HS language choice —does it matter

[Anonymous]

I took Russian, Latin, Finnish, German,and English. All are foreign languages to me. I took Spanish in college.
I'd take Spanish. The easiest and most useful in US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish to work in customer service with low income people. There are a lot of them, so this is very "practical".

Learn Mandarin or Russian to work at a 3 letter agency.

Honestly not everyone wants to work with the poor and not everyone wants to work at a 3 letter agency, so this debate can go on forever depending on your priors.

Your racism and prejudices are showing. Not all native Spanish speakers are either (1) poor or (2) living in the USA. There are tremendous opportunities for Spanish speakers in dozens of countries in law, business, etc. That you can actually communicate with Spanish speakers in the USA is a nice plus too.

Median Hispanic household wealth is like 63k compared to over 200k for non Hispanic whites; maybe lower middle class is more accurate than poor but the point stands. Not everyone wants to work retail with the general public.

As for opportunities abroad, you have to weigh those afforded by Spanish against those afforded by German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Those also have great business opportunities, so I don't see an obvious win for Spanish here either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took Spanish in MS and hated it. He switched to Latin in HS and liked it so much that he's considering majoring in it.

She should take what she thinks will be most interesting.

Congrats to your DS! Now he can speak with the, um . . . ancient Romans? Oh, wait! He can understand the Latin Mass! That's the ticket!

He can understand the structure and evolution of languages in a unique way. He can read some of the greatest literature the world has produced. He can study a language through a pedagogy that exercises both hemispheres of his brain. He can expand his understanding of linguistic roots to enhance his capacities in English. He can learn any Romance language _much_ more easily using his Latin training. He can read inscriptions, legal documents, and all kinds of academic writing up through the Renaissance and sometimes beyond. He can study the Middle Ages through primary sources. He can exercise his memory in ways that will expand his capacity for learning later in life.

Will there be anything else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish to work in customer service with low income people. There are a lot of them, so this is very "practical".

Learn Mandarin or Russian to work at a 3 letter agency.

Honestly not everyone wants to work with the poor and not everyone wants to work at a 3 letter agency, so this debate can go on forever depending on your priors.

Your racism and prejudices are showing. Not all native Spanish speakers are either (1) poor or (2) living in the USA. There are tremendous opportunities for Spanish speakers in dozens of countries in law, business, etc. That you can actually communicate with Spanish speakers in the USA is a nice plus too.

Median Hispanic household wealth is like 63k compared to over 200k for non Hispanic whites; maybe lower middle class is more accurate than poor but the point stands. Not everyone wants to work retail with the general public.

As for opportunities abroad, you have to weigh those afforded by Spanish against those afforded by German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Those also have great business opportunities, so I don't see an obvious win for Spanish here either.

You're truly an idiot. I never said that the average Latino family in the US is lower than the average white family. I said they're not all poor -- and they're not. And what's the bullshit about "working retail with the general public?" Don't lower income people need any other kind of assistance?

I also never said that there aren't opportunities abroad for other languages. I simply said there WERE such opportunities with Spanish, because you generalized all Spanish speakers as poor residents of the USA. In fact, over 90 percent of native Spanish speakers live elsewhere.

The bottom line is that you're a racist and classist prick. When you think "Spanish" you think of an uneducated janitor or the guy mowing your lawn. And that is plain disgusting. And, to be clear, being a janitor or mowing lawns isn't the disgusting thing. YOU are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took Spanish in MS and hated it. He switched to Latin in HS and liked it so much that he's considering majoring in it.

She should take what she thinks will be most interesting.

Congrats to your DS! Now he can speak with the, um . . . ancient Romans? Oh, wait! He can understand the Latin Mass! That's the ticket!

He can understand the structure and evolution of languages in a unique way. He can read some of the greatest literature the world has produced. He can study a language through a pedagogy that exercises both hemispheres of his brain. He can expand his understanding of linguistic roots to enhance his capacities in English. He can learn any Romance language _much_ more easily using his Latin training. He can read inscriptions, legal documents, and all kinds of academic writing up through the Renaissance and sometimes beyond. He can study the Middle Ages through primary sources. He can exercise his memory in ways that will expand his capacity for learning later in life.

Will there be anything else?

Yawn.

How much of this has he actually done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish to work in customer service with low income people. There are a lot of them, so this is very "practical".

Learn Mandarin or Russian to work at a 3 letter agency.

Honestly not everyone wants to work with the poor and not everyone wants to work at a 3 letter agency, so this debate can go on forever depending on your priors.

Your racism and prejudices are showing. Not all native Spanish speakers are either (1) poor or (2) living in the USA. There are tremendous opportunities for Spanish speakers in dozens of countries in law, business, etc. That you can actually communicate with Spanish speakers in the USA is a nice plus too.

Median Hispanic household wealth is like 63k compared to over 200k for non Hispanic whites; maybe lower middle class is more accurate than poor but the point stands. Not everyone wants to work retail with the general public.

As for opportunities abroad, you have to weigh those afforded by Spanish against those afforded by German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Those also have great business opportunities, so I don't see an obvious win for Spanish here either.

You're truly an idiot. I never said that the average Latino family in the US is lower than the average white family. I said they're not all poor -- and they're not. And what's the bullshit about "working retail with the general public?" Don't lower income people need any other kind of assistance?

I also never said that there aren't opportunities abroad for other languages. I simply said there WERE such opportunities with Spanish, because you generalized all Spanish speakers as poor residents of the USA. In fact, over 90 percent of native Spanish speakers live elsewhere.

