Which "world language" would you steer your child toward?

[Anonymous]

Arabic is huge in the global market right now and the govt is paying a lot for Arabic translators. However, only a couple of schools in fcps offer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arabic is huge in the global market right now and the govt is paying a lot for Arabic translators. However, only a couple of schools in fcps offer it.

I agree that Arabic is an increasingly useful language, and a fascinating one to study as well. But let no one be fooled: becoming fluent in a "super hard" language (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean) is a VERY onerous task and impossible to do from part-time study in school. I studied Arabic full-time for two years (as an adult) and have lived in two different Arab countries and still don't feel completely comfortable with the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you will be living in the U.S., I say Spanish will have the widest applicability. If you want to work in diplomacy or intelligence, then so-called in demand or hard languages set you up, i.e. Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Pashto, etc.

The teachers of any of the languages will need to focus on building your child's conversational ability. I recently learned Polish (already speak Russian) at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). This was my first time in language learning since joining the Foreign Service 15 years ago as most of my career has been in Russian - speaking or non-language designated jobs, and I have to say I was very impressed with the emphasis on practical speaking and comprehension skills. That is where the focus needs to be in order for your child to begin to develop fluency. It does no good, IMHO, to learn declensions, verb conjugations, etc. That can come in the rubric of learning to speak. If the language learning can occur in small groups or one-on-one even better.

As your kids get older, they should be put in positions - work, volunteer, etc. - where they can use their langugage skills. When I was learning Russian I volunteered at the JCC to help resettle Soviet Jews in the U.S. It helped tremendously with the Russian.

Good luck!

Regarding the bolded, I disagree. Many (most?) people can't learn a foreign language just through conversation - the basics of grammar, conjugations, etc. must be learned at the same time. Trying to put together a sentence in a foreign language just doesn't work unless you know how to structure it and the correct grammar to use. Otherwise, it's just gibberish. An example would be the completely ineffectual FLES program, currently being disputed on another thread. The teachers simply talk at the students, expecting them to pick up the language through a one-sided conversation. No real instruction is going on and my daughter says that the kids are confused and frustrated.

Anyone learning a foreign language has to be taught from the ground up, and that means pairing grammar and vocabularly instruction along with conversational opportunities.

I do agree, however, that small groups and/or one-on-one settings are ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will need English for child b so they can say "Do you want fries with that"

Try to keep up. Philosophy majors are back in, britches.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will need English for child b so they can say "Do you want fries with that"

Try to keep up. Philosophy majors are back in, britches.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/

Totally off-topic but someone else sent me that piece last week so I have to respond. Once again, a company stated that they like well rounded applicants and that somehow translates to high-tech wants liberal arts majors. Yes, it lists a couple of examples of English majors getting hired by the PR department, etc. But, when an engineering company says they want well rounded applicants, they mean they want well rounded applicants with technical skills. Save the philosophy degrees for the trust fund kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious:
1. Which languages would work well for a career with the State Dept?

I have a neighbor who is first year college working on Chinese and Econ with hopes of going to the State Dept. She is not a native Chinese speaker (just learning it for the first time in college), but she is 1/2 Korean! Will studying a language (seriously) in college be enough to get into the State Dept.?


2. 11:33 or others with insight -- what do you think of Arabic? Still recommend Spanish over Arabic? We don't have access to elem. programs in Arabic, but we do have access to MS/HS level classes.

ArBic is useful but hard. Setting yoyr sights on a single emploer in your first year of college is a disaster.
The state dept is not as glamorous as people imagine.

[Anonymous]

I studied Spanish, I rarely use it and turns out French would have been most beneficial for my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard German is pretty good for business.

And for free college!! Germany offers free higher education, but student needs to be fluent.

wait, free even for foreign (US) students? then German it is for my DC!

Your DC would not be fluent enough in German after studying it in high school to make it into a German university. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

French. It established the foundation for many other languages, including Spanish. Regarding German, it really depends on what type of profession the child would end up having. Germany is the fastest aging economy in Europe, I foresee its domination declining in the coming years; plus no other nation speaks it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I speak all 4 languages you mention. Chinese won't help in getting a job at a big company in China, since those all go to ABCs (American Born Chinese) who grew up speaking it at home in the US. In terms of engineering, the language of engineering is English. The reason is that all programming languages use English terms, and all the resources are in English.

They speak more English in Japan compared to China. We sell in Japan and all our customers (who are college-educated professionals) communicate with us in English without an issue.

