Does foreign language choice in HS matter?
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Anonymous
of +1. Mandarin and Japanese were productive courses to take in the late 1990s at my high school that had maybe 1-2 native speakers of each those languages total, none of whom wanted to take a language they already knew. My high school demographics are different now and my child knows not to sign up for those classes, because the classes through AP are 90% native speakers who also could write a decent amount before they started the class. My oldest encountered the same in college for mandarin- half the kids taking it were native speakers without writing skills or they spoke other Chinese languages like Cantonese and already had their characters. |
Anonymous
Spanish 4 doesn’t mean four years of language, because at various high schools pre AP Spanish is content is spread over 5 or 6 years, or 8 semesters. Given this variation, colleges go by common barometer which is AP Spanish. Usually, the AP Spanish score of 4 or 5 serves as credits for one or two Spanish courses at a college, also strengthens college admission application to get in. |
Anonymous
Advice from two schools for two kids recently, one of which was TJ. You need to continue all core classes all 4 years, unless you run out of classes to take (ie, take AP Spanish junior year and there is not post-AP offered). You can stop a core class senior year IF you replace it with something equally rigorous and the class you take makes sense in the context of your transcript and application. Foe example, a strong STEM kid taking an extra AP science. I actually had a kid not take science senior year (honors bio, chem and physics) to take a second AP foreign language. No issues with college admissions. |
Anonymous
Hindi is a critical language. There is a shortage US citizen speakers who can get a high security clearance. So, it really depends on your career goals. |
Anonymous
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My kid is taking Chinese in high school because it's harder for most people. Not because it will be remotely relevant to him later in life. While most Chinese speak, or at least can understand, Mandarin, those Chinese that he will come into contact with will most likely speak English better than he can speak Chinese.
He's taking Chinese because he's not good with languages and many kids are so good with Spanish that he would be left behind in an instant. He's dyslexic but musical and hopes that Chinese will level that playing field. |
Anonymous
It’s about pursuit of a rigorous program, and frankly, a student choosing Spanish or French (assuming Chinese is also available) could be viewed as taking the easiest way out for those four years of FL coursework. If I was looking at otherwise identical students and one completed four years of Mandarin Chinese as their FL and the other completed four years of Spanish - I mean, if you understand the fact that the former is far more complex to master, you would have to tip the scale to that side, if think. And then as to your last point, I guess it depends on how far a student pursues native fluency. I know of students who completed a Mandarin Chinese immersion program in the K-5 period, then returned for HS (with, as another poster pointed out, a class full of classmates surrounding them who use the language daily at home, as their primary family language) and some of them are very, very, very capable of reaching effective native fluency at 17 years old, with no indication in accent or otherwise. |
Anonymous
Whether any of these languages is relevant at all depends on the intended major. I'm really doubtful that unless you actually intend to major in foreign languages, that a college will care a lot which language you took. The committee is going to regard four years of any language as "rigorous" for the purpose of assessing your curriculum's rigor. |
Anonymous
how or why is Hindi relevant? do government contractors require it to work with overseas teams based in India? |
Anonymous
Your speculation is incorrect. Colleges do not rank languages on a scale of rigorous and non-rigorous. It doesn’t matter what language you take. DCUM-land is bat sh*t crazy sometimes. |
Anonymous
You may very well be right for many schools, but I can tell you from very recent firsthand knowledge (as a parent accompanying an athletic recruit minor through the pre-read process) that at least one T20 school (and really, a T3 school) completely 180'd on the previously active recruitment process b/c the highest level of STEM courses available through his school (Calculus B/C and III, Linear Algebra, Physics C) were not on his transcript at the end of 11th grade. It didn't matter that 1/2 of those courses are on his plate for his senior year, or most importantly ... that he has a very specific non-STEM academic plan that's evident in his ECs and that obviously doesn't involve CS, engineering, or math). It didn't matter. Rigor, rigor, rigor. This might be an anomaly, but it was literally our experience three months ago. |
Anonymous
The easiest answer is: because the State Department says there is a shortage of *American citizens* who are security clearable (so no huge foreign ties) and are fluent in Hindi to meet US economic and national security needs. If I had to guess? India has nukes pointed at Pakistan and is an economic powerhouse and someone needs to review data related to these things produced in Hindi. https://exchanges.state.gov/cls |
Anonymous
On what expertise do you base the statement that they don't? Are you an AO? They rank rigor in every domain area, they value AP coursework. These things are usually one of the Top 3 - 4 areas focused on for admissions. But they don't care if one kid was on auto-pilot for four years with only ¿Dónde está el baño? to show for it, while another kid has spent those four years learning to read, write, and speak in the most commonly used primary language in the world, which happens to be far more complex and uses a different alphabet and complex tones? That doesn't seem logical, or sensible, for that matter. Why wouldn't they consider that, even if as part of the puzzle? |
Anonymous
Your assumption that this transfers to language choice is wrong. Sorry, they don’t care if you took Spanish or French or Chinese or whatever. |
Anonymous
To start with because most schools don’t offer Mandarin. So, they don’t penalize kids for not taking a language that isn’t available. You have to choose off the list your school offers. And in most schools, you are looking at 2-3 Romance languages. Also, I had a kid take Mandrin as a second foreign language, get As, and have trouble counting to 100. Not all Mandrin programs are created equal. And unless you have an OPI score or get an AP score junior year, it’s hard to judge class rigor. Plus, at least in this area, most Chinese classes are filled with native speakers. And that is clearly not rigorous. But I hope you super special Mandrin speaking snowflake gets lots of Ivy love. |
Anonymous
Again, what do you base that statement on? Otherwise, as reader, I'm only left to conclude that you are a panicky parent trying to convince yourself it doesn't matter. |