Iran Bans English in Primary Schools | Hacker News Reader

Iran Bans English in Primary Schools

nytimes.com

30 pointsrmason18 comments

All Iran's Mullahs accomplished with this stupid ruling is to make learning English much cooler among the youth because now it's forbidden.

True, the Streisand effect in action. But even if they can accomplish their goal of keeping people from English language information there's plenty of people that know English already and will spread what they learn. "Information wants to be free," is a truism.

I don't support this (more schools in every country should teach foreign languages in primary school), but AIUI from the article learning English is not now forbidden for young people in Iran, it's only now blocked in primary schools, where it didn't happen much anyway:

    The teaching of English usually starts in middle school
    in Iran, at the ages of 12 to 14, but some primary 
    schools below that age also have English classes.

The thing I found most insightful in this piece is that Iranian primary schools were teaching English.

As someone from a country that has English as its first language, I often lament the fact that I don't know any foreign languages and feel a sense of choice paralysis with so many languages to learn. It strikes me that for many learning English as a second language isn't a choice.

The only foreign languages I was introduced to were French and German, and these were in secondary school. I couldn't speak either then, but I found my understanding of spoken French improved when I spent time around Geneva. Can anyone outline the norms for English teaching in the rest of the region and the rest of the world? I often wonder if I'd been born in a particular country, by what age could I expect to be reasonably proficient?

> Can anyone outline the norms for English teaching in the rest of the region and the rest of the world?

I'd be interested in this too (or other languages, where it would be appropriate, such as the extent of French teaching in Canada, or Spanish in the USA). I suspect what Iran is apparently not doing any more is very uncommon around the world anyway.

English is tought as a second language (or third language in bilingual countries) in most of the world.

You would be hard pressed to find a country without ESL classes for it primary and secondary schools.

> English is tought as a second language (or third language in bilingual countries) in most of the world.

In primary schools, commonly?

In Russia, for example, it's one of the common subjects you start studying in middle school and continue up to the last year in high school. Also almost each college/university course also has English as one of the subjects with inclination towards the course major, e.g. more chemistry-related topics if your major is chemistry, etc.

Thanks. You may not be old enough to know from experience, but how does this differ (if at all) from the Soviet period?

AIUI Soviet citizens didn't generally learn English in (high/middle) school, which I always thought a bit surprising (assuming that's correct), and for some reason I have the idea German may have been taught in the USSR. (An idea which may simply derive from Russian being taught in East German schools.)

Well, I was born in 1978 and did experience the last years of the USSR, but I also know from my parents` experiences and from the old text-books, that there was a foreign language taught in Soviet middle/high schools and colleges for decades. Upon some research I've found that a foreign language was introduced as a common subject in to the schooling programmes in 1927 in the USSR. Initially that was German. Even in my school years I know that German, French, Italian and Spanish were still taught in schools, but English was more popular.

It would be surprising if they didn't study foreign languages in schools in the USSR considering that the country was surrounded by "enemies".

Thanks. And yeah, that's one reason I always thought it was surprising if they didn't teach English, since it was the (primary) language of 'the enemy'. Plus whatever faults the USSR may have had, education seemed to be pretty good.

Yes and some much ealier than Iran, I’ve studied English since the second grade until 12 (age 7-18) both written and verbal exam are also required to attain a high school diploma.

I never learned my English proficienfy in school, let's face it learning a language requires more than a few hours a week in a classroom. Watching TV, playing games and reading books will get you there after a few years. Hell I have immense difficulty now reading stuff in my native language (English is wonderfully efficient).

Besides Iran can grumble but even the French have to use English at universities now because that is the language of science.

But it was a start to English proficiency, without the (little) you learned in school I doubt you would've been able to learn as much from TV and reading books, because you need to start somewhere.

It's bullshit, of course.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/01/how-mainstream-media-lo...

Fascinating how the same credulous repetition runs though the major press as through the "social media" they deride.

The article you posted agrees with TFA. Not sure what you think is bullshit.

From TFA:

"The teaching of English usually starts in middle school in Iran, around the ages of 12 to 14, but some primary schools below that age also have English classes.

"Some children also attend private language institutes after their school day. And many children from more privileged families who attend nongovernment schools receive English tuition from day care through high school."

According to the article I linked to, there was no 'ban', only some government official saying something about existing curricula. No doubt they're paranoid about foreign meddling, but then who isn't?

That’s a great way to shoot yourself in the foot.

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