Does foreign language choice in HS matter?

[Anonymous]

Especially for Engineering schools, does the foreign language chosen in high school matter for college admissions? Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Latin, etc?

[Anonymous]

no

[Anonymous]

Hindi, Chinese or Arabic might help if offered depending on the type of engineering

[Anonymous]

It absolutely should matter. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean, are substantially more challenging to native English speakers than languages like Spanish, French, etc.

That said, it probably isn’t taken into consideration much, if at all.

[Anonymous]

My older kids took Russian and I absolutely think it helped them with college admissions. It's a very difficult language and always considered one of the "critical" languages for national security. That said, my youngest took French through AP level and that didn't seem to hurt her acceptances. I think they mainly want to see commitment to one language through at least the 4th yr.

[Anonymous]

No. But if one had to rank.. Latin would be at the top

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. But if one had to rank.. Latin would be at the top

Mandarin Chinese is not only more difficult for a native English speaker to master, but pragmatically it’s not even a fair fight. Latin will come in handy when you’re planning to storm the Vatican or if you ever gain access to a time machine … for literally everything else, bet on Mandarin Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. But if one had to rank.. Latin would be at the top

Mandarin Chinese is not only more difficult for a native English speaker to master, but pragmatically it’s not even a fair fight. Latin will come in handy when you’re planning to storm the Vatican or if you ever gain access to a time machine … for literally everything else, bet on Mandarin Chinese.

Latin is actually impactful for medics and lawyers. But you couldn't possibly have known that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. But if one had to rank.. Latin would be at the top

Mandarin Chinese is not only more difficult for a native English speaker to master, but pragmatically it’s not even a fair fight. Latin will come in handy when you’re planning to storm the Vatican or if you ever gain access to a time machine … for literally everything else, bet on Mandarin Chinese.

Latin is actually impactful for medics and lawyers. But you couldn't possibly have known that.

AI is shitting over both of those career tracks as I reply. But please, regale us further re: the value of Latin over Mandarin Chinese in the 21st century.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think an average kid can master any language just learning it in high school. So from this POV it doesn’t matter.
Maybe it’s better to have Latin (less common,
Good for test taking, good for history/medicine/law/science, smaller classes) than Spanish when a kid can’t get past dos cervesas por favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think an average kid can master any language just learning it in high school. So from this POV it doesn’t matter.
Maybe it’s better to have Latin (less common,
Good for test taking, good for history/medicine/law/science, smaller classes) than Spanish when a kid can’t get past dos cervesas por favor.

It’s almost 2024.

The combination of the internet, St. Google, and AI obviate every last one of those “good for” preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. But if one had to rank.. Latin would be at the top

Mandarin Chinese is not only more difficult for a native English speaker to master, but pragmatically it’s not even a fair fight. Latin will come in handy when you’re planning to storm the Vatican or if you ever gain access to a time machine … for literally everything else, bet on Mandarin Chinese.

Latin is actually impactful for medics and lawyers. But you couldn't possibly have known that.

AI is shitting over both of those career tracks as I reply. But please, regale us further re: the value of Latin over Mandarin Chinese in the 21st century.

'oh I agree Mandarin is more important and significant than Latin. I never said it wasn't. Perhaps its time for you to put the bottle down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think an average kid can master any language just learning it in high school. So from this POV it doesn’t matter.
Maybe it’s better to have Latin (less common,
Good for test taking, good for history/medicine/law/science, smaller classes) than Spanish when a kid can’t get past dos cervesas por favor.

It’s almost 2024.

The combination of the internet, St. Google, and AI obviate every last one of those “good for” preferences.

DP. I know, right?! It's not like speakers and readers of critical languages are being hired hand over fist for national security jobs!

[Anonymous]

Learn Spanish (at least first) to show you have a desire to be able to communicate more easily with a huge part of our population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish (at least first) to show you have a desire to be able to communicate more easily with a huge part of our population.

This. x 100.
I live in California where for 50% of the population this is the native language.