Santiago.- The president of the Chamber of Deputies asked Education minister Melanio Predes to invest funds generously and improve efforts to teach the English language in public and private schools, to have a generation which spurs the nation’s growth in the immediate future.
Julio Cesar Valentin said those nations which invest in education and whose youth can communicate in another language are the most competitive, attract the most investment and major levels of wealth.
Speaking in the New York Languages and Cultural Center Institute’s 24th commencement ceremony, Valentin said by speaking English the 245 graduates can find new job opportunities and other horizons in life. “Santiago must be an intelligent city, with Wi-Fi in all corners and open wireless communication for all, so it’s the first bilingual city in all Latin America.”
The lawmaker said will has no obstacles and urged the graduates to forge ahead to achieve the success their life awaits.
He said he‘ll pay the way for five students, jointly with the Dominicana International Foundation (FID), headed by Leonardo Garcia, to travel to the United States as a cultural interchange program “I want to be an International Leader to help others.”
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 1:16 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
BOY the pre-election rhetoric is being laid on thick!
Written by: xwill7, 7 Dec 2009 1:17 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
Yes, they should teach it as a second language. Even the illegals have the upper hand on this... they know french and english.
I know a guy that came back from Punta Cana and was mad because the person at the resort did not understand that he wanted coffee.. We are loosing tourist due to this
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 1:20 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
"Julio Cesar Valentin said those nations which invest in education and whose youth can communicate in another language are the most competitive, attract the most investment and majors levels of wealth."
Mr. Valentin appears to be smelling the coffe josean and others at DT have been brewing for years now.
Sior, you got the talk now lets see the walk amigo!
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 1:22 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
Amazing that METROS don't teach English, eh LIE-onel Fernandez!
Written by: yowzerDR, 7 Dec 2009 1:23 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Sounds like a positive goal that can be achieved with obtainable action and social support. Make it happen :)
Written by: xwill7, 7 Dec 2009 1:35 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
people love to receive US dollar in DR... they should learn the language
From: United States
yes, xwill, that is so. because the yanks are the true big spenders, and the true big tippers. the Euros get by on vacation with a few hundred pesos a day for trinkets. but, the yanks do not want difficulties on vacation. they do not want to have communication problems. that is why they prefer to go to the british islands, where people understand them in THEIR language. some people call their demand for english speaking people arrogance; i call it convenience. if a member of their travelling party gets an illness while on vacation, they want to be able to communicate with the medical staff, and not end up buying preparation -h instead of bacitracin.
Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 2:10 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
Now if they could push a law to force parent to help their kids in school that would solve most of the education problems in DR. Because lets face it what good does having a good education system where parents spend 37 percent of their salary on presidente and Brugal. How do we know the system as it is. is the main problem and not the parents and students themselves just a thought from a guy who was lucky enough to have parents who care for their child education and happened to go to (JHS) school in DR. Don't you guys think that would be a better place to start because we can learn from others countries mistakes that throwing money at problems doesn't fix it and we know we don't have money to throw around.
From: Dominican Republic
Great ! Can we also get some desks for the students?
Written by: abc200, 7 Dec 2009 2:21 PM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
Maybe French and Chinese as well. Ancient languages - Latin and Greek could also feature Some schools in Europe teach students four foreign languages.
S.
Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 2:40 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
abc200
Now i'm starting to believe what GlomaExplorer said that you are the google engine of wacky ideas. Yes we must teach languages but 4 languages in a third world country when will these kids have time for other subjects like Math and Biology which are soon to be more important due to the facts that we now know about DNA and how computers are moving into every field.
Written by: juanb, 7 Dec 2009 2:47 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Looking to fit an awful lot into a 2 1/2 hour school day, aren't we.
Dread: Rather than hoping that our people learn English, let's help our English speaking visitors to speak a little Spanish. For their health and safety the should all receive a piece of paper that says, "I am sick. Get me out of here. The incompetency of the doctors here is legendary. Take me to the airport now. Thanks" in Spanish.
That's all they need.
From: United States
juanb, i am all for that. unfortunately, since we really need the yankee dollar more than they need our sun and sand, we sometimes have to eat crow. the USA is the most notoriously unilingual developed country on earth. go to Europe, and you hear english everywhere. the inhabitants of europe all speak various languages, besides their first languages. americans seem inpervious to learning languages. i know guys who have lived in the DR for 25 years, and can barely order a beer in spanish. you see, americans believe that if people wish to speak to them, they must first learn the language americans speak. i have even heard them saying "why the hell won't he speak english"?, and i have to remind them that the guy is in his country, and it is the yanks that should learn some spanish. then again, you have heard of the "ugly american" have you not?