As for Spanish, the number of _native_ Spanish speakers in the US is expected to go down, while the number of people who can speak Spanish will go up. How is that possible? What's happening is the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants are using English, meanwhile non-Latino native English speakers are learning Spanish for business reasons. Yes, the majority of gains in Spanish speakers in the US will be coming from non-Latino, native English speakers.

French really has little benefit except in the humanities because a lot of classic literature is from French authors.

If I had to pick, I'd go with Spanish just because it's the most practical in the US. Our DD is trilingual (English, DW's language, Spanish) and we intentionally chose a Spanish-speaking nanny so she'd learn Spanish.

How did you come to learn so many languages? If you learned any in school/college, how long did it take you to become conversant/reasonably fluent?

[Anonymous]

German as a second language yields the highest paying jobs, significantly higher than french or spanish or mandarin as a second language.
Spanish and French are generally used in developmnet/AID settings. German is used for high tech manufacturing, energy and sustainbility, deisgn etc.
I realize there are billion chinese folks but the 1% that will be in global business almost without fail get college and advanced degrees at US Schools or English schools overseas. In that sense, English is still the global language.

[Anonymous]

French. It established the foundation for many other languages, including Spanish. Regarding German, it really depends on what type of profession the child would end up having. Germany is the fastest aging economy in Europe, I foresee its domination declining in the coming years; plus no other nation speaks it.

French did not establish the "foundation for many languages, including Spanish." These languages all trace back to Hindi (the Indo part of Indo-European). Latin is considered the older European language that influenced Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian. Because of this root, these are known as the Romance languages ("Roman" which was Latin). Spanish was further impacted by Arabic due to the 600 year Moorish occupation (which ended in 1492).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you will be living in the U.S., I say Spanish will have the widest applicability. If you want to work in diplomacy or intelligence, then so-called in demand or hard languages set you up, i.e. Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Pashto, etc.

They are in demand right now but by the time the OP's child graduates college, we'll be fighting with a different group of countries, and who knows what will be sexy then.

Having said that, we have our children learn Russian and Arabic (both outside of school) to the point of complete fluency. Mostly because these are our heritage languages, but it also makes sense because they are very different from English (and from each other). I feel that English fluency helps with French, Spanish etc. so the kids can always learn them if they wish, but Russian and Arabic are completely different systems and English won't help with those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you will be living in the U.S., I say Spanish will have the widest applicability. If you want to work in diplomacy or intelligence, then so-called in demand or hard languages set you up, i.e. Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Pashto, etc.

The teachers of any of the languages will need to focus on building your child's conversational ability. I recently learned Polish (already speak Russian) at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). This was my first time in language learning since joining the Foreign Service 15 years ago as most of my career has been in Russian - speaking or non-language designated jobs, and I have to say I was very impressed with the emphasis on practical speaking and comprehension skills. That is where the focus needs to be in order for your child to begin to develop fluency. It does no good, IMHO, to learn declensions, verb conjugations, etc. That can come in the rubric of learning to speak. If the language learning can occur in small groups or one-on-one even better.

As your kids get older, they should be put in positions - work, volunteer, etc. - where they can use their langugage skills. When I was learning Russian I volunteered at the JCC to help resettle Soviet Jews in the U.S. It helped tremendously with the Russian.

Good luck!

Regarding the bolded, I disagree. Many (most?) people can't learn a foreign language just through conversation - the basics of grammar, conjugations, etc. must be learned at the same time. Trying to put together a sentence in a foreign language just doesn't work unless you know how to structure it and the correct grammar to use. Otherwise, it's just gibberish. An example would be the completely ineffectual FLES program, currently being disputed on another thread. The teachers simply talk at the students, expecting them to pick up the language through a one-sided conversation. No real instruction is going on and my daughter says that the kids are confused and frustrated.

Anyone learning a foreign language has to be taught from the ground up, and that means pairing grammar and vocabularly instruction along with conversational opportunities.

I do agree, however, that small groups and/or one-on-one settings are ideal.

I disagree with the above. While grammar does matter, inordinate focus on grammar early on impedes the development of conversational ability because kids (and adults) get caught up/self conscious about saying something "correctly" rather than trying to get their thoughts out. DC was in an immersion program for many years - they did have language arts instruction but grammar was not emphasized until later years after a conversational foundation had been established. I say all this as someone who speaks 3 languages fluently, one of which was largely self-taught. As for FLES, if teachers are just talking at students, they're bad teachers -- teachers need to be interacting with students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard German is pretty good for business.

And for free college!! Germany offers free higher education, but student needs to be fluent.

wait, free even for foreign (US) students? then German it is for my DC!

Your DC would not be fluent enough in German after studying it in high school to make it into a German university. Sorry.

what about starting MS - say total of 7 years?