English as a Second Language in School

[Guest]

Greetings Rahel,
Yes, I think you're right. Most school pupils will choose to learn English
as their second language because it is now the most widely spoken
language in the world after a persons first language or mother tongue.
This provokes the next question as to Why? this is, and I think you will find the answer in the fact that English in it?s basic grammatic structure
is one of the simplest although it gets a bit more colourful the more you learn which provokes alot more questions which this forum can answer.
I understand that Latin has a very limited form of Tenses... almost always
in the Present Tense. I no expert so I think Sue may be able to enlighten us on Latin. I certainly would be interested to learn some Latin basics as the Language attracts me for some reason and is very useful for alot of us as our own Language may be rooted in Latin or Greek or both.
Anybody like to comment???
Best Wishes, Bruce.

[Rahel]

Hi Bruce! Latin doesn't attract me at all. I am not a doctor and biologist. It is one of dead languages. To learn Latin- to waste time ( for me) English attracts me, knowledge of English gives to everybody many new opportunities( travelling, the latest news and so on) My friends learnt German as a second language, now they say that it is not very good . They started to learn Englisgh from clear list of paper and don't remember German at all.
Rahel

[Nicole]

Latin provides a solid basis to learn other European languages, especially Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

[Rahel]

[Nicole]

[Rahel]

[Bruce]

Hi Rahel,
I agree with your point about Latin being a dead language
with little possibility of getting excited about learning it today
in school. Like anything we learn there has to be a motivation
and for the English Language it is obvious. We all need it in
some form of communication and it will dictate our needs to
progress in our carrer and earn money, now and in the coming
years. That?s basically what its all about. If a subject isn?t going
to be either fun or earn me money ... why should I waste my
energy on it. I actually teach English and the motivation to learn
Latin or some of it basics is because there are so many Prefixes
and Suffixes and Root words in English that I?m actually interested
because it helps me break down each word to make it easier for my students to remember. Having learnt French and German the same
Latin roots are there to see aswell. That will apply to Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese and a few other languages too. That makes it all so much
easier to learn those languages because the base is there.
I?m pretty much of a word junkie anyway and would love to be able to
speak 25 languages like the famous Charles Berlitz from the Berlitz Schools. I also think that English is quite fun to learn because it is a
live language which is developing all the time and everybody can
contribute along the way. I think the English Language will be the formost
spoken language of the future world and every country will have its own accent of English. That should be pretty colourful.
What do you think about that?
Thanks for your quick response. Bruce.

[Rahel]

I have read your speech attentively, Bruce. I can understand you. You have the strong motivation in learning Latin. You use this dead language in your job. By the way where do you teach English ( what country)?
English is your native language?
Rahel

[Bruce]

Hallo Rahel,
If you want to know more about my work, please check out this
Website link :

http://www.english-team.com/wir_fuer_sie/

As you will see I work in Germany most of the time.
Bruce.

[Bruce]

Rahel,
I?m glad you are crazy about English and not from English otherwise it would put other people off learning it.
Even the Doctors would prescribe a medicine for English crazies
and the Ministry of Health would probably release a recommendation bill as to how much English one can practice per day without going crazy.
Of course it would be limited to speaking and learning English at acceptable intervals - like driving a truck with a Tachograph.

This would be something like your regular Vitamin intake and of-course
if you didn?t speak enough, then you would have to take in more English exposure in the form of Radio, T.V. and Movies or personal contact through Travel or English Language Courses.
Can you imagine that all this would be paid for by your regular health
insurance ... and what?s more the typical clinical medicine would not be
enough. You get Private Alternative Healing Practitioners who would offer you a foot massage to adjust your accent by rubbing your acupunture points in the right place and releasing energy in your grey matter by rubbing your toes to help you learn easier.

Yes, the future of English has many possibilities and I think I can wind-up
with some good English Doctor advice:

A Verb a day is the well balanced way.
In for a Noun, in for a Pound, or Don?t be a clown - use a Noun.
The best Objective is an Adjective.
Avoid superstition place a Preposition.
Perplexed with a function, make it a Conjunction.
Stop the blurb, insert an Adverb.

Hope you like it and keep taking the medicine.
Any funny comments please?
Bruce.

