Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Marta Sherwood-Pike]

Yes, this is definitely a problem. The woman who supervised first and
second year Russian here at the University of Oregon (now, alas, deceased)
assigned a slim book, English Grammar for Students of Russian, to remedy
this problem. It really is a pity that Latin isn't a required subject in
grammar schools (as opposed to vocational high schools) any more, for if
you have two years of Latin, you may not know Latin, but you do know
grammar of Indo-European languages. -Martha Sherwood-

On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Stephen J. Bobick wrote:

> Marta Sherwood-Pike wrote:
> > Half of the small class consisted of Koreans and Japanese,
> > who had already learned a language not closely related to their own
> > (English), and I, fairly proficient in Russian, grasped the concepts of
> > the very different grammar, but the other Americans were clueless. Most
> > American students emerge from high schools without the mental skills to
> > learn difficult foreign languages, chiefly because they are not exposed to
> > a bilingual environment in their childhood.
>
> In addition, I would argue that a major difficulty is that many do not
> have a firm grasp of English grammar.
>
> -- Stephen Bobick
>
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