Expanding the Barrier

What if you do not want to take French, Spanish, German, or Latin? What about other languages, including some that may be more useful or popular than the ones given? Would more people be passionate and would GPAs rise if there were more options? So we decided to ask a few of our peers if they would benefit in anyway, and this is what they said:

Do you think you personally would benefit from adding language options at school?

Lukas Boba-Rouce: “No because I already know what language I’m going to take.”

Clare Scala: ”No because I like the language take right now.”

Maggie Reinhart : “I think so. I think it would be cool to learn another language that is different from the options we have at school.”

Emma Swanson : “Yes I think I would.”

Karina Lin : “Yes, I do.”

Alex Direnzo : “No, I personally would not.”

Karina Lin : “Yes, I do.”

Ava Malfregeot : “Yes.”

Caroline Curran : “No I like Spanish.”

Justin Gibbs : “Yeah I think I will because I want to learn Mandarin.”

Do you think others would benefit from adding language options at school?

Clare Scala: “Yes, I think that teaching languages like Mandarin would be really interesting and beneficial. We also have a large chinese population at North Allegheny and it would be really cool to have some language representation there.”

Zoe Etzel : “Yes other people probably would”

Ava Malfregeot : “Yes of course.”

Lukas Bobak-Rouce: “Yeah. Some kids want to learn chinese because becoming more and more popular.”

Karina Lin : “Yeah. More people could benefit from taking a different language than the ones we already have at school.”

Caroline Curran : “Yeah because it could benefit for their future and where they could travel.”

Justin Gibbs: “Yes because many people are culturally diverse and it would allow people to express their diversity in a new light.”

Do you think new languages should be added to the curriculum? Or do you think that four is enough?

Maggie Reinhart : “I think it would be nice to add maybe one or two more.”

Karina Lin : “The school should add more to the curriculum for sure.”

Ava Malfregeot : “I believe we should have a broader expansion of languages.”

Alex Direnzo : “I think four could be enough, but if they added more it would be fine”

Clare Scala : “Four is a lot, but Latin isn’t spoken much anymore, so to have another language currently spoken would be really nice.”

Justin Gibbs: “We could take away Latin and add a different language that is more currently spoken.”

Caroline Curran : “I think new languages should be added because it enhances our students’ education.”

Is it a good thing that our school allows the option to choose what language course a student would like to take, or do you think we should be forced to take a certain language?

Clare Scala: “It’s good we can choose for sure because some people choose certain languages based on their future job.”

Emma Swanson : “We should be able to choose our own language based on whatever we want to do.”

Maggie Reinhart : “We should definitely get to choose because I have been in a situation where I had to be forced into taking a language and it was not the best.”

Ava Malfregeot : “I think we should have the option because some of the languages are not for everyone.”

Caroline Curran : “We should definitely get to choose because they will not excel in a class that they will not enjoy.”

Justin Gibbs: “It is very good that we get to decide because it helps us choose what we get to learn and develop in.”

All in all, all the students have mixed opinions on whether or not new languages should be added to the school.

New Language Ideas Of Students

Languages Taken By Students Interviewed