The bottom line is that you're a racist and classist prick. When you think "Spanish" you think of an uneducated janitor or the guy mowing your lawn. And that is plain disgusting. And, to be clear, being a janitor or mowing lawns isn't the disgusting thing. YOU are.

Wow you're so mad. Spanish is not the language for everyone. Get over it. Everyone talking about practicality is talking about working public facing jobs. Not everyone wants to work with the general US public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS took Spanish in MS and hated it. He switched to Latin in HS and liked it so much that he's considering majoring in it.

She should take what she thinks will be most interesting.

Congrats to your DS! Now he can speak with the, um . . . ancient Romans? Oh, wait! He can understand the Latin Mass! That's the ticket!

Lol this wins for most ignorant DCUM comment today.

Why? What good does taking high school Latin do other than prepare you for the SAT? Who do you talk to?

It’s necessary for studying Classics and opens up a fascinating part of western history, improves English language vocabulary (yes, for the SAT but also beyond that), provides a base for learning any Romance language much more easily, helps kids learn the grammatical structures that underpin these languages, etc.

I'm the pp whose son loves Latin. He's a math kid -- he's enjoying learning grammar and thinking about the specifics of linguistics structure and the discussions they have in class about translation, word choice, and vocabulary. It's certainly not as useful for communication as Spanish, but he wasn't going to become fluent in Spanish through high school classes -- if he wants to learn Spanish later, he can do an immersion program.

I wish I could meet you in real life because my DS sounds a lot like yours. He's only in middle school, but has been teaching himself Latin for years now, along with Ancient Greek, since he can't take Latin in school until 9th grade. He's also a huge math kid. I could absolutely see him majoring in Latin one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish to work in customer service with low income people. There are a lot of them, so this is very "practical".

Learn Mandarin or Russian to work at a 3 letter agency.

Honestly not everyone wants to work with the poor and not everyone wants to work at a 3 letter agency, so this debate can go on forever depending on your priors.

Your racism and prejudices are showing. Not all native Spanish speakers are either (1) poor or (2) living in the USA. There are tremendous opportunities for Spanish speakers in dozens of countries in law, business, etc. That you can actually communicate with Spanish speakers in the USA is a nice plus too.

Median Hispanic household wealth is like 63k compared to over 200k for non Hispanic whites; maybe lower middle class is more accurate than poor but the point stands. Not everyone wants to work retail with the general public.

As for opportunities abroad, you have to weigh those afforded by Spanish against those afforded by German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Those also have great business opportunities, so I don't see an obvious win for Spanish here either.

You're truly an idiot. I never said that the average Latino family in the US is lower than the average white family. I said they're not all poor -- and they're not. And what's the bullshit about "working retail with the general public?" Don't lower income people need any other kind of assistance?

I also never said that there aren't opportunities abroad for other languages. I simply said there WERE such opportunities with Spanish, because you generalized all Spanish speakers as poor residents of the USA. In fact, over 90 percent of native Spanish speakers live elsewhere.

The bottom line is that you're a racist and classist prick. When you think "Spanish" you think of an uneducated janitor or the guy mowing your lawn. And that is plain disgusting. And, to be clear, being a janitor or mowing lawns isn't the disgusting thing. YOU are.

I won’t defend the PP’s comments about incomes but I find it extremely amusing that you have been so dismissive of all of the other rationales for learning other languages, including the bolded, and now you are trying to use them.

[Anonymous]

I taught middle school Spanish for many years. I often run into my former students, who are currently in college or have graduated. They enjoy telling me stories of how knowing Spanish has helped them in multiple ways. Sure, some are not in high powered jobs, but knowing they have that skill, to help others in times of need, made them feel very empowered, and proud of the effort the put into learning this language. I might even add, they were behaving in a “Christ-like manner”, you know, living the faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish to work in customer service with low income people. There are a lot of them, so this is very "practical".

Learn Mandarin or Russian to work at a 3 letter agency.

Honestly not everyone wants to work with the poor and not everyone wants to work at a 3 letter agency, so this debate can go on forever depending on your priors.

Your racism and prejudices are showing. Not all native Spanish speakers are either (1) poor or (2) living in the USA. There are tremendous opportunities for Spanish speakers in dozens of countries in law, business, etc. That you can actually communicate with Spanish speakers in the USA is a nice plus too.

Median Hispanic household wealth is like 63k compared to over 200k for non Hispanic whites; maybe lower middle class is more accurate than poor but the point stands. Not everyone wants to work retail with the general public.

As for opportunities abroad, you have to weigh those afforded by Spanish against those afforded by German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Those also have great business opportunities, so I don't see an obvious win for Spanish here either.

You're truly an idiot. I never said that the average Latino family in the US is lower than the average white family. I said they're not all poor -- and they're not. And what's the bullshit about "working retail with the general public?" Don't lower income people need any other kind of assistance?

I also never said that there aren't opportunities abroad for other languages. I simply said there WERE such opportunities with Spanish, because you generalized all Spanish speakers as poor residents of the USA. In fact, over 90 percent of native Spanish speakers live elsewhere.

The bottom line is that you're a racist and classist prick. When you think "Spanish" you think of an uneducated janitor or the guy mowing your lawn. And that is plain disgusting. And, to be clear, being a janitor or mowing lawns isn't the disgusting thing. YOU are.

I won’t defend the PP’s comments about incomes but I find it extremely amusing that you have been so dismissive of all of the other rationales for learning other languages, including the bolded, and now you are trying to use them.

If this is about "practicality" why are incomes irrelevant?

[Anonymous]

According to Google, China has over 500 billionaires and ALL OF LATIN AMERICA has about 100. I actually came here to dunk on the Spanish Sobre Todos people but I'm so in awe of that stat and it's wider implications that I'll just leave it there.