Mandarin and poetry from age 9

[AtW]

[SueEllen]

So teach people how to talk with those in other cultures, but not teach them how to understand those other cultures in the first place? Communication is about more than knowing the language... history, culture and religion are pretty important factors.

When you are taught a language above 16 you get to learn about the history, culture and religion of the place as these factors tend to influence the language.

Speaking Spanish is no help getting a job in the US unless you want to earn minimum wage.

You may be in charge of those earning the minimum wage so it's useful so you can boss them about.

Why anyone in the UK would want to work in any of those other countries is a mystery.

Why not? Not everyone is the same.

[TimberWolf]

We had to take French for the first 2 years at secondary school, Latin was optional but involved attending after school hours IIRC, and other languages became options after 3rd year, e.g. German.

[AtW]

Could do that with a 303 by 13. Perhaps not with closed eyes though.

Could do a Bren gun too, and fired an SLR on a rifle range.

That rifle range was in Northern Ireland, so it was probably when I was 12, for it was before the start of The Troubles

I was in the Officer Training Corps at Skool

I bet you 5 rubles did not have to learn Karl Marx, Engels and Lenin bulltulipe by age of 16!

[norrahe]

I really quite envy the European attitude to foreign language education.

So do I, it is embarrassing the number of languages most of them speak and more so when they ask you how many you speak.

The Dutch seem to focus on quite a few languages, their theory being that not many people speak Dutch (so I've been told).

Plan is once I've got Dutch under my belt is to get my French back to fluency again as it's a tad out of practice after years of not much use. A lot of gigs in the Benelux countries require both French and Dutch these days.

[AtW]

Plan is once I've got Dutch under my belt is to get my French back to fluency again as it's a tad out of practice after years of not much use. A lot of gigs in the Benelux countries require both French and Dutch these days.

You don't need these languages to be able to put the kettle on love!

Churchill

[Sysman]

I bet you 5 rubles did not have to learn Karl Marx, Engels and Lenin bulltulipe by age of 16!

Very true.

But then again I did have a load of religion of the bible thumping variety forced on me. I am not sure which is worse.

[AtW]

But then again I did have a load of religion of the bible thumping variety forced on me. I am not sure which is worse.

Soviet propaganda is worse.

[TimberWolf]

Soviet propaganda is worse.

Did they cover religion at all?

[AtW]

Did they cover religion at all?

It was outlawed in USSR and religion was only covered from angle how in some places Church merged with the State to help Govts keep population obedient - that's what Putin started doing 12 years ago also - ironically KGB loved to use preachers because they'd make good snitches