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 3:04 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
Belly,
If parents do spend 37% 9 (?), I don't know because in Dominican culture people have penchant for rectal figures. But the issue is that those parents you accuse of being irresponsible where probably the children of irresponsible adults, who were the children of irresponsible adults and so forth.
What you choose to call irresponsibility may be that more than like it is a dose of general ignorance fester by neglect whether parental or societal.
The point is we can keep chasing our tail trying to figure who is to blame in a chicken or and egg dilemma. We must deal with what we know. You say the parents are the problem, if that is the case how do we solve it? Because by continuing to point at them, as the sole culprits we solve nothing. This under educated mass will continue to have children that will not be motivated to value education as the main vehicle to self and societal progress and hundred years from now we will be have the discussion.
continued:
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 3:05 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
So we either sterilize everybody or we grab the bull by the horns and begin to educate the parents and the children on the value of education to finally break the vicious cycle ignorance and education deficiency.
That is what responsible governments and leaders do in a democratic society. That is unless you believe that the majority of Dominicans are genetically predisposed to be ignorant, which I think you don’t or at least I hope so!
From: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo
I agree that is it a dismay that the americans ,in particular ,do not try to learn to speak english correctly or spanish at all,but it is al part of their built up culture of superiority that is being progressively displayed as vanity.
However,it is important for dominicans to learn english to advance their business,social and educational chances and it is a good chance for residents from english speaking countries to assist by teaching in schools or privately . I ,for one ,am going to extend my classes to one new school in 2010 and hope others follow . I hope the catholic church will do more to assist .
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 3:28 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
"I hope the catholic church will do more to assist ."
I sincerely hope you are not standing while you wait for Ayatollah Nicky to chip in a penny!
Written by: abc200, 7 Dec 2009 3:37 PM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
The French government might go back to sponsoring after school French lessons in the DR.
Perhaps the President in his visits to Europe could encourage the French to sponsor more French lessons and also cultural exchanges.
S.
Written by: xwill7, 7 Dec 2009 3:42 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
dread,
but I think the teachers need to learn proper english first before teaching it. no more sammy sosa style english
From: United States, Brooklyn
When Haitian replaces us and all dominicans to be found are in the US, i guess it makes perfect sense to start learning english now!
Written by: xwill7, 7 Dec 2009 4:04 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
good one
Written by: xwill7, 7 Dec 2009 4:04 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
good one
Written by: lovingit, 7 Dec 2009 4:10 PM
From: United States, Delaware
Teach them English, bilingualize the country, French is not needed, but could be an elective, though Dominicans would probably benefit more from learning Portuguese (which would be much easier to learn) than French.
The top business Languages of the world are English, Spanish, Portuguese... French is a distant last.
A few sources.
http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.htmlhttp://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htmOn the second link, you'll see that French is still considered the 2nd most influential Language.. why? because it was once one of the language of choice (more than English itself) a little over 40 years ago, even Dominican Army men spoke it widely as a second language 40 years ago, and the reason it has stayed at that position for so long its because of the beaurocratic rats who hold power, that force it on their populations.
From: United States, Washington
I wonder where all the freaks are that are terrified of cultural-envasion... such hypocracy!
I think it's good, our kids should learn english, french, japanese, and as many other languages we can teach... THey should also learn about social, political, civic and human rights, democratic processes, personal financial planning, and other key skills that will help them be good citizens and productive individuals.
Written by: lmejia, 7 Dec 2009 5:10 PM
From: Canada, Toronto
I can't believe what those children are writing on!! Yes, spend more money in Education but before you spend the money on second languages at least buy the schools proper furniture, our schools at least need the basis of desks and chairs first. What a disgrace!!
It just shows how lucky some of us were and still are!!!
Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 5:45 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
Josean
So we either sterilize everybody or we grab the bull by the horns and begin to educate the parents and the children on the value of education to finally break the vicious cycle ignorance and education deficiency.
