Why can people that speak spanish take spanish class as a forgin Language?
373033
Because for some reason our education system thinks that it is a foreign language when the truth is that English is not the primary  language in the US. English and Spanish are pretty much  equally used.
19058
WELL, EVERY PEOPLE PLANNING TO LIVE HERE, HAS TO HAVE SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BUT SINCE THE SPANISH SPEAKING POPULATION IN THE US IS GROWING SO FAST, MANY COMPANIES, BUSINESSES ARE CHOOSING SPANISH AS A MAJOR SECOND LANGUAGE IN ORDER TO ENCREASE THEIR SALES...NOW ABOUT THE JOBS...SINCE THIS IS A FAST GROWING POPULATION, MANY BUSINESSES ARE CHOOSING BILINGUAL WORKERS TO ATTRACT MORE SPANISH SPEAKING PEOPLE TO THEIR BUSINESSES. BILINGUAL PERSONNEL IS EQUAL TO 2, THEY CAN COMMUNICATE WITH EITHER ENGLISH/SPANISH CUSTOMERS WITHOUT THE EMPLOYER HAVING TO PAY 2 PERSONS DOING THE SAME JOB. SEE MY RELATED QUESTION ON MY PROFILE
664037
Not unless the English speakers are dead. The level of frustration today with imigrants who refuse to speak English, not just Hispanics but Asian, Indian and European imigrants is starting to boil over right now. Many Spanish speakers chaffe at learning English but the net effect of refusing to learn English is that it makes it easier for Chinese, Russian, Vietmese, Indian and so on to not learn English either. So not only would they have to learn English they'll have to learn 5 other languages. If English is too hard how are they going to handle Mandrian? LOL
297120
I think it is great that you are thinking of taking a language, being bilingual is always helpful and it opens up many, many doors.  I can't promise it will be easy if you have never taken spanish before, but it is one of the easiest languages to learn and if you really are interested in learning you will learn it nonetheless.  I suggest that while you take the course you check out some spanish music and movies.
508290
Gracias por su ayuda con español, aprendí mucho. Su clase era interesante.  ¡Usted es gran profesor/a!
246311
well.......i hear what your saying but....fact is the kids need to learn spanish for their own future.....most professions....like doctors, nurses, correction officers, teachers.....need to communicate with all........those who don't know spanish are only hurting themselves
129931
French! It's the language of love, plus everyone I know want's to learn to speak Spanish. Spanish is a beautiful language, however, I've had some... not so good experiences trying to learn to speak it. Plus,I just was to mix it up a bit you know?
264957
I take spanish, but the class is really, really slow. I suggest getting tapes at a library to learn some basic things, listen to all of Shakira's spanish songs, go to spanish websites and translate them with Google Translator, etc.
1035193
The reason why there is Spanish:\n\nIn 133 B.C., consul Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus defeated the capital city of Numantia in what would be considered modern day Spain.  From this day forward, Numantia (Hispana) was considered a Province or Provincia, which is Latin for "for that Land conquored".  Roman soldiers were stationed in this area, but what is more, army veterans from Rome (a very crowded ancient city) were given farm land out in Spain.\n\nThis part of Europe was run continuously as Roman for hundreds of years and they spoke the same language as they did in Italy (Latinam).  The emperor Trajan came from Spain and ruled at Rome around the year 98.  Starting in the 4th century and developing into the 5th century, the Roman Empire began to weaken through poor rulers, a share in power between the Catholic Church and the imperial family, continuous barbarian invasions from the Germanic lands, and the occasional general who wanted to start a rebellion and become emperor himself.  The empire started to break up into smaller kingdoms such as the Franks (later to become France), the Ostrogoths (Germans who invaded and sacked Italy), The visgoths (more Frank and German people who settle all over the place), The Byzantines (The Eastern Roman Empire, which tried to take back as much land from the barbarians as they could), and many other smaller tribes.  (check out the article on the Suevi just to see how diverse the tribes of Spain were at this time).  This fragmentation and division according to new ethnic lines decreased communication between the former Roman provinces during a time known as the Antique Ages more commonly known as The Dark Ages.  While Roman Catholic priests continued to give mass and speak in Latin for centuries later, it was during this time when the language began to evolve.  By the Middle ages (10th century) it was found that most of the former Roman provinces were speaking a vernacular language that had some similarities to Latin, but had changed significantly.\n\nMany of the Latin words are unchanged such as casa, which is Spanish and Italian for house and Latin for "a house without a basement".  The Romans used Domus (where we get domicile) for an apartment made of stone with a basement.  Because most soldiers and settlers of Spain were typically not very wealthy, they were accustomed to living in single story shanties, hence the preference of the word casa rather than doma in Spanish.\n\nOther words are common between Vernaculars such as "si" (Spanish and Italian for "yes") and "sic", Latin for "thus" or "it is so".  Where the language differs could be explained by introduction of foreign words from Germans or Saracens, evolving seperately from the other Romance languages, or the original language pre-Roman times.\n\nCab drivers in Italy could understand me enough when I gave directions to them in Latin.\n\nThe term "Latin America" comes from the Spanish word Latino, which is what the people of Spain have called themselves for the last 2 thousand years.  First they were Latin, but the language evolved the word to Latino.\n\nI would recommend studying Latin in great detail.  After extensive study, you can pick up fluency in French, Italian and Spanish in as little as 6 months.
