WDB
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A-levels
Nov 14, 2018 23:31:21 GMT
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Post by WDB on Nov 14, 2018 23:31:21 GMT
Sixth form options evening at Boy2’s school. Himself had various ideas of what he might want to do, but he’s come home with a list reading Drama, French and English. I don’t want to interfere — but how will he eat?
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A-levels
Nov 14, 2018 23:37:59 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2018 23:37:59 GMT
I'd be asking him what course he fancied at University and whether or not those would help him get it.
Actually as A Level choices on the way to Uni they're fine. As A Level choices on the way to a job, then not so much.
But you think you have issues; #1 has her heart set on Special Forces.
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A-levels
Nov 15, 2018 4:46:57 GMT
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Post by dixinormus on Nov 15, 2018 4:46:57 GMT
Languages are always useful, although they don't tend to guarantee good salaries. Teaching is an obvious vocation. Handy for travelling and exploring, i.e. working overseas with a TEFL qualification to fund the sightseeing! ,
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WDB
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Nov 15, 2018 7:51:31 GMT
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Post by WDB on Nov 15, 2018 7:51:31 GMT
German is worth €120,000 over a career, according to The Economist; French about €70,000. Actually, all three have their uses. I’ve met some impressive drama graduates (one, coincidentally, from this same school) working for event management companies, where the ability to coordinate complex processes to a timetable comes in handy. And standards of spoken and, especially, written English in the business world are woeful, so he can usefully distinguish himself there. Actually, I’d be happy with him doing any two of those, plus maths. Those without maths are going to be left behind in the post-AI job market. But you think you have issues; #1 has her heart set on Special Forces. Does the Chilean army have an elite face-painting regiment? 🤡
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Nov 15, 2018 8:52:36 GMT
Language degrees end up earning you jack shit. Ask me how I know.
English plus "contacts" can get you fluffy well paid work in the City of course. Better do it at Oxbridge though to get those "contacts" if you haven't been to a Public School or Daddy doesn't have a Hedge Fund.
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WDB
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A-levels
Nov 15, 2018 9:14:20 GMT
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Post by WDB on Nov 15, 2018 9:14:20 GMT
This aspect of our education does make me cringe. We put sixteen-year-olds through the stress of public exams in a dozen subjects, none of which they know well enough to be useful. (Try sending a teenager with a GCSE A* in French to find out the price of a family ticket to the museum and you’ll see what I mean.)
And then, before they’ve even half-mastered any of these subjects, we expect them to drop all but three for the subjects that will define their lives for the next 50 years. Imagine the society we could have if everyone did maths, English and a foreign language up to 18. We wouldn’t be in the current political shambles for a start.
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Nov 15, 2018 9:40:16 GMT
This is why we've chosen a school for our children which offers the IB instead of A Levels. Also why I'm broke and have a 13 year old shitheap on the drive. Albeit one with 6 cylinders.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 12:57:36 GMT
Maths, Phys, Chem will get you anywhere.
English Language is vital and although not necessary as an A-level, must be studied beyond GCSE to enable grammatically correct report writing.
Anyone with a parent from a foreign country should be required to take an additional exam in that language to enable overseas trade by people fluent in that tongue.
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Nov 15, 2018 14:12:16 GMT
My children have a parent from a foreign country but have not been brought up to speak that language (this was a decision their mother took which I disagreed with but, hey ho, I am not a dictator). Do they get an exemption?
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Post by Humph on Nov 15, 2018 14:26:27 GMT
Interesting one that. I've a friend who's parents were Italian UK residents and neither he nor his sister speak any Italian. I always thought that was a pity, but his parents chose only to speak English around the children.
On the other hand, I've another friend who is half German/half British and has a French wife. He speaks English and German to native standards, his wife speaks English very well, and of course French fluently and their kids speak all three languages fluently. Which I think is a good thing.
I'm pretty competent in German and get by in Italian and French. All of those have been of great use to me in both my working and private life.
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Nov 15, 2018 14:41:34 GMT
Yeah, I think it's a shame. Too late now. Not that Serbo-Croat skills are in the heaviest demand.
At the time Mrs A was still a bit ashamed about the civil war, and the fact that the country had been bombed by the British Air Force recently, and she didn't want to give the kids any kind of burden which could lead to being bullied at school. I thought it was a risk worth taking, and that time would deal with the issue, but there you go. Serbs at the time were being written into almost every Hollywood movie/TV show as baddie terrorists (see early series of "24" as an example), before the US Government stepped up and took that honour from them, handing it to the Muslims. Which is deeply ironic for us given that Serbs were considered to persecutors of Muslims (with some justification) at the time.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 16:09:20 GMT
>>Does the Chilean army have an elite face-painting regiment? 🤡
You could ask her, but I wouldn't stand too close while you did it.
It is the UK Navy and RAF she is currently talking with. Which is not to discount the Army, just where she is at the moment. She is following the Marines suggested training schedule at the moment, it would have killed me at that age, never mind now.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 16:09:40 GMT
My second hand experience of children of friends who now live in Israel. English is very much the second language of the country anyway (like French is here but more so), but native speakers almost all have good jobs in businesses where international trade is vital; banking, IT and science/medical. I have one cousin who refused to teach his children English and they are now worse off than other cousins who grew up bilingual. Some children have parents who are also from France or South America, so are tri-lingual and I have friends from Tunisia with whom a conversation takes place with three languages in one sentence; French, English and Hebrew.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 16:14:36 GMT
My children are utterly fluent in English and Spanish, to a native level, and can get by in Portuguese.
But it's damned hard work. Grammar and vocabulary are the struggles. So much of that comes from simple exposure to the language and simply speaking it at home is not enough.
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Post by Humph on Nov 15, 2018 16:16:48 GMT
I actually quite strongly believe that Brexit ( so sorry to mention that word again ) wouldn't have gained a majority vote in the referendum if learning a foreign language to a reasonable standard was compulsory at school in Britain.
If other neighbouring countries are a mystery to you, and you can't easily communicate with people from them, they do indeed seem "foreign" and remote.
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