Subject:
|
Re: Lego Bots in Germany???
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.robotics
|
Date:
|
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 18:28:45 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
641 times
|
| |
|
|
In lugnet.robotics, Mikkel Benedikt Breiler Mikkelsen writes:
> lego-robotics@crynwr.com (Tilman Sporkert) wrote:
> > are on the CD. Although many Germans learn English in High School, it is
> > probably way beyond the capabilities of almost all 9 - 12 year old kids in
> > non-English-speaking.
>
> Highschool equals 11th through 13th grade in Denmark. By that time the
Well...
> public schools will have taught the students english since 5th grade,
> while some private schools teach english from 4th grade. the 10th year
> in Public and Private schools is optional, but usually a student of
> High School will have 5 years english prior to going to high school
> and a total of no less than 6 years (5th-9th grade + 1 mandatory year
> in High School) but maximum 8 years.
>
> OTOH German is also mandatory but from 7th grade and first year in
> High school is mandatory too. That means 3-4 years in public school
> and 1-3 years in High School.
>
> French is even less, optional in 9th and 10th grade, and 1 year
> mandatory in High School.
>
> Spanish, Russian, Italian and perhaps some other exotics are High
> School only.
>
> With all of that under our belt I find it hard to understand why
> germans would only have english in High School and no english in
> public schools?
Because they misuse the English word in a different way from
the way you misuse it. Speaking from a German background
"High School" starts in 5th grade, and there are three different
tracks, one of which one chooses before starting 5th grade (and
switching up or down one track later is not unusual).
Roughly, they are the blue-collar track which goes to either
9.5 or 10 grades (cannot remember)(prepares for craftsman apprenticeship),
the white-collar/limited-university track to 10th grade,
and the full-university preparatory track to 12 or 13 years.
There's also a mixed version, which stinks.
On one hand, you can quit the 12/13-year track after 10 years and
have the same diploma as a middle-track absolvent; on the other
hand, some people go through the middle track to decide at the
end whether they want to do the final 2/3 years of high-track for a
full college-entrance diploma (while the middle-track is more well-
rounded then high-track quit after 10th grade would be).
English? All tracks start English in 5th grade - though there is the
occasional primary school that starts it in 3rd grade - I learned
a bit from a schoolbook for that purpose when I was in 3rd or 4th
grade, and I'd say they cover at least the 5th grade's worth
of material in 3+4.
I think the lower tracks also have optional French/Spanish in 7th
grade or later (don't really know).
The high-track has you choose French or Latin as a 2nd foreign
language (which these days ends during 11th grade in some states
and goes longer in others); optionally, one can choose the
remaining of the two (or sometimes Spanish, maybe even Russian)
in 9th grade.
There is the odd school that starts Latin in 5th grade and English
in 7th; not very common. This stems from the fact that a certain
number of years of Latin with a certain final-semester grade is
an entrance requirement to a rather too wide variety of
university studies in Germany.
While switching between these tracks is possible, each forms
a separate school, which houses all years from 5th to the end.
And yes, these are public (meaning state-run and individual-fee-free)
schools. (There's an old term in German that connects "public"
with non-university-prep minimum schooling, but that's archaic
now and not translatable to English as such - it sounds like
your meaning of "public school" comes from the same root
Bottom line, the average recently-schooled German has 6-9 years
of English schooling. (which is not to say that there's not a big
gap between "Schulenglisch" and enough-to-live-on vocabulary :)
-gbr
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Lego Bots in Germany???
|
| (...) So they don't - the way they treat the english language indicated that they not push it early in schools, or did not do that until fairly recently. (...) High-School in Denmark is actually called Gymnasium, but that would without explanation (...) (25 years ago, 13-Oct-99, to lugnet.robotics)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego Bots in Germany???
|
| (...) Highschool equals 11th through 13th grade in Denmark. By that time the public schools will have taught the students english since 5th grade, while some private schools teach english from 4th grade. the 10th year in Public and Private schools (...) (25 years ago, 24-Sep-99, to lugnet.robotics)
|
8 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
