@stux It was actually part of the curriculum in my state that for an advanced high school diploma (intended for those going to college), you had to take 3 years of a foreign language or 2 years each of 2 languages

@stux Je zou toch denken met de tekst van het Wilhelmus "Een Prinse van Oranje ben ik, vrij, onverveerd, den Koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd." dat er meer zou worden ingezet om ook Spaans te leren op scholen ipv alleen Duits, Engels, en Frans...

@RandamuMaki Indd!

Ik schaamde me dood laatst in Spanje.. Maar twee woordjes die ik ook geleerd heb

@stux Ik heb vroeger eigenlijk alleen Spaans geleerd via Bassie & Adriaan op TV.

In Viva España snapte Bassie niet wat er nou gezegd werd, dus Adriaan probeert het hem even simpel uit te leggen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqUAEhdjQc

En dan is er De Spaanse Les, onderdeel van een serie aan liedjes over andere talen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1OV9KojYDM

@RandamuMaki Aaah helemaal vergeten ja! Dit keek ik vroeger ook en zeker dat ik me dit herriner

Echter op school is het helemaal afwezig

@stux Many US schools have Spanish as part of their curriculum, but it's not a required part - it's only an elective. Couple that with the... interesting... people that it's obvious are a major part of our country and it's no surprise that a lot of people don't know a word of Spanish.

@stux Vast ooit er een keertje uitbezuinigd...

@stux was good enough to generate a meaningful English output through Firefox translate so no te preocupes amigo

@RandamuMaki @stux "den Koning van Hispanje" was de keizer in het Heilige Roomse Rijk en regeerde over zijn persoonlijke bezit "den Nederlanden" via lokale heersers. Het Heilige Roomse Rijk bestond grotendeels uit Duitsland, Oostenrijk, maar ook uit andere gebieden. Het was alleen zo dat de Keizer ook koning van Spanje was maar niet in die hoedanigheid de Nederlanden regeerde.

@stux no bad Spanish, pretty accurate! As a native speaker I would say

Cierra la puta boca, gringo de los cojones.

But I'm very passionate about badmouthing when it is about Americans being racists.

@therealprocyon @stux En welke taal zou die dan heden ten dagen spreken? Nu noemde je Duitsland en Oostenrijk, dus Duits? Die word op school al gegeven. Maar Spaans nog steeds niet. Ook geen Italiaans, waar ook een keizer uit het Heilige Roomse Rijk vandaan kwam. Het blijft lastig te snappen hoe er maar aan drie van de Europese talen aandacht word geschonken in het middelbaar onderwijs. Zgn. polyglotten creëer je door een zo'n breed mogelijk scala aan talen aan te bieden. Gemiste kans.

@trebach @stux

I went to high school in California and they require one year of a "foreign language" or visual and performing arts to graduate from high school.

It's 2 years minimum and 3 years recommended of "Language Other Than English" (LOTE) if you want to go to university there.

This means a lot of people there already speak at least basic Spanish.

@stux
Hay! I can read that (without translation)!

@stux So sad. Alexa, play Despacito.

@svavar @trebach But does it matter where in the US you live depending if you learn (basic) Spanish in school?

@svavar @stux The foreign language requirements for a high school diploma vary per state if that's what you're asking.

My state just said "a foreign language", so in my county someone could take 3 years of French and still fulfill that requirement. Other counties could easily have other language classes but we just had Spanish and French

@stux Reminds me of the "joke" about Bubba chastising some guy for not speaking English... the punchline is he's speaking Navajo/Dine/Cherokee/some language that's been there long before his WASP arse ever was...

@stux queer answer? America's a big place. _And_ *if* you live in a place where a lot of your schoolmates hablan espan~ol, then you pick it up, PDQ. (It's fascinating to hear your classmates - white and Latino alike - code-switch mid-sentence.... )

I would love to live just long enough to see America pass a law that Spanish is mandatory in grade school, just as the Dutch did about English back in the mid-80's...

(Me? I took Latin. Quidquid latine dictum sit... and it's helped a lot with both the French and the Dutch...)

@stux my primary school didn't offer languages, my parents dont speak another language, and I didn't know many people who spoke Spanish growing up. I had the same number of neighbors who spoke Spanish as I did who spoke Dutch (1). First time I was offered a Spanish class wash 9th grade, and the school's Spanish program was very bad.
I'm now working on self study, but still very hard when I don't have anyone to speak it with. I can read it decently though.