[terminator]

Greetings Bruce! I see you are a good doctor. All our life is a large hospital. Then I was at school I was sure that a school was a large hospital and the teachers were doctors in this hospital. The teachers were responsible of treatment pupils' grey matter.
Now I see that my concept is completely right.
Bruce , is the treatment necessary?
Greetings for Rahel. I was glad to hear you in our forum
Terminator
_________________
eat at pleasure
drink with measure

[FrankU]

[Bruce]

Hi Terminator,
You are right! You went to school to get programmed by different kinds of Doctors - each with there own specialty. You were born with a Hard Disk Drive - HDD (grey matter) with a basic Operating System - OS (subconscious mind) and this obviously needed to be continually Programmed (through the 5 senses) with new Software (Books, Writing on the Blackboard, Verbal explainations, Learning By Doing).
This had to happen between the ages of 6 and 21 to enable you to survive and operate in your environment. This effectiveness of you taking on the new Software by Programming depended on your ability to accept the information which would be governed by two factors :
1. Your natural intelligence
2. your parents financial capacity.

1. If your natural intelligence was damaged, corrupted or influenced by a Virus, Worm, Spyware & Adware (exposure to trauma, threat, or manipulation) then this would inhibit your ability to learn naturally with joy and enthusiasm which would open the gates to your own creativity,
originality, initiative, self-reliance, self-confidence and strength to make your own decision to which Software you would like to program yourself with. This self-confidence can happen anywhere between the ages of 6 and 21. This brings me to factor two.
2. Your parents financial capacity to buy you the best Software and most importantly to protect you from every form of Virus, Worm, Spyware & Adware on the Market (your contact with the real world). If they had a lot of money then your parents would send you to a top school where you would get top Virus protection (isolation from danger to trauma, threat or manipulation). Your own Firewall (your parents) may of course be penetrated by other advanced Software (T.V., Movies, Radio, Direct Marketing, Telesales etc.) and then have been Programmed (by Politicians, Religious leaders, Business people, Gurus, Teachers etc.) without knowing it to allow you to take on certain Software which may not be in your best interests. There are a lot of Pop-Ups (Adverts, Marketing strategies) around today so you have to be careful to weed out the best with your Spam filter (your natural Intelligence - Reason & Intuition) and make sure you don?t allow them to get Saved on your Hard Disk Drive -HDD (subconscious mind) by a click with the Left Mouse Button (saying Yes - that?s good, I like it). If you click your Right Mouse Button (saying No - I want to know more before I?m sure) you can check out a few more details to see it is healthy or good for you.

You have learned (AE) / learnt (BE) of course that today there is a very useful Software (information) which you - in your maturity - have chosen to Program (through your 5 senses) which will help you in your lifes progress in establishing your career, earning money and probably expressing many of your own ideas.
That Software is called the English Language and just like Microsoft Windows it is speading all over the world.
Once you have the Basic Programmes of Word, Excel, Outlook, MP3/RealPlayer, Access, Front Page, Power Point and Internet Explorer
( Writing, Reading, Speaking, Listening, saving Data of Words/Sentences/Idioms etc., Practicing English, Presenting your English and finally using your English in unfamiliar places) you will need to continually update and refresh your practice and use otherwise the Software (Language) will be developing without you and you will then have to keep catching up.
What do you think about that Terminator?
Anybody else like to comment???
Bruce.

[terminator]

Hi Bruce! I have read your speech and I suppose
Mustn't compare man with computer. You must remember about feelings, perception, character,sense of humour......

Terminator
_________________
eat at pleasure
drink with measure

[Bruce]

Hi Terminator,
Ok let?s consider man as a Holistic being composed of Four Dimensions.
Body, Feelings, Intellect and Soul ... or Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual. Everything that you allow to be programmed on your subconscious mind (Soul) will express itself on all the other three dimensions at particular times and for certain reasons. This is indeed a large subject to get into and we should be keeping it to the English level.
This kind of discussion belongs to another platform. We will be starting a Cross-Cultural Forum very soon and this could be a subject that belongs there. Meanwhile, we as Human Beings are NOT computers or machines
and the analogy was given to help express a point of view. Analogies are wonderful instruments to help us learn, and I have used a few to help teach English. As a closing point there are some valuable books written by some very enlightened people available about the Subconscious Mind.
If you are interested check out :

1. Joseph J. Murphy - Power of the Subconscious Mind
2. Earl Nightingale - The Strangest Secret
3. Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich

all these books are easy to find at the Amazon Website

amazon.com - J.J.Murphy

or go to

nightingale-conant.com - E.Nightingale & N. Hill

Ok terminator lets get back to the rest of the Forum and see what other interesting subjects are coming up. We can carry on this subject whenever
you like. Any comments out there???

Best Wishes, Bruce.