Arizona republican., 1917-12-31
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
Languages in tho Schools

The Editor, Republican,
 Sir: I congratulate you on the ex- cellent good sense displayed in your editorial on the question of foreign languages in school.
 It is perfectly true that very few pupils in school ever acquire suf- ficient of a foreign language to be of any use to them-in the very rare oc- casions in which they might have oc- casion to use it.
 It is true, however, that modern languages might be taught upon a bet ter system than that generally em- ployed. Too often what the teacher teaches is not the language itself but the grammar of the language it's skeleton, what he was taught himself and about all he is competent to teach. The examination system, no doubt, compels him to some extent to adhere to that method. A far better practical result could be obtained if the en- deayer were not so much to teach the pupil to write the language correctly always very difficult matter-as to encourage him in the very much easier reading and in the comparatively easy understanding of the spoken tongue.
 The bulk of the words in the French dictionary, for instance, are either the same as our own or connected with our own. With a few explanations, a little work on the verb. and a small vocabulary of the most common words, an intelligent person can read a French book with but little difficult ty, provided he selects one on a sub- | Ject he understands and in which he Is interested. A skilful teacher really well acquainted with the language working Tn as many as possible of the words which are the same so as to teach the pronunciation practically. can in an incredibly short time have ms class following his talk-provided always that he can make it interest," ing enough to hold their attention. admit that this is a slipshod rather than a scholastic method, but in the Work-a-d day world the main point Is | to understand and be understood Mo- body ever lost an order because he used the indicative instead of the sub Junctlve, and it is infinitely better to use the indicative wrongfully once in a While, as we all do even in English, than not to speak at all.
 But with all that, although linguis-
 ties IS my own particular hobby, l endorse all you say. one little point
 excepted. The time spent could be put to better use.
 1HC punt OI NnlCn make the e1-
 ception is in regard to the phrase you
 use about Mexican" To speak of ii
 as ''patois'' seems to encourage the
 common error that it is not true
 Spanish. It is just as much Spanish
 as the language we speak ourselves is
 English. The Spanish spoken in Mexi-
 co, as in all Spanish coun-
 tries save one, differs from Castiliar . in the pronunciation of the c. But Castilian is not generally spoken ir Spain itself, and the variations arc , greater there than in the language spoken generally on this side of tht
 Atlantic. One or two peculiarities 1T
 the tongue spoken by the ignorant ' puzzle the man who learned his Span. ish from a book: but these once no. . ticed he should have no more difficul. ty than he would have in Spain. Any. one in Phoenix listening to one of oul Mexican fellow citizens may be quit, l sure that he will hear nothing but ex
 cellent Spanish.
 } The belief of the Spanish American l is that as the nineteenth century wa North Americas, to, South Americ; } will belong the twentieth. Spanisi
 here IS worth while, if the pupil him ' self is inclined to it.
 5 Yours truly.
 l T. H. BELL. l 16eS East Washington St.
 b Dec. 29.