Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

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Cavesa
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Re: Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

Postby Cavesa » Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:31 pm

arthaey wrote:
1e4e6 wrote:I do find it weird that students not only have to take the language class, but also history, literature, and other humanities even if they are a physics student.

I think the idea here is that the American university system aspires to teach students to become "well-rounded" and "educated". I even think this is a good goal, but for many colleges I am more skeptical of the implementation & success in meeting this goal...


Isn't that the point of attending highschool?
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galaxyrocker
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Re: Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

Postby galaxyrocker » Sun Aug 30, 2015 9:02 pm

Cavesa wrote:
arthaey wrote:
1e4e6 wrote:I do find it weird that students not only have to take the language class, but also history, literature, and other humanities even if they are a physics student.

I think the idea here is that the American university system aspires to teach students to become "well-rounded" and "educated". I even think this is a good goal, but for many colleges I am more skeptical of the implementation & success in meeting this goal...


Isn't that the point of attending highschool?



Not at all. High school is about teaching you the basics to become somewhat of a functioning adult (though whether this is true or not, I don't know - I can't tell you how many don't know how to balance a checkbook, for instance). They don't generally offer things like philosophy or religion, or specific history classes.
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Cavesa
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Re: Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

Postby Cavesa » Sun Aug 30, 2015 11:48 pm

galaxyrocker wrote:
Not at all. High school is about teaching you the basics to become somewhat of a functioning adult (though whether this is true or not, I don't know - I can't tell you how many don't know how to balance a checkbook, for instance). They don't generally offer things like philosophy or religion, or specific history classes.


Ah, thanks for the explanation. That is a totally different purpose of highschool. We had tons of classes on philosophy, religion, history and such stuff at highschool. Actually, too many, for my taste.

Here, it is the opposite. Unless you go to a specialized highschool preparing you for a specific career that doesn't require university (and those schools are getting worse and worse and lack the normal education part mostly), you go to a general highschool that is supposed to be exactly a preparation to university and to make you a well rounded educated human being. Well, the reality is not ideal too. A general highschool without university is quite useless. And it doesn't teach you to balance a checkbook either.

I'd say the problem with both systems is that you need to waste many years of life to become a full value citizen who can surely get a job and not be that jeopardized by changes on the market (that is the gravest problem of people without university everywhere, it seems). Both systems are quite inefficient. We are basically "children" at the age at which the generations before us used to found families. The consequences are not all pleasant. I'm afraid some parts of your system are gonna be implemented here (there is always the "original and modern" politician who admires the US too much and tries to implement pieces of it out of context and without thinking first) and the hybrid is gonna be even worse than both originals.
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robarb
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Re: Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

Postby robarb » Mon Aug 31, 2015 1:43 am

I think until recently in the US college was mostly reserved for the upper classes. Few people went to college, so you could get an above-average job without going. Therefore, compared to today, those who went treated it as more of an education than a job training. Requiring a language made sense in that system, and most universities haven't had time to adapt.

Today, so many people have access to college that it's become a requirement for many good jobs, and therefore students come in with a much more job-oriented attitude. This really hurts the effectiveness of the language classes and other general education requirements.

I still think a well-rounded college education is incredibly worthwhile, but only if the student goes in with the right attitude. The problem is when students come in looking for job training and are forced instead into a well-rounded education. In reality, both are available in the US, but lack of information and social pressures have resulted in a situation where many students aren't getting the education that fits their priorities.

So it isn't exactly that the classes are bad, but more that a disconnect has arisen between the people who take them and the people who need them.
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languagecrawler
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Re: Rosetta Stone - Love / Hate

Postby languagecrawler » Thu Oct 08, 2015 3:18 pm

My bet is that RS software will eventually become free on-line or possibly access to all languages for a small monthly subscription fee.

The company will make money by encouraging users to pay for on-line tutoring lessons and other add-ons.
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