Motion: Does learning a language depend on money or on will power?
Presented by Verónica Díaz Suárez
Sixty-five percent of Spanish people are unable to speak another language.
“What’s the definition of a Spaniard? The answer is someone who spends their whole life learning English”. This is the piece of news that I read some days ago in a famous newspaper, and it was really surprising. A study said that 65 percent of people in Spain aren’t capable of speaking, reading or writing the language. Why do we speak it so badly?
A total of 70 percent of Spaniards admit that English is important, but just four percent are learning it and 17 percent of them can read it, 14 percent can understand it and only 11 percent can speak it.
When I read the article, I felt quite upset because I have never seen the learning of English from that point of view. I know that if you want to learn English you have to study a lot and you should keep in contact with native speakers, but I think that it is quite good fun and interesting, I like to learn it.
The study said that the problem is a question of money. In 2006, 105000 Spaniards travelled abroad to study, 94 percent of them to learn English. Another 45000 took a government grant to travel abroad, with the majority heading to England or Ireland, according to the Spanish Association of Promoters of Courses Abroad. A four-week course abroad costs between 2500 and 3000 euros, putting it out of the reach of many families. Do you think that learning a language depends on money or it is only a question of will power?
Nowadays, the next idea is spread : Spain is failing at English- or perhaps, it is failing at a second language. Neither the English nor the North Americans are experts in second languages, and it is attributed to a theory: countries whose language is spoken by a large number of people, such as France and England, don’t feel the need to learn other languages. What do you think about it? Do you think that this article is right or is wrong?
Another handicap for Spanish people learning English has been the fact that television and movies are not shown in their original versions. Do you think that if we has more facilities to learn English, it would be easier to learn it or not?
I’ll be looking forward to reading your opinions.
Comments»
I don’t think the money is the problem. It is more a question of Spanish mentality. I agree with the rest of causes that the article suggests and perhaps I’d add one more, the traditional isolation that Spain has suffered for many years.
I think that nowadays there is a great number of oportunities to learn a second language, the problem as ” xil ” has said above is the spanish mentality and sometimes the method used.Most of us have been studying English for years at school, but I am sure that when you traveled abroad for the first time, you thought that all the time spent in class was a waste of time. You are incapable to communicate although you know by heart loads of grammar rules. I am not saying that this knowledge is not necessary but that classes, particularly in Spain, should be more orientated to improve communicative skills.
It’s not a question of money, it’s a question of mentality, as you have said. Nowadays, most of us (or at least University students) need English to find good employment upon graduation. So, what can we do? Even if you don’t have much money, there are a good number of posibilities.
For example, the University of Oviedo A-Duo Program: you can get in touch with a foreign student (not only Erasmus, also Americans) and spend some hours a week sharing your languages.
Another ways of learning English: watching movies in original version, listening songs, watching the BBC news…and you can also learn grammar through free interactive online language programs.
I´m agree with Pollock is not a question of money,well I admit that doing English courses abroad is a big help but you can watch tv series in English,listening to music and internet is a great support too!In my case I need to improve my English intonation so I decided to do a Tandem which is very useful,I talk with this girl every week and my intonation has improved a lot and is a way to make friends too!
I think the best way to learn a language is going abroad, which is expensive, so money is important.
I´m not very sure about why learning English is so dificult for Spanish people. Maybe it´s beacuse of our Latin roots and language. Anyway, I think that it´s a good idea to start to learning English when you are a child . For me, going abroad is essential. I know you need a lot of money, but you can work there for example or something like that.
I’ve had a Tandem, too. I really recommend you, and it´s free. It was very useful for me.
Another alternative could be start to talk with Erasmus students (it´s strange and dificult, but sometimes we have to be a bit brave).
At the beginning, I thought that, as you have said, Latin was the “guilty” of our problems with English language. But nowadays, since I’ve started my German classes, I’m not so sure.
I was a bit afraid, you know, German sounds like a very rude and different language, so far away from Latin… but the thing is that it’s not so strange. Even more, you can see similarities between both, especially if you had studied Latin at High School or at University, because you understand perfectly how nouns and adjectives declinations works. So, you’ll discover that learning a new language it’s easier than you thought. And this is very satisfactory, isn’t it?
I agree with Pineapple,going abroad is the best way to learn a foreign language.You’ll learn more English spending a month in the UK than taking lessons in Spain during a whole year.From my point of view,learning a language has to be a deep experience.I mean,you just can’t isolate a language as it has to be associated to tradition and special way of life.According to tripping,obviously money is important but you can also have grants and these kind of things in order to help you with your travelling.Almost everyone can enjoy MEC’s grant,and if you have coal-miner’s roots,you can also apply for other kind of grants and enjoy going abroad and improving your level.
Talking is more important than writing if we’re thinking about a language.Basic grammar is essential but knowing how to pronounce and making yourself understood is the main issue.If you travel abroad alone and share a month with a native family you really know how to manage…
Agueda, in my opinion to get a grant is not easy, there are too many people who want one, and few grants. Moreover, Erasmus grants and MEC’s grants for example, don´t give you enough money, it is a small help, but not enough.
I agree with pineapple because I´ve applied for a grant several times…and I´m still waiting so it is no so easy Agueda,not everyone can enjoy Mec´s grant so I have to improve my English here…I hope I could go,someday, to the UK to “live´´English but I´m afraid that I will have to go on my own.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree with the comment number 8: It isn’t true that everyone can enjoy MEC’s grant or a miner grant. I am pretty sure because I can’t get them, they ask for lots of aspects and the miner grants are quite influenced by politics and “plugs”.
