TJ language

[Anonymous]

Russian teacher is new but really good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is contemplating between taking Spanish 2 and German 1 at TJ. They heard that Spanish was quite difficult, but they took spanish 1 last year. Is it better to take Spanish 2 or German 1 at TJ if dc doesn't like learning languages very much?

Anecdotal reports on DCUM suggest the Spanish teacher at TJ goes out of her way to make Spanish unexpectedly hard, with lower grades than some other languages. Not sure if that is really the case or a DCUM legend. Spanish has lots of cognates with English and honestly is much more practical/useful than German.

Objectively, German is harder than Spanish for an English speaker, mainly because the grammar is fiendishly arcane and difficult. For example, for some sentence types the verbs go in the middle, but for other sentence types the verbs come last in the sentence. Also, German has 3 genders, rather than 2, and many different verb tenses.

Not sure which would be best given these trade offs.

[Anonymous]

There are at least 4 Spanish teachers at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Any recommendation for a good spanish teacher who knows TJ Spanish 3 curriculum and can help my DC to get decent grades. Please help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was advised to not take Spanish since it is extremely hard at TJ. He took German and LOVES it.

In the other TJ thread about rank falling to 14, someone wrote “Bonitatibus has ruined the foreign languages department since she started at TJ.” Anyone know what this means?

And why would Spanish be harder at TJ than other languages? Is it the teacher or it is taught at faster speed?

TJ Spanish curriculum condenses 4 years of FCPS Spanish or 5 years of LCPS Spanish into just 3 years at TJ. So the student is ready to take AP Spanish, right after TJ Spanish 3, without needing an additional year.

Moreover, TJ emphasizes on getting to working proficiency of Spanish, meaning student must develop fluent speaking skill. It is relatively easy to develop reading/writing and listening skill in a language, but developing speaking skill is relatively more difficult. TJ Spanish requires developing speaking skill.

This is not specific to TJ Spanish. In the United States, Spanish is widely regarded as a second language, spoken by over 40 million people. Therefore, there are higher expectations for teachers to impart sufficient depth in teaching it, and for students to learn it effectively for future use in the workplace.

On the other hand, German is more commonly perceived as an academic language, with fewer speakers in the US, and is primarily useful when traveling to German-speaking countries. As a result, teachers tend to adjust the course rigor accordingly.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although on every measurable metric TJ has gone down, FCPS board and TJ administration want to let you know it was stronger than ever based on every single non-measurable metric.

Reminds me of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness!

If you can't figure out that last year's NMSF numbers were artificially too high, that's on you. Not me or TJ administration.

Really? When was the last time TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF? Did they EVER have fewer than 100 NMSF?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was advised to not take Spanish since it is extremely hard at TJ. He took German and LOVES it.

In the other TJ thread about rank falling to 14, someone wrote “Bonitatibus has ruined the foreign languages department since she started at TJ.” Anyone know what this means?

And why would Spanish be harder at TJ than other languages? Is it the teacher or it is taught at faster speed?

Bonitatibus seems more like a status quo cheerleader running around as TJ continues on its usual course. She doesn't appear to have the leadership skills or STEM knowledge to make a change, improve, or set new direction. Constantly mentions GPS without any apparent reason, baffles everyone.

She has to somehow keep the bottom from falling out and the wheels from coming off while making the diversity effort seems successful somehow.
Keeping her head above water is about all she can manage right now.

I don't know where you get these false stories but TJ is now stronger than ever and a lot less toxic too. Bonitatibus played a large part in making it a safer and healthier place for our students.

I guess I'm getting it from the drop in ranking, the 120 point drop in PSAT scores, the dramatic drop in SOL advance pass rates, the 50% drop in national merit semi-finalists, the number of AIME and IMO participants. Pretty much every objective academic metric that comes up is worse now and Bonitatubus has to put lipstick on that pig.

It always goes up and down in those rankings. That doesn't mean anything and trying to blame learning loss caused by COVID on the school is crazy.

No, the average PSAT score doesn't always go up and down. It may drift a bit up and down over time but that's more like 10 or 20 points, not 120 points.
TJ used to have a virtual monopoly on IMO participants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was advised to not take Spanish since it is extremely hard at TJ. He took German and LOVES it.

In the other TJ thread about rank falling to 14, someone wrote “Bonitatibus has ruined the foreign languages department since she started at TJ.” Anyone know what this means?

And why would Spanish be harder at TJ than other languages? Is it the teacher or it is taught at faster speed?

TJ Spanish curriculum condenses 4 years of FCPS Spanish or 5 years of LCPS Spanish into just 3 years at TJ. So the student is ready to take AP Spanish, right after TJ Spanish 3, without needing an additional year.

Moreover, TJ emphasizes on getting to working proficiency of Spanish, meaning student must develop fluent speaking skill. It is relatively easy to develop reading/writing and listening skill in a language, but developing speaking skill is relatively more difficult. TJ Spanish requires developing speaking skill.

This is not specific to TJ Spanish. In the United States, Spanish is widely regarded as a second language, spoken by over 40 million people. Therefore, there are higher expectations for teachers to impart sufficient depth in teaching it, and for students to learn it effectively for future use in the workplace.

On the other hand, German is more commonly perceived as an academic language, with fewer speakers in the US, and is primarily useful when traveling to German-speaking countries. As a result, teachers tend to adjust the course rigor accordingly.

+1

The point is to maximize human capital, not to min/max GPA... still, it should not penalize kid's GPA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although on every measurable metric TJ has gone down, FCPS board and TJ administration want to let you know it was stronger than ever based on every single non-measurable metric.

Reminds me of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness!

If you can't figure out that last year's NMSF numbers were artificially too high, that's on you. Not me or TJ administration.

Really? When was the last time TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF? Did they EVER have fewer than 100 NMSF?

Yes. Look at more than just the last few years. And last year specifically was a significant outlier since the cutoff was too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although on every measurable metric TJ has gone down, FCPS board and TJ administration want to let you know it was stronger than ever based on every single non-measurable metric.

Reminds me of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness!

If you can't figure out that last year's NMSF numbers were artificially too high, that's on you. Not me or TJ administration.

Really? When was the last time TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF? Did they EVER have fewer than 100 NMSF?

Yes. Look at more than just the last few years. And last year specifically was a significant outlier since the cutoff was too low.

Can you point to even one year when TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF in the entire history of TJ? And remember there are only 81 this year.
How far back do you have to go to find that? If you do find that year, my guess is that you have to go back to when asians were still a minority at TJ.

The number of NMSF in Virginia does not fluctuate much from year to year. It is determined as a percentage of students so the cutoff has nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although on every measurable metric TJ has gone down, FCPS board and TJ administration want to let you know it was stronger than ever based on every single non-measurable metric.

Reminds me of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness!

If you can't figure out that last year's NMSF numbers were artificially too high, that's on you. Not me or TJ administration.

Really? When was the last time TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF? Did they EVER have fewer than 100 NMSF?

Yes. Look at more than just the last few years. And last year specifically was a significant outlier since the cutoff was too low.

Can you point to even one year when TJ had fewer than 100 NMSF in the entire history of TJ? And remember there are only 81 this year.
How far back do you have to go to find that? If you do find that year, my guess is that you have to go back to when asians were still a minority at TJ.

The number of NMSF in Virginia does not fluctuate much from year to year. It is determined as a percentage of students so the cutoff has nothing to do with it.

Yes, it does change and last year there were significantly more because the cutoff was lower than usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are at least 4 Spanish teachers at TJ.

- which is why it is mostly DCUM legend that Spanish @ TJ is overly difficult.

Moreover, it is a much easier language to learn than German. More practical too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are at least 4 Spanish teachers at TJ.

- which is why it is mostly DCUM legend that Spanish @ TJ is overly difficult.

Moreover, it is a much easier language to learn than German. More practical too.

for non-native spanish speakers, TJ Spanish is not easy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are at least 4 Spanish teachers at TJ.

- which is why it is mostly DCUM legend that Spanish @ TJ is overly difficult.

Moreover, it is a much easier language to learn than German. More practical too.

I don’t think you have a kid taking Spanish at TJ. DD is there and takes German. Everyone she knows that takes Spanish says it is very hard. Maybe the exception is if you start with Spanish 1 at TJ but I think that is less common.

[Anonymous]

My kids both took TJ Spanish. Not native speakers. Did great. Not hard if you treat it like a real class. Most TJ students don’t do that and in other languages they get away with it. So I guess Spanish is “harder” in that sense. But not hard. Plenty of kids take it. There are many teachers.