How hard is it to learn German? Latin?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I'm the one voice of dissent here. We are a trilingual family. My DH is Swedish, I'm German, and we all speak English. Hands down my kids picked up German much easier than Swedish and English was their primary language. |
Anonymous
I think they’re in alpha order, not order of difficulty. |
Anonymous
What school offers these languages? German is banned in Montgomery county. There is only one private German language school in the area |
Anonymous
| I'd just go with Spanish, or French. Closest to Spanish for your kid. Kids thinks languages are easy and then they realize they are not. One kid I know switched 3 languages in HS! Started Spanish, couldn't handle it, switched to French, was too hard...then took Russian, similar to grandma's language so she could help. Now, he know none well or at all. |
Anonymous
Um, no one isn’t comparing German to Swedish. The choices were Latin, French, and German. |
Anonymous
|
Does h like languages?
Latin is interesting from the standpoint of you learn a lot about the roots of English words, and can kind of apply back and forth. German is easy from a pronunciation standpoint as it’s phonetic - what you see is what you say. It’s very structured. |
Anonymous
|
My DS took Spanish through MS, but for HS switched to Latin. This was something my DH has strongly encouraged for helping on the verbal portion of the SAT -- DS takes SATs in June, after two years of Latin, so we'll see how that theory checks out.
But my DS hasn't had any problems with the switch and has done well and enjoyed Latin. He has a very dynamic teacher, so that probably is half of it. My DD has been in a foreign language exploratory class this year in 6th grade, with exposure to French, German, Latin, Spanish, and American Sign Language. FWIW, she puts Latin #1 on her list. |
Anonymous
The one he is interested in is the best one to choose. My DC is taking Latin and French. DC has found that Latin has helped with the French a great deal, because things are made explicit in Latin that are "understood" in French. It could be that DC's Latin teachers have been better than the French teachers, but I think it's more that with a dead language you can lay down rules more easily, and Latin grammar is very precise. DC prefers Latin because there is no speaking required, and the analysis of translation is interesting to DC. Can your son ask around and find out about the teachers, what the workload is like, and how the language progresses? At my DC's school, Latin has a lot of students drop out after the 2nd year because it gets significantly harder. French has remained fairly consistent all the way through. |
Anonymous
|
I love French and it would be an easy switch with his Spanish background.
Latin super interesting and useful in a variety of vocations. So much of so many languages are based in Latin. It also makes the world more interesting to understand the basis. ASL - I think it is great but I have heard that while your school may consider it a language credit some colleges do not so you may want to check with a college counselor before you get him into that. |
Anonymous
| Here you can see schools for which ASL meets admission requirements. http://www.aslcollege.com/ |
Anonymous
| I found Latin was really helpful for standardized testing, since a lot of the English vocabulary derives from Latin root words. I also thought it really helped my writing skills, knowing when to use each tense, etc. |
Anonymous
| OP here. We live in Baltimore so he is going to one of the Catholic high schools here and those are the languages they offer. I am pretty sure he doesn't like Spanish is because of the revolving door of Spanish teachers he has had in MS. He equates Spanish with drudgery but I think it is because they have had such uneven Spanish teaching for the last 3 years. He has no interest in French. |
Anonymous
+1 Of course Latin won't be on FSI's list. OP search the archives for discussions about high school German and Latin. |
Anonymous
Your theory probably has some merit. Also, level 3 of most languages is a turning point challenge-wise. Can you find out the reputations of the Latin, German and Spanish programs/teachers at the high school? If the Spanish department is solid, he should add Spanish back into the mix. There is drudgery with every language because of the amount of memorization. An excellent teacher can inspire students to power through. |
Anonymous
This. For the Category I languages, look at the number of weeks designated for each language (24 for all but French). For Categories II and III, the estimated number of weeks is approximate. |