learning a new language

[Undertoad]

It didn't occur to me that I'd really really want to be able to speak another language until about 7-8 years after high school.

Sure, if I'd have known, my attitude would have been different. On the other hand, how can a high schooler have the understanding to know the value of speaking another language? Only if they're educated.

And I got decent grades in those classes, so what was I being evaluated on?

A few years back my wife and I were comparing notes on our high school experiences. "And I got the Physics prize, for being the best Physics student," she said. "Wow, Physics, I wouldn't have expected that," I said. "Tell me something. What's Ohm's law?"

She didn't know. The most basic law of electronics, a major part of Physics.

But I knew it - and I would never forget it - because instead of Physics, I took Electronics Shop. I would have failed Physics the way they taught it; the most important aspect of the class was good lab notes, and I was not capable of nor interested in that sort of meticulous toilet training. Instead, I took a class where I had 60 IQ points on the average kids, and learned some of the most important, lasting things ever. Because we didn't have "lab" - we just "built stuff". We wrapped our own coils, put voltage through our own circuits. We didn't take any goddamn notes; we heard and smelled the blown capacitors when somebody didn't get something quite right. We even etched our own circuit boards -- a wonderful gift to me, when I didn't even know I'd be heading into Computer Science.

Maybe some people can learn from lectures and bogus "labs" and meticulous "lab notes" and so forth. But I can't help thinking that, if I'd taken "French Shop" instead of "French", I'd still be speaking it today.