Both Parents and child need to be educated and farther more train young parents into skill trades or parents them selves can take online training and stop posting picture and watching videos online and start taking advantage of all the free training available online for free i.e. MIT opencourseware for those who speak English and Open Consortion for those who want to learn another language there are 100s of option to get it done now days but is now up to the people them selves to take advantage of these opportunity and now even easier with INDOTEL providing free internet in many places and even computer usage. The moral of the story is don't put more money into a problem if the efficiency of both the user and the systems is below 30%.
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 5:52 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
belly,
We generally agree on something. Now that wasn't that hard was it!
PS:
Check this out and let me know what you think! This something that could be studied and given a platano flavor!
http://www.hcz.org/Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 5:54 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
Like the old saying goes "you can take a horse to the river but you can't make him drink water" because that's something he must do him self. By no means i'm saying that politicians don't have a play in this game because they do. One thing they can do is eliminate the many loops and monopoly like rules to start a trade school of many different skills like Electricians,HVAC and many other technological skills that require little effort and very little money. Maybe if at least the HVAC industry take off in DR then they will stop paying people from Florida the high salaries for basic maintenance taht can be done with very little knowledge. I know about the HVAC because that's how i paid for school and is a very good trade to bring into DR due to high demand for Air conditioning/refrigeration which by the way you can take a whole course online for free with just a computer/internet and 1 hour daily of your time. There are many options that don't involve the state money.
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 5:59 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
"It just shows how lucky some of us were and still are!!!"
lmejia,
You are so right about the luck factor, but some forget that and think it was all do to genes or personal genius, which accounts for something, but it real comes down for most just a roll of the dice.
However, in Banistan’s case it was a roll in the hay with the farmer’s daughter but that’s a story for another day!
Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 7:08 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
Josean
Check this out and let me know what you think! This something that could be studied and given a platano flavor!
In DR a project like this is only viable if you are willing to become a NGO type of school because no such project can be done with local donations. This is very good idea but it will require the will of the Mr. Canada version of DR to start it. I think that gov. has failed at attracting Dominican talent abroad and bring them back into the island because other than the head of the Bolsa de Valores and the OPTIC department which are both headed by very capable people i think there is a lot more talent in many more fields that could be attracted back into the island. In the computer science field there is a lot of Dominican talent that i have met to my surprise because i was under the impression that there were more Dominicans in the financial field due to wall street. anyways HCZ is a very good idea but it will need determination to be implemented in DR.
Written by: Belly, 7 Dec 2009 7:11 PM
From: United States, Seattle, W.A.
I personally have been going in/out of DR and USA. but hope to soon go back for good and share my knowledge with the general public. I'm not thinking of getting rich but more of sharing what i have learned and putting to good use and maybe do something like HCZ but on a small scale.
Written by: hvargas, 7 Dec 2009 7:45 PM
From: Dominican Republic
In a country were people had not mastered nor learned their own native language. Teach them Chinese.
Written by: temetito, 7 Dec 2009 8:03 PM
From: Dominican Republic
I don't know what's the problem, I chat with lots of girls from DR that never travel out of the country and most of them speak and write english about 85% or better, so I don't see the problem. lies and more lies to put the country down.
Written by: msjersey, 7 Dec 2009 9:05 PM
From: United States, New Jersey(Cibaeno/Los mina)
joseano already speaks french, english, and spanish, although sometimes he has a
problem with the word "perejil" but it's ok, we love him like that.LOL!
Written by: josean, 7 Dec 2009 9:09 PM
From: United States, Dedicating 4 more years to fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia
I love you too, but that’s and old, old, old joke, so with all due respect, please attack me with something more modern and for God's sake FUNNY!
From: United States, words of wisdom from the nutcracker
dont they already teach english in the colleges in the dominican republic, Im pretty sured of that. alot of dominicans travel back in fourth from america so there alot dominicans already speak english pretty well . even this website is dominican but everybody here talks english? you see the irony here cause i dont
From: Canada
Interestiing comments. Of course, I'm all for languages. Our kids are fluent in 3 and understand a 4th but only 3 in school. (International program).
abc, we cannot compare education systems in different countries and the local needs. In Europe, it is quite common (proximity of rather small countries and different languages). In many areas of DR (unless in private schools) , kids in elementary school don't get the same number of hours of schooling as in US, Canada and even less than in Europe. The curriculum is already quite heavy. There seems to be a LOT of days off as well... A lot of celebrations... As one said, how do you add even more subjects without cutting is what is basic? If they arrive in High School short of hours for basic subjects, they are caught again.
