Immersion and other language classes in schools. Which language and why?

[Anonymous]

Which language did you select and why ?

I go back and forth on this, as we are not a bilingual family. I saw on another board that Spanish will only be useful in a few countries although I also hear friends saying that it will be hard to work without knowing it. Other friends saying French will not be useful and others saying Mandarin is most important.

[Anonymous]

If you live here, spanish is very useful. We prefer mandarin because it's so different - tonal, characters. Figure it can be the building block for learning languages much different than english. Personally, I'm around a lot of chinese speakers so it would be useful to me even though I don't travel to china on business or anything. French and Spanish aren't as different. French would be useful if you were hoping for more connections in Africa/Caribbean. We have a lot more french-speaking immigrants in this area than 10-20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

We chose French. After English, French is the most-spoken language in the entire world.

[Anonymous]

Of course, your child is way too young to know this but if you think your child may want a career in healthcare, Spanish is critical....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course, your child is way too young to know this but if you think your child may want a career in healthcare, Spanish is critical....

I'm a healthcare provider who wishes she learned Spanish, so I agree.

[Anonymous]

Mandarin. DH and I speak French although not bilingual, not native speakers. We thought Mandarin will be useful: Know lots of people who speak it and spend time in Asia. Don't know anyone who speaks Spanish, don't spend time in Spanish speaking countries, etc. Will get DC to learn French later. Mandarin is much easier to learn in early childhood.

[Anonymous]

Mandarin,
Primarily because it is the language taught at our elementary school and my kids adore it.

Spanish, French, and German are not useful in the business world.

My second choice would be Arabic, for the amazing job potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course, your child is way too young to know this but if you think your child may want a career in healthcare, Spanish is critical....

I'm a healthcare provider who wishes she learned Spanish, so I agree.

So true. MIL is a dr and she's encouraging us to teach DD Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose French. After English, French is the most-spoken language in the entire world.

Are you kidding? Try Spanish and Mandarin before French. I don't mean to dis French. I love it and took in high school and college but Spanish and Mandarin is where it's at.

[Anonymous]

I speak 5 languages -- some very useful, others fairly useless.

I would say that the best gift you can give your child is the knowledge that learning a language is not that hard. If you know three languages well, learning a fourth is easier -- there is often shared vocabulary and grammar, but moreover you'll have experience in how to learn and study a language.

[Anonymous]

I would choose Spanish because I know and speak it, so I could help my kids with homework if they were in immersion.

[Anonymous]

All have pros and cons. Spanish is useful here in the US and in this hemisphere, also Spain, and provides a good foundation for learning other romance languages.

French does have a wide global reach to a greater diversity of countries in the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Mandarin is hot and in demand but only because not many people speak it yet. The thing about Mandarin is it basically limits you to working in or on China, which doesn't offer the variety, in my opinion, of work and travel opportunities available via the other languages.

To really make immersion worthwhile you need to keep it up, continue to study the language, and use it regularly, which also might be easier with Spanish or French, both in terms of finding higher education options and local people to practice with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing about Mandarin is it basically limits you to working in or on China, which doesn't offer the variety, in my opinion, of work and travel opportunities available via the other languages.

same with Japanese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about Mandarin is it basically limits you to working in or on China, which doesn't offer the variety, in my opinion, of work and travel opportunities available via the other languages.

same with Japanese.

The problem with learning Mandarin or most other Asian languages is that compared to kids of immigrants from China or other parts of Asia , your child will not be even close to becoming fluent even after years of immersion school while the child of immigrants will have a much better accent, vocabulary, and ease of speaking. Bilingual mandarin speakers are a dime a dozen in California and New York and many are top students. I think Spanish is a much more useful language to learn in the United States.

[Anonymous]

I kind of agree, but isn't the learning of another language in elementary more for just experiencing learning another language? With this in mind, any of the languages would be fine. It's difficult to know whether any learning would be of particular use in a job. I think middle and high school is when you really learn a language. I hear by the end of 6th, most children at least in the one or two days a week classes can't even pass a level one test.