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Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 11:24:13 GMT
From:         George Welling <welling@FREYA.LET.RUG.NL>
Subject:      Re: I don't know much history ...
              atJan 24, 93 04:53:55 pm

> I have also heard that language teaching in schools in the
> Netherlands, which used to be outstanding, has deteriorated in
> the last ten years or so. Perhaps George Welling could refute
> that for us.


I do not think I can refute that. When I started studying History in 1971 in
Amsterdam, one was expected to read all the modern languages (and indeed we
had handbooks in all of them) and Latin and ancient Greek. The next year,
Latin and Greek were dropped, and a couple of years later, only English became
the required modern language. When I became a teacher at Amsterdam University
in '83 students were constantly complaining when they had to read articles in
English. In high-school they are obliged to take one of the modern languages
next to Dutch and most often they will take English. When I was in high-school
in the sixties, we had French, German, English and Dutch in most school-types:
I was in the classical gymnasium and we also had Latin and Greek.  We also got
the opportunity to learn eather Russian or Spanish for two years, so I took
Spanish also.
But I do not want to be that negative about it. Most students have a much
better active mastering of the English language than we had. Accents like most
of our diplomats and ministers have when they try to speak English, are
becoming rare. The influence of TeeVee and rockk and roll, and much more
emphasis on speaking than on reading than in my days. Most of the students are
capable of writing in English.
Changes in the curriculum are not always for the worse. My wife, who studies
the history of education, says that complaints about the quality of
education are nothing new: they have always been there. Still I think that the
average quality has improved.

Sad that one of my all time favourite songs led to this discussion

        don't know much about history
        don't know much about biology
        don't know much about science books
        don't know much about the French I took
        but I do know that I love you
        etc...

             =                         =                           =
          ___|_____                 ___|_____                   ___|_____
         /         __|____         /         __|____           /        __|____
      _|__        /      /     _|__         /      /      _|__         /      /
    /    /_______/______/     /    /_______/______/      /    /_______/______/
   /____/    | ______|__     /____/    | ______|__      /____/    | ______|__
______|______|_\  o o o | ______|______|_\  o o o |  ______|______|_\  o o o |
    \  o o o o o o o o  |     \  o o o o o o o o  |      \  o o o o o o o o  |
     \                 /       \                 /        \                 /
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     George M. Welling - dep.Alfa-Informatica HCI - University of Groningen
     phone : +31 50 63 54 74  | fax : +31 50 63 49 00  | welling@let.rug.nl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU