The War On Competence
4th March 2016
Sarah Hoyt is pretty steamed at the Servants of the Crust.
I hear everywhere Americans just don’t learn other languages. But that’s not true. Americans aren’t TAUGHT other languages. Not in a way anyone can learn. After four years of watching my son hit his head against the wall of French (which NO ONE EVER in my family had trouble learning) I took his summer away to learn it the way I did it: lists of vocabulary, books of verbs, endless grammar drills, and reading the Three Musketeers in French. By the end of summer he was fluent. (We don’t do it much now. Well, he doesn’t live at home. But when we made runs to the hardware store or whatever we often spoke in French to each other, (mostly in the car) to keep in practice.)