Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AwesomeA]

I was just teaching my student about bilingual education in America. I learned a great deal. It seems like a bunch of crapola to me. The students enrolled are there to learn two languages in an American school. 1. English, as they should. and 2. their parents' native language.
I have no issues with #1, but shouldn't their parents be the one teaching them their native tongue if they want them to learn it. I think this program is unfar #1 Because it is not offered to everyone and gives some an unfair opportunity over all toher students, and 2 their is a big diversity of students. At my school there were Mexican, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and a few Sudanese, Greek, and Israeli.
That's a lot of cash right there for 7 teachers just to teach students in their parents' native laguage. Often, many are left out because they can't find a qualified teacher. I think it's the parents job to teach them a second language. What about you?

[wings]

While parents can and often do teach their kids to SPEAK their native language a lot of these kids end up not being able to read or write in this language, and maybe also speaking a strong dialect from their parents region, or speaking bascally like only on older generation would. ( a friend of mine whose parents were both born in canada to Danish immigrants told me that when he went to Denmark everyone laughed at how he spoke becuase although he was 100% fluent he spoke the same way his grandparents had when they had left the country.)

Also a lot of children of immigrants, or speakers o languages other than English are very embarassed about the language that they speak at home. Having this language reinforced in the school system can remove a lot of the stigma attached to speaking anohter language.

I have met several people who told me that they do not speak their parents language despite the fact that for years their parents spoke to them ONLY in Chinese (or whatever) becuase they were embarassed and refused to answer in anything but english in order to fit in with other kids.

I think that the costs associated with this kind of education are well worth it especially since it is programming that builds on education that children receive at home.

[AwesomeA]

What about everyone else? I'm sure there are many parents who want bilingual education for their kids that are Native English speakers. By only educating immigrants in both languages, they are cheating non-immigrants out of many opportunities. The let's spend money on everybody but our own policies must be thrown in the trash. Personally, I wanted to learn other languages when I was young, but never got the opportunity because those classes were reserved for immigrants only.

[goodgood]