50138
Well, it depends on where you live. Because where I live, we HAVE to take spanish starting in elementary school (i started in 2nd grade, but now they're teaching it to kindergardeners). It also depends on the school you go to, I went to public school, I guess that if you went to a privite school, you might not have to take it. Then again, my friends (in NY) they only started taking a second language in school when they started middle school (junior high) and they have the option of spanish or french. However, in my school, we only get spanish, the only time we get to choose is when we apply for high school. Before that, we HAVE to take Spanish. So, it just depends on what school you go to, where you live and stuff like that. Hope this helped!
898484
I live in Spain and find it difficult to accept the Tourists that come here and try pronouncing Spanish correctly, its so annoying, I am English but lived here for over 4 years and have a good knowledge of the Spanish language, I'm not perfectly fluent yet, but I am fairly good,  I do at least know how to pronounce Spanish correctly.  So I know what you mean.
540107
No, it makes them part Spanish.\n\n(?)
634448
I had an American Spanish teacher, Mr. Sullivan, and he taught us "book" Spanish. He thought going on vacation in Cancun qualified him to teach. When I actually tried to talk to some Mexicans in the way I had been taught, they laughed at me.
569306
No doubt! My 7th-grader learns a foriegn language every 2 weeks in school. 2 weeks is not enough time for one thing. It only causes them to run all the languages together. And why should they even do it? The language in America anymore seems to be Spanish. You can't even order a cheeseburger without hearing a foreign language. It kills me to go to the counter of McDonalds,speak to an American,in American, & watch them turn around and yell in Spanish so they can be understood. We have to many homeless people here to have all the foreigners over here working our jobs. The high school kids needing a summer job is gonna have problems finding them because they've been givin' to foriegners who can't even speak our language!! Gets me fired up fast!!!
637487
It would be interesting to know how many languages the average American knows.  One of the things that I always found disturbing is that even if an American takes a foreign language class, the American will rarely make the attempt to practice using the language.  \n\nThink about it, how many people do you know take Spanish?  Quite a few.  How many actually try to speak the language?  I am shocked when I am a manager or teacher, and I see a room of employees or students scared to speak a word of Spanish to a person that might be struggling.  I understand that there are many ethical and political questions whenever speaking a foreign language.  For goodness sake, we're the land of immigrants and we need to step up.\n\nYes, I am proud to say that I have made the attempt and have spoken both Norwegian and Spanish to native speakers.  I have even spoken the few words of German, Russian, and Korean that I know as well.  Please keep in mind, that the only languages I can truly speak are English, Spanish, and Norwegian.\n\nRather than concentrating on how many languages are learned, let's focus on actually applying our knowledge of the international community.  One world, one people.  We can communicate and come together.
90586
cause other languages have different letters and grammer rules also each language is different in pernunciation and rules wit speech\nthis carries thru with sign language
1106491
As a citizen - absolutely.  It amazes me that there can be any discussion about that.  This does not necessarily mean that you become fully proficient, but you need a working command of the language and have the skills to communicate with others in normal day-to-day situations.  If someone were motivated enough to learn then they should be able to grasp the basics in a couple of years. This is already a requirement for US citizenship. The problem is that a vasty majority of people sneaking in have NO desire to become part of the mainstream.  All they want to do is get what they can get and send it back to Mexico and that's it.  In the meantime, they are supported by US taxpayers for everything from hospital emergency rooms to public schools.  These are the ones who need to be rooted out and tossed into the slammer. Sending them back won't work because they will just creep back in.  \n\nThe result of all this refusal to learn English is the outright absurdity that not a day goes by but that I have to press 1 for English.\n\nJesus H. Christ Almighty, we are not living in Spain.