Language choice at TJ
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Anonymous
| I only know about German and it's great - the teacher is wonderful, there is a great student exchange program with a school in Munich (for about 3 weeks - not a whole semester). The Munich students come in the fall and TJ students go in late June after school ends. German is highly useful for tech studies and there are even programs for undergraduate sturdy in Germany, where universities are highly ranked in STEM and the tuition is free. And it can't be as hard as learning a whole new alphabet, declension system, etc. |
Anonymous
| Yes, the German program is awesome. I made the "easy" comment, but I meant easy for TJ. Easy is relative. I think the German teacher and the work expected for the German program is actually appropriate for a non-honors level, non AP course. My kids probably has 2-3 hours of homework a week in German. Which is rare at TJ where non-honors classes are often taught at the AP level. For a not very large program, many the kids receive medals on the national German language exams. |
Anonymous
| PP here who asked for German vs. Russian question. Based on what I hear, German sounds like having proper amount of work expected for a non-honors program, but not like Spanish which is at AP level. Russian is reportedly having very little home work, and although as a language is hard to learn the programs seems to be easy. I will probably let DC select, after giving pros/cons of each. |
Anonymous
| How is the Russian program at TJ? Do the kids participate in national exams? and if so, how do they fare? |
Anonymous
| Some are of the opnion that foreign language is just for the grade, and so why spent efffort on it, instead select the one that is most light and gets you the grade while focusing more effort on STEM subjects. What is wrong with this thinking? |
Anonymous
| My DC Will graduate quite fluent in German, not having stressed out about that class - indeed, having had a lot of fun with the class. Believe it or not, many of the TJ students like to learn things - including but not limited to STEM things. They don't like to be bored. Taking a class for an easy A but not actually learning anything (or at least moving around or working toward a drivers' license) would probably depress most TJ students I know. |
Anonymous
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If your child is a native English speaker, German is the easiest language to learn because much of English has its roots in German. It's an aspect worth considering.
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Anonymous
If I may ask, did DC do 4 years of German or 3? DId DC also do music or was the elective used for STEM? Also, which track DC undertake - CS, BIO, etc? Thanks! |
Anonymous
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German - if you read up on elite math phd programs, they prefer students to have fluency in one of French, german, or Russian.
Japan is too insular for Japanese to be useful. Spanish is too common |
Anonymous
| 4 years German. Physics and Math as the higher level STEM courses. Loved the exchange program to Munich. |
Anonymous
Isn't the purpose of learning a spoken language to be able to speak it and use it? Aside from English, which language is spoken the most in the United States? What does it matter if it is "common"? |
Anonymous
| One downside to these easier classes is there is only one teacher, so there is only one section offered of each language level. My child's counselor did warn me that in junior and senior year, sometimes kids in German/Russian/Japanese have to make hard choices between a language and a desired elective. Or even worse, a required class or pre-req for their senior lab. If AP Russian is offered at the same time as the only section of Quantum Mechanics and that is required for their senior lab...well, the language has to give. |
Anonymous
| Bumping this thread to ask parents whose kids have taken FCPS online Spanish III - is the online course self-paced and how is the workload if a student starts the online course in January? |
Anonymous
| Can they start in January? |
Anonymous
| FCPS website says the online courses can start in Sept, January, or Summer |