathetic. I have students after 6 years of high school Spanish who are incapable of introducing themselves!!
  
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Pen

July 12, 2012

Just out of curiosity, when you say “raise it from one year to two,” do you mean from two semesters to three, or from two semesters to four?

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  July 12, 2012
  
  We now have the requirement of 2 semesters and I believe it should be raised to four semesters.
  
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  1. Pen
    
    July 12, 2012
    
    It might just be my bitterness at other schools in my state, but everybody should have at least three. For me, four would push me into five years of college, just because of the sheer number of classes I have to take, but they could get around that by replacing a different general education requirement. Right now our total general education curriculum covers at least twenty credits (for a student who comes in with no credits which cover it), which would cover a minor in just about any field.
    
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Z

July 12, 2012

I am not surprised. For many, a big part of the point of going to this kind of resort is so as not to have to interact with the country it is in — just benefit from the weather and so on!

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  July 12, 2012
  
  Idiots.
  
  I can’t wait to spend some time in a Spanish-speaking environment.
  
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