Washington Hebrew
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Anonymous
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Here's an AA who wants to start a Hebrew school:
http://deadspin.com/5863039/amare-stoudemire-is-contemplating-founding-a-hebrew-school |
Anonymous
| "Although another source close to Stat tells the NYDN that he has no such plans in the works...." |
Anonymous
| Honestly, guys, I think an Hebrew-Arab school might be a really interesting concept. But you have to start taking this a little more seriously. An anecdote does not make a dataset, and you will get hammered if your only basis for claiming appeal to AAs is that one guy once thought about starting a similar charter. Plus, some of the "facts" posted so far about location and student body seem almost made up or, putting it a little more nicely, wishful thinking. That I'm not alone with this sneaking suspicion, and that there's broader skepticism of some of the claims made so far, is clear from the posters who asked for sources on the Florida charter. Respect us, and we'll respect you! |
Anonymous
| Immediate PP, do you mean a school with immersion in both Hebrew and Arabic? I personally think that would be fantastic and thought of that when I first heard about the school. I haven't kept up with all the messages in the thread but think it would be fantastic. |
Anonymous
I think a few people on this thread may have suggested the idea before I did, but I don't know what exactly is being planned. |
Anonymous
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Foreign language instruction is woefully behind in the U.S. A whole network of bilingual schools would be a great idea, especially in an internationally-oriented city like ours.
Why not Hebrew or any other language? Hebrew texts are one of the foundations of Western civilization and modern Israel is a country where non-Jewish Africans and Eastern Europeans immigrate, too. And why not study religious texts (Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Arabic, Slavonic, etc.) in a secular context? Why shouldn't D.C. be a place to train future experts in the histories and cultures of the world's peoples? |
Anonymous
Um, religious texts are not written in Modern Hebrew and there are not enough Modern Hebrew speakers in the world to warrant a bilingual immersion publicly funded charter school in DC. |
Anonymous
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A sampling of languages more widely spoken than Hebrew, according to Wikipedia:
Southern Quechua, Batak, Turkmen, Mossi-Dagomba, Armenian, Sukuma-Nyamwezi, Tshiluba (Luba-Kasai), Santali, Venetian, Kongo, Hiligaynon, Tigrinya, Mongolian, Bhili (Wagdi, etc.), Danish, Minangkabau, Kashmiri My bet is that DC has as many Tigrinya speakers as it has Hebrew speakers. Tigrinya-language education for everyone! |
Anonymous
But Modern Hebrew is a resurrected version of Talmudic Hebrew, and is therefore a not-too remote descendant language of Biblical Hebrew. It took no training for me to learn to read Middle English, and only a bit more work to learn Old English. I'm imagining that Hebrew would work the same way. Beyond that, does DC charter law actually require that charter schools focus on studies with actual practical applications? Isn't there a dramatic arts focused charter, and a visual arts focused school (SAIL, which folded due to scandal rather than a problem with its charter)? I could be wrong, but my understanding is that if a school uses Hebrew, Amharic or Serbo-Croation but its students score adequately on the CAS and are otherwise prepared for further education, there's no problem. |
Anonymous
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Census data on languages spoken at home in the U.S.:
Spanish or Spanish Creole 11,116,194 French (incl. Patois, Cajun, Creole) 1,550,751 Italian 1,618,344 Portuguese or Portuguese Creole 351,875 German 1,586,593 Yiddish 315,953 Greek 401,443 Russian 173,226 Polish 820,647 Serbo-Croatian 150,255 Armenian 100,634 Persian 106,992 Chinese 630,806 Japanese 336,318 Korean 266,280 Vietnamese 197,588 Tagalog 474,150 It's time for Washington Yiddish! |
Anonymous
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Wait, sorry that's 1980 data. Here's 2007:
Spanish or Spanish Creole 34,547,077 French (incl. Patois, Cajun, Creole) 1,984,824 Italian 798,801 Portuguese or Portuguese Creole 687,126 German 1,104,354 Yiddish 158,991 Greek 329,825 Russian 851,174 Polish 638,059 Serbo-Croatian 276,550 Armenian 221,865 Persian 349,686 Chinese 2,464,572 Japanese 458,717 Korean 1,062,337 Vietnamese 1,207,004 Tagalog 1,480,429 |
Anonymous
| And you're looking at US Census Data. I'd imagine the bulk of those Yiddish speakers are in NY (Brooklyn, specifically). Does anyone have census data on DC languages spoken at home? |
Anonymous
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Census data on distribution of language speakers from 2007:
Hebrew: 213,576 speakers Other languages more widely spoken in the U.S.: Spanish 34,547,077 Chinese 2,464,572 Tagalog 1,480,429 French 1,355,805 Vietnamese 1,207,004 German 1,104,354 Korean 1,062,337 Russian 851,174 Italian 798,801 Arabic 767,319 Portuguese 687,126 Polish 638,059 French Creole 629,019 Hindi 532,911 Japanese 458,717 Persian 349,686 Urdu 344,942 Greek 329,825 Gujarathi 287,367 Serbo-Croatian 276,550 Armenian 221,865 Hebrew 213,576 Mon-Khmer, Cambodian 185,056 Hmong 181,069 Navajo 170,717 Yiddish 158,991 Laotian 149,045 Thai 144,405 Scandinavian 134,925 Hungarian 91,297 |
Anonymous
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Countries we trade more with than Israel:
Korea, South United Kingdom Saudi Arabia Venezuela Taiwan France Ireland India Nigeria Russia Italy Brazil Malaysia Thailand Switzerland Netherlands Israel |
Anonymous
| Time for the Thai charter. No, it won't be exclusively Buddhist but will allow exposure to Thai culture. |