Waldorf Education and Foreign Languages

"The aim of foreign language teaching is to encourage a positive attitude towards people of other cultures and languages, as well as fostering human understanding generally through establishing the ability to empathize with another person's perspective on his or her own language, culture, attitudes and mentality, thus helping the pupil see the world in a more differentiated way."

Aims:

- Practical goal of being able to understand one another. 

- Introduce the student to character, customs, traditions, literature, geography and history. 

- Assist the overall development of the child.

- Give the student a different way of viewing the world to broaden their own perspective. 

Why learn a Foreign Language?

"Learning foreign languages orally strengthens the pupils ability to listen to another person, to follow and grasp the other person's spoken and unspoken intentions, since it enhances sensitivity."

"Being competent in at least two other languages supports the ability of flexible, mobile thinking, since the different languages allow access to different realms of experience and this in turn stimulates greater interests in the world and other people."

"Language is threefold in its basic nature. It facilitates self-expression, communication and provides a framework for dialogue, speaking and listening. Secondly, language is a means of structuring and representing concepts and thoughts. This enables the child to map out their experiences. Thirdly, language is revelatory by nature. Steiner-Waldorf takes the view that language, in its phonic, lexical and syntactical elements gives expression to something of the essence of what it describes."

Source: The Tasks and Content of the Steiner - Waldorf Curriculum 

We are often asked "Is learning two foreign languages too much?"
We have families who practice a foreign language on their own at home and wonder if adding German with Four Fold Enrichment would be too much?
We have families who question whether they should also enroll in French or if German and French at once is too much?