What are the foreign language trends among children of elites now? What are some considerations in picking a language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose based on which program was known to have better teachers at our HS. In our case, French.

Our HS can’t find any French teachers, so kids have to take it online. Guess we’re not elite enough.

[Anonymous]

We're French. We learned English. DD learned Spanish, because the only other alternative in her high school was French. DS learned Latin, because he has a processing disorder and Latin is a written, not spoken effort, which makes it easier for him. They attended/still attend weekend French school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The super elite travel so much that they are fluent in English, Spanish and French and know enough to get by in Italian and Japanese. Maybe some German.

One of the dumber and least accurate comments I've seen here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The super elite travel so much that they are fluent in English, Spanish and French and know enough to get by in Italian and Japanese. Maybe some German.

One of the dumber and least accurate comments I've seen here.

I'm assuming that they were being sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

Speaking English well should be the first priority. That is the international language. And all too often, foreigners are far more articulate, expressive, and concise than Americans.

Being able to hold an intelligent conversation in English gets you far.

Second language should be Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

I’m not elite, but my child took Chinese sitting in middle school because it was a smaller class and the students are a little bit more dedicated because it is a difficult language to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking English well should be the first priority. That is the international language. And all too often, foreigners are far more articulate, expressive, and concise than Americans.

Being able to hold an intelligent conversation in English gets you far.

Second language should be Mandarin.

I think you're entirely correct on the first point. I think you're right on the second point as well, but can you give some insight into why? Do you think is more useful than Spanish, for example?

[Anonymous]

Mandarin and French when it comes to elites.

Spanish is by far more useful of course. I speak all 3, and use Spanish a lot more in daily life by far.

[Anonymous]

When I flash my black card, everyone speaks my language.

[Anonymous]

Spanish is by far the easiest language for Americans to learn. So a vote for that.

Mandarin is not as hard as people think. No verb tenses, for example. So no endless conjugation, which feels like what I spent years doing in French class. But it is very different from romantic/alphabet based languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is everywhere. Learn Spanish

I agree. I speak English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian and Spanish, by FAR, the foreign language I use the most.

I have never had any desire to learn Mandarin. I don't really enjoy China or doing business there so it's kind of irrelevant to me a ton of people speak it.

[Anonymous]

DD is fluent in Japanese, is now getting fluent in Korean, and has Mandarin next on her list.

[Anonymous]

Latin. Honestly, Greek if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose based on which program was known to have better teachers at our HS. In our case, French.

Above approach is very reasonable. We chose Spanish because it is so useful within the USA. Someone with cultural / ethnic ties to a different language reasonably might choose that. There is no single best answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is everywhere. Learn Spanish

This. Our two are fluent in it.
The stuff they pick up on and translate is wild.