Also,and this is my field, there is a question of having teachers who can teach "basic practical english (or other) language" to function in society. And, if they don't have a chance to practise ???
From: United States, Bay Area, CA - (Dei sitio)
Why English for God sake, by the time our kids learn the language the US will be in bankruptcy, I will vote for Portuguese, since Brazil is taking off and moving by leaps and bounds...Future immigration will be heading south. French would be easier, tough as we already shelter 1 million + haitians, therefore teachers are abundant at low cost (Just Kidding...English & Portuguese is the way to go).
From: United States, Nyc, NY
This picture says enough,how can they expect these kids to learn anything,when they have to resort to using cement blocks as desks.How about investing more on education in general.
Written by: pelaut, 8 Dec 2009 8:29 AM
From: United States
B-b-bu-but, isn't it Russian they're supposed to learn?
Or Venezuelan?
Written by: abc200, 8 Dec 2009 10:31 AM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
Yes, vote for portugese and French, maybe latin. The fact is it is easier to learn a language at 13 than at 20.
Clearly the gifted should be given the chance to learn 2 or 3 more langages - English, Russian, Chinese.
Gifted children are the future of any country.
Many Haitian students are fluent in French, English and their native Creole.
S.
Written by: xwill7, 8 Dec 2009 10:47 AM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
abc,
you do not need to be gisted to learn english... any avg dominican student can learn it.. Are you saying Dominican kids are dumb???
Written by: AnthonyT, 8 Dec 2009 3:30 PM
From: United States, Lawrence, mass
This is not a good idea. From What I have seen there are many people in DR that cannot write proper spanish at all.
Why try to teach them english when they cannot even write spanish the right way?
Teach them how to write spanish properly and than move on to english.
I have seen people who hava graduated who have the spelling skills of a 4th grader.
Written by: abc200, 8 Dec 2009 3:58 PM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
xw More gifted children will find it easier to learn Russian Chinese and French at school. It is cheaper to teach in school than at university.Spelling is redundant now - any good computer has a grammar and spell checker. aC is so antiquated. Its all ifi now idea flow idiom. Its how the rap artists do it. They should be learning how to grow banana and keep bees instead.
Tolerance is great:
"
i don't castigate people for not
eating steak sandwiches;
and i would never diss someone
for being a ........ broccoli-head,
or living off of radishes,
or eating grass or tofu.
"
Beef and broccoli lyrics.
S.
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I know a guy that came back from Punta Cana and was mad because the person at the resort did not understand that he wanted coffee.. We are loosing tourist due to this
Mr. Valentin appears to be smelling the coffe josean and others at DT have been brewing for years now.
Sior, you got the talk now lets see the walk amigo!
S.
Now i'm starting to believe what GlomaExplorer said that you are the google engine of wacky ideas. Yes we must teach languages but 4 languages in a third world country when will these kids have time for other subjects like Math and Biology which are soon to be more important due to the facts that we now know about DNA and how computers are moving into every field.
Dread: Rather than hoping that our people learn English, let's help our English speaking visitors to speak a little Spanish. For their health and safety the should all receive a piece of paper that says, "I am sick. Get me out of here. The incompetency of the doctors here is legendary. Take me to the airport now. Thanks" in Spanish.
That's all they need.
If parents do spend 37% 9 (?), I don't know because in Dominican culture people have penchant for rectal figures. But the issue is that those parents you accuse of being irresponsible where probably the children of irresponsible adults, who were the children of irresponsible adults and so forth.
What you choose to call irresponsibility may be that more than like it is a dose of general ignorance fester by neglect whether parental or societal.
The point is we can keep chasing our tail trying to figure who is to blame in a chicken or and egg dilemma. We must deal with what we know. You say the parents are the problem, if that is the case how do we solve it? Because by continuing to point at them, as the sole culprits we solve nothing. This under educated mass will continue to have children that will not be motivated to value education as the main vehicle to self and societal progress and hundred years from now we will be have the discussion.
continued:
That is what responsible governments and leaders do in a democratic society. That is unless you believe that the majority of Dominicans are genetically predisposed to be ignorant, which I think you don’t or at least I hope so!
However,it is important for dominicans to learn english to advance their business,social and educational chances and it is a good chance for residents from english speaking countries to assist by teaching in schools or privately . I ,for one ,am going to extend my classes to one new school in 2010 and hope others follow . I hope the catholic church will do more to assist .
