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Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 451, 8 December 1904, Page 3

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Jtfnerieim Women hub a Hutv' itut Acquire a KAowleiQ* «€ ' *-;-.YJ-J A serious detect to the education of moat American women it their failure to acquire in their youth conversational facility in other lanpages than their own. Many girls include a foreign tongue or two in the list of their studies, but it is simply eye skill that they secure, ability to read and write they language with varying degrees of excellence. When the earnest comes it :'-: ia the exception when" they are not almost helpless, says Harper's Bazar. An English girl is not considered ed-, •> i heated until she is fluent in at least one other than her native language, ■/% ah"d she often speaks two or three >» easily. A trip abroad illuetr»te»„,and emphasjtees .the facti that Americans ara very provincial iniithe matter of languages. In a group of foreigners taken at random, German, French and Italian, together with English, one of the hardest tongues to learn, will be heard interchangeable among its members; it is not until an Amer- , ican joins the group that the talk through courtesy to \hiß or her limitations, becomes restricted to - En- ] glish. In Sweden, French, German and English are obligatory studies in the curricula. The kindergarten -,.' children are taught the language in*; delightful fashions, the girls with their dolls and kttchsn-garden classes, the boys with games and sports and the like..