> But what about Spanish, you say? Makes sense to teach Spanish in central Texas, doesn't it? Spanish is even more widely spoken than German, right?
>
> Ostensibly, yes. But this is where we run into the Illogic Factor.
>
> I never took the Spanish courses myself, because I had a distaste for the rather unsavory Hispanic element in my school (This is not a racist comment. I'm talking greasy, aggressive, abusive, quasi-legitimate knife gang types here), but I heard the horror stories. It seems that all the Mexican kids who took the Spanish course were flunking miserably, despite being fluent in Spanish already.
>
> So what went wrong?
>
> The curriculum was teaching *Spanish* Spanish. Which is fine if you're on the East coast, or even on the upper West coast, or perhaps even in Florida, but in Texas, it doesn't make *sense* to teach Spanish Spanish. It wouldn't make sense to teach it in California, either.

Castellian(sp) Spanish? Ack! ¡Qué cosa!

> The point of learning Spanish at all, in my opinion, is to be able to communicate with Spanish-speaking people. What good is Spanish Spanish going to do you, though, when all the Spanish-speaking people you are liable to encounter speak *MEXICAN* Spanish?

No kidding!

> The sad part is that the Spanish teacher herself was a native Mexican, and yet she adhered to the curriculum rather than appealing for a change. To her credit, she DID try to flavor her classes (again, I was never IN her class, I just heard second and third-hand accounts) with culture and a bit of dialect information, but on the whole it just wasn't enough to make the difference.

*Hits his head on the desk several times*

> Sometimes, I just have to wonder what goes through the minds of the people who make the rules.

"Spain, Mexico, what's the difference? It's all Spanish..."

> I often wonder if they're even playing the same game as the rest of us.

Sounds like they're playing games while students who think they're learning Spanish they can use *right* *there* are learning the way it is a gulf and an ocean away...

> -Trunks (No habla Espanol...)

Nyper"Qué lastima..."