Unpopular Opinion
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This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
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I'm an English-speaking Canadian, so the de facto 2nd language here is French. It was mandatory at school. I'd say I have a passable reading knowledge of it, though my oral comprehension sucks. That's still good though. I can read signs and menus in Québec and maybe even say a few words if people are patient with me.
What I find a tad amusing is that while English class was also mandatory, I don't remember learning much about the English language itself. Like I learned more English grammar and language structure from French class, plus those couple of semesters of Latin I took.
I also speak a bit of Japanese as it's my literal mother tongue, but there, the situation is sort of reversed from French. Speaking comes naturally but reading is hopeless. So I guess I am bilingual in 1 + .5 + .5 sort of way?
I'm a former (recent) language teacher. Foreign language education is shit in much of the world.
The natural way to learn a language is listening, speaking, reading then writing. Then you slowly perfect what you've learnt. It's how we learn our native language. When learning foreign languages, you'll inevitably start with grammar or writing exercises almost immediately.
It's dumb. The results are predictable: people who know obscure grammar rules but are barely able to have a conversation.
Want to learn a language? Listen to audiobooks, watch movies (with subtitles), go to a foreign country and actually immerse yourself in the language.
I took seven years of French between middle school and college and I can’t speak much at all.
I think if it were like English classes - where we read literature in that language - I’d remember a lot more than “Je ne parle pas Français”