Growing up in Germany, learning a minumum of two foreign languages was and still is mandatory if you want to enter university. Most students preparing for university will actually learn three. So I took English, French and Latin. While I liked English and French classes, even though I wasn't really good at them, I always hated, hated and hated Latin. And at the same time I knew all along that Latin was crucial for a better understanding of my mothertongue as well as the foreign languages I was learning. Don't regret a single day of it. And it is certainly one reason that my English spelling is better than that of most native speakers (I proof read often enough in my job to know). As an adult it was easy for me to pick up some Suahili while travelling. Or take a few weeks of Spanish before a vacation and then at least be able to use some polite phrases - opening up another world of opportunities to discover another country and culture. In the province I live now language learning is not mandatory anymore. They are trying to re-instate mandatory Second-Language-Education at least for Grades 4 through 9 but after decades of not doing it, schools struggle to find qualified teachers (who would want to become a language teacher in a time when no student HAS to learn one???) and build resources. My 6th grader so far has had some French in gr. 4, even got a grade in her report card for being taught 30 minutes once every 2 weeks (reading the report card was the first time I found out that she "learned" French, there was never any homework, exam or such). How the heck can anybody learn a language that way??? It got "better" in gr. 5 where she had 25 minutes of French twice a week. Still, no way to get kids to learn a language. And since it's not even offered at all now in gr. 6 she's all but forgotten everything she's done before. And has come to hate learning another language because of this awful way of language instruction :-( I really want my children to take up French again in Jr. High where it will be available as an option. But I am at a loss about how to convince them when there is absolutely nothing in the school system indicating the importance of such a choice.

Speaking as a foreign language teacher of thirty years - if you want to really learn and retain a language, learn to read it. Speaking is the skill we usually acquire fastest, but it's also the skill we lose the fastest. With reading, we have added the visual sense, which reinforces our memory! So even if there's no one around to speak with, one can always go online to a foreign language site or pick up a book, e.g. Languages are primarily related by grammar, even if there are discrepancies in vocabulary. American, Canadian, and British English are virtually identical in grammar and are considered pretty much identical, despite the bonnet-hood and nappie-diaper thingie. I am bilingual in English and Hebrew and also read Arabic. Moni, I can just imagine the difficulty your Chinese friend is having. Hard to think of two more different languages than Chinese and English!

I have a problem with saying teachers and other state employees' pensions are what's making the states drown. How about all the government waste and fraud. How about welfare, food stamps, housing, heating, healthcare, etc. etc. etc. for so many people that refuse to work. Go ahead, slam me. But it's true. I can absolutely tell you that all those things are totally abused in the area where I live. So very many of them just don't want to work, and why should they? I know there are people that truly need help. But it should not be generational. My husband is a retired state worker, a prison guard in a maximum security prison, don't tell me he doesn't deserve the pension he earned, and which, by the way, he contributed to all his working years. Do you know how kids act in these schools now? Do you know there's not a damn thing a teacher can do to them? Do you know teachers are not allowed to fail any students? My sister is a teacher in MD, has been teaching for 17 years, she's never failed a student. Her principal goes in and changes the failing grades. If they have too many kids fail, they lose state funding. I have 2 nieces that just starting teaching this year. One first grade, one sixth grade. The sixth graders are horrendous! They are too cool for school already. The parents have been called, repeatedly. Where there's not family structure, no one at home to teach these kids right from wrong, and that there are consequences for their actions. When there's no one at home to make sure they eat properly, get enough sleep, take a bath, and let them know they are safe and loved, they aren't going to give a d@mn about school.

Ha! Let's continue. Think what a beautiful word "honeysuckle" is. In Italian it's "caprifoglio", meaning goatleaf; German has the same name, only translated: "Geissblatt". Similar for "dandelion", from French "dent de lion", "lion's tooth" (who knows why): it got translated in German to "Lowenzahn" (I'm leaving out the German umlaut markers: the double dots over the vowels). Cath's common names are lovely: thank you! A rich source of common names in English is 'Jekka's Complete Herb Book' which I bought a fair number of years ago when I wanted a basic guide to herbs. This is a very satisfying volume, by the way, informative, handy to use, and graphically appealing. Take Lunaria. The English, I understand, call it "honesty"; the American name I've always heard is "money plant". In Italian it's "monete del papa": "the pope's coins". Where the name "honesty" comes from I don't know; all the others refer to the flat silvery seed capsules, which resemble the moon, or silver coins. There are some fine Latin names, too. I wouldn't mind being called Hesperis matronalis myself. But the best botanical name of them all is the generic name of the cocoa plant: Theobroma, "Food of the gods". P.S. Cross post: Virginia, you're right, it does.