I sincerely hope you are not standing while you wait for Ayatollah Nicky to chip in a penny!
Perhaps the President in his visits to Europe could encourage the French to sponsor more French lessons and also cultural exchanges.
S.
but I think the teachers need to learn proper english first before teaching it. no more sammy sosa style english
When Haitian replaces us and all dominicans to be found are in the US, i guess it makes perfect sense to start learning english now!
The top business Languages of the world are English, Spanish, Portuguese... French is a distant last.
A few sources.
http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
On the second link, you'll see that French is still considered the 2nd most influential Language.. why? because it was once one of the language of choice (more than English itself) a little over 40 years ago, even Dominican Army men spoke it widely as a second language 40 years ago, and the reason it has stayed at that position for so long its because of the beaurocratic rats who hold power, that force it on their populations.
I think it's good, our kids should learn english, french, japanese, and as many other languages we can teach... THey should also learn about social, political, civic and human rights, democratic processes, personal financial planning, and other key skills that will help them be good citizens and productive individuals.
It just shows how lucky some of us were and still are!!!
So we either sterilize everybody or we grab the bull by the horns and begin to educate the parents and the children on the value of education to finally break the vicious cycle ignorance and education deficiency.
Both Parents and child need to be educated and farther more train young parents into skill trades or parents them selves can take online training and stop posting picture and watching videos online and start taking advantage of all the free training available online for free i.e. MIT opencourseware for those who speak English and Open Consortion for those who want to learn another language there are 100s of option to get it done now days but is now up to the people them selves to take advantage of these opportunity and now even easier with INDOTEL providing free internet in many places and even computer usage. The moral of the story is don't put more money into a problem if the efficiency of both the user and the systems is below 30%.
We generally agree on something. Now that wasn't that hard was it!
PS:
Check this out and let me know what you think! This something that could be studied and given a platano flavor!
http://www.hcz.org/
"It just shows how lucky some of us were and still are!!!"
lmejia,
You are so right about the luck factor, but some forget that and think it was all do to genes or personal genius, which accounts for something, but it real comes down for most just a roll of the dice.
However, in Banistan’s case it was a roll in the hay with the farmer’s daughter but that’s a story for another day!
Check this out and let me know what you think! This something that could be studied and given a platano flavor!
In DR a project like this is only viable if you are willing to become a NGO type of school because no such project can be done with local donations. This is very good idea but it will require the will of the Mr. Canada version of DR to start it. I think that gov. has failed at attracting Dominican talent abroad and bring them back into the island because other than the head of the Bolsa de Valores and the OPTIC department which are both headed by very capable people i think there is a lot more talent in many more fields that could be attracted back into the island. In the computer science field there is a lot of Dominican talent that i have met to my surprise because i was under the impression that there were more Dominicans in the financial field due to wall street. anyways HCZ is a very good idea but it will need determination to be implemented in DR.
problem with the word "perejil" but it's ok, we love him like that.LOL!
I love you too, but that’s and old, old, old joke, so with all due respect, please attack me with something more modern and for God's sake FUNNY!
abc, we cannot compare education systems in different countries and the local needs. In Europe, it is quite common (proximity of rather small countries and different languages). In many areas of DR (unless in private schools) , kids in elementary school don't get the same number of hours of schooling as in US, Canada and even less than in Europe. The curriculum is already quite heavy. There seems to be a LOT of days off as well... A lot of celebrations... As one said, how do you add even more subjects without cutting is what is basic? If they arrive in High School short of hours for basic subjects, they are caught again.
Also,and this is my field, there is a question of having teachers who can teach "basic practical english (or other) language" to function in society. And, if they don't have a chance to practise ???
Or Venezuelan?
Clearly the gifted should be given the chance to learn 2 or 3 more langages - English, Russian, Chinese.
Gifted children are the future of any country.
Many Haitian students are fluent in French, English and their native Creole.
S.
you do not need to be gisted to learn english... any avg dominican student can learn it.. Are you saying Dominican kids are dumb???
Why try to teach them english when they cannot even write spanish the right way?
Teach them how to write spanish properly and than move on to english.
I have seen people who hava graduated who have the spelling skills of a 4th grader.
Tolerance is great:
"
i don't castigate people for not
eating steak sandwiches;
and i would never diss someone
for being a ........ broccoli-head,
or living off of radishes,
or eating grass or tofu.
"
Beef and broccoli lyrics.
S.