All of you that think that going abroad is the best way to improve the level, you are completely right. One way of getting the money is saving it of doing silly trips and using the money to go one month abroad. Try it and then, tell me. I did it and I had the time of my life.
I think that is not a question of money, because yes, i agree with the idea of going abroad is very useful to learn English but it depends of what you do there.
What i want to say is that your parents can pay you the best course in the best place in UK but maybe you “waste your time” with your Spanish friends rather than sharing your time speaking english.If you learn english or no abroad only depends of you.The best way i think is working there. Lessons are useful yes, but the main problem Spanish have with this second language is speaking.
I have studied English since school and for me is difficult speak a good English. I have had several grants to study English, and yes, I had the time of my life but i don´t speak all the English i should have spoken because I wasted almost all the time outside class with my Spanish friends.
A big thing I would like to say is the concept Spanish have about the level of English we have, I mean, when you ask a foreign person if they speak Spanish they say oh yes “un pokito” and for them, speak “un pokito” means that they can have a conversation with you in an easy way about differents topics. Thing that is completely different for Spanish people because when we say “un pokito” means the minimun knowledge of the idiom.
In our world, of course being rich is always an advantage, In this case you can go abroad, you can attend more courses, you can pay a private teacher, you can spend more money in books o more CDs and so on. Apart from that, you need to want, studying is necessary to learn and you need many hours to improve your level of English. Just money is not enough.
In addition I feel that for Spaniards, English is a very difficult language to speak and listen because of phonetic differences with Spanish (English people are not good Spanish speakers either). Secondly, until now, education system has failed to teach English even though people study English since they are three years old. Finally in general terms Spaniards dislike make a fool of themselves more than anglosaxons do and they feel awkward when they have to speak English.
I think that the problem with languages is at school because I think that our system is not good enough and also a lot of teenagers are not motivated to learn a new language, because they found it very difficult and they thinks they won’t need it in the future.
I think that if you have money and you want to learn English ii makes the process easier for you because you can afford spending some time abroad and do expensive courses. But without much money if you have interest you also can learn English because with the Intenet you have acces to lots of films, series, music… in English, which will help you a lot.
Furthermore you can aply for a grant to do an English course in a foreign country.
For all these reasons I think that learning a language is just a matter of motivation and with or without money you can learn a foreign language if you really want to.
Indie all your opinion is true but if our government does invest more money in order to allow us to have more resources, we will have more possibilities to learn languages.
Grants are difficult to obtain, as I have said before, but if someone is lucky of having enough money to go abroad, he or she has to think carefully about what sort of course he or she wants and after that, he or she has to do the best for not waste the money and the time.
Definitely, learning languages is a question of motivation, willpower and the money can help a lot. If you don’t have it, you have to develop your own way to learn them and if you have it, you should go abroad and please don’t waste the time, make it useful, try to learn a lot!
I think that getting a grant to do an English course is not as difficult as Cosual said. Nowadays there are lots of grants in Spain. The problem is that this kind of grants are not as good to improve your English as some people think. I went abroad 3 years to do English courses, but the reality is that during the summer there are a lot of Spanish people who do this courses and you speak more Spanish than English. And even if you want to speak in English is difficult when you are out of the school because the most probable thing is that some of your flatmates are Spanish, that when you go to a pub you meet Spanish people and even that when you go to a shop the shop assitant speaks you in Spanish because she is Spanish too.
The fact that you learn less English abroad depends on the place where you go. Not all the schools and cities are the same and when you go out with your classmates, you can make new friends and not necessarily from Spain. Have you thought about sharing your time with a native family instead of being in a residence or in a flat?
And yes, I must say again that is so difficult to get a grant and I know what I am saying.
I’m not sure what to think about this particular issue. I agree partly with some of you: Spain has a different mentality, maybe more protectionist, than other European countries (our things are our things). Something that surprises me a lot and makes me think about the reason why is a question related to TV and cinema: in Spain films and cartoons are doubled into Spanish for them to be on TV, while in other European countries it’s more common to use subtitles. From my point of view European child have, for this reason, more tendency to be attracted by and to learn more easily (from childhood) foreign languages than Spanish ones.
But I also think that it really is a question of money as well. It’s a fact that if you want to learn a language you have to travel abroad for using it. And there are not so much facilities for people to travel or to attend curses abroad as you say in your posts.
I must agree with most of the opinions given. Money is very important if you want to go abroad for enrolling you in a language course for a month or a longer period of time. In case that you can not afford it and you are really interested in learning a language there are more options a part from attending lessons at a language schools. The main thing is that you need to spend time reading (for instance on the Internet) watching English television channels and trying to meet foreign people for speaking with them at least once a week. I can speak English, German, French, and Italian, and in this moment I am learning Portuguese. I have learnt them without going abroad and without spending too much money but anyway they have taken me a lot of time and effort. In this moment I am working in a multinational company due to this knowledge in foreign languages. I use all of them everyday without problems so, it is a proof that money is not actually so necessary for learning a language.
I must admit that nowadays money makes the world go round and you need it if you want to go abroad and speak for a period of time in a foreign language. However, as Indie has said, going abroad only helps you if you go somewhere without any Spanish person, if not, you will speak Spanish anyway. On the other hand, you can learn to speak other languages in your own country. You will need some effort and time and you won’t speak it as well as someone who lives and is working abroad, but remember that talking about knowledge impossible is nothing!!