Should all schools in SA teach in English?

James

James

MyGaming Alumnus
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Free State University rector Jonathan Jansen is wrong if he pleads that all school education in South Africa should be in English, FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder said on Wednesday.

"He [Jansen] confuses proper education principles with his own hidden nation building recipe."

Mulder was reacting to media reports on Jansen saying teaching in English from school to university level could be the solution to South Africa's education problems.
...read more here: Should all schools in SA teach in English?
 
I feel that schools should teach pupils English as a subject, but what he's proposing is ridiculous.
 
I like the fact that he's always supposedly being misquoted or what he says is misinterpreted. If it happens once, yes - but on multiple occasions - suspicious
 
Yeah the 11 languages thing is pretty retarded. I can see how it was important for the whole "new South Africa"...but its really time to quit with the BS and focus on being competitive on the world stage.
 
I have to agree, or even limit it to 2 or 3. It's universally spoken...until the chinese take over :p
 
Echoriath said:
I like the fact that he's always supposedly being misquoted or what he says is misinterpreted. If it happens once, yes - but on multiple occasions - suspicious
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The big problem with Prof Jansen is he is trying to bring across an intellectual message to people who approach everything emotionally.

As an Afrikaans speaker, I agree with him completely. I ended up doing my highschool classes in English & switching over to higher grade Math in Matric in English was a bitch! I did all my studies thereafter in English and I see no point why we should bother with other languages (afr. included). It doesn't make sense. We aren't developed enough to operate independently.

You'd do yourself a big favour if you start listening more to what Prof Jansen & Moeletsi Mbeki have to say.
 
I think it is incredibly unfair that English and Afrikaans are the only available languages from Grade 3 to Matric. We either have to go the whole way (i.e. everyone gets mother tongue education) or English is the only medium. The first option is completely impractical, so that only leaves the second.
 
Wyzak said:
Yes but not necessarily from grade 1. (I'm Afrikaans).
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But then they have to do transition from one language to english and that will take time. Then again they could study Doxa Deo and adopt their method but it may be expensive
 
There's a shocking amount of ignorance in some of these posts. You can't just drop people's languages, or expect vernac speakers to learn only in English; imagine the impact on our already abysmal academic performance?

Prof Jansen's intentions are spot on, I think. If you teach people in their mother tongue and make English a standard second language subject, you could theoretically maintain fair and unbiased education while still creating a foundation of a universally understood and more globally practical language.
 
Dan said:
There's a shocking amount of ignorance in some of these posts. You can't just drop people's languages, or expect vernac speakers to learn only in English; imagine the impact on our already abysmal academic performance?

Prof Jansen's intentions are spot on, I think. If you teach people in their mother tongue and make English a standard second language subject, you could theoretically maintain fair and unbiased education while still creating a foundation of a universally understood and more globally practical language.
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That's what I said, just not in those exact words :o
 
They should teach in english since my friends child got penalised with a project since he can't write in afrikaans properly since he wasn't strong in it and couldn't write it in english when he asked the teacher and it was for art.

I feel sorry for the people who don't know Afrikaans or other languages as well and had no choice in schools.
 
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I speak 3 languages & still maintain English is the only one that will rise us from poverty.
 
English is intergalactic basic. If aliens feel it is necessary to speak it so should humans.


In all seriousness though, if you you want to do business with the rest of the world you have to know English. In all the countries I've been too I've got by just fine using English. Would have got nowhere if I spoke xhosa or sotho etc.

its just the way it is.
 
See, Brad tells it like it is.

If you were a powerful nation like France/Germany/China/Japan or an independent like Scandanavian countries, you can do just fine with sticking to your own language and you are big enough for others to learn YOUR language in order to do business with YOU.

Furthermore, most other languages are technically superior. African languages would have to invent words for half of the technical terms used in business/industries today. It just doesn't make logical sense.
 
Voicy said:
See, Brad tells it like it is.

If you were a powerful nation like France/Germany/China/Japan or an independent like Scandanavian countries, you can do just fine with sticking to your own language and you are big enough for others to learn YOUR language in order to do business with YOU.

Furthermore, most other languages are technically superior. African languages would have to invent words for half of the technical terms used in business/industries today. It just doesn't make logical sense.
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The thing is I'm always amazed at how many Germans and Swedes know English and fluently at that.
 
Go visit Hong Kong, their official language is Cantonese but their university is exclusively English. High school is also a dual medium there as far as I know
 
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