Which foreign language(s) would you suggest that your kid learn?
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Anonymous
| We just let our kids choose. It’s pretty useless anyway. I’m not sure why everyone says to take Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish and haven’t had any issues because of it. |
Anonymous
Agree with this! Sadly our high school just decided to eliminate all Latin classes, right before school started. |
Anonymous
I think you're missing the point. Of course you can get by just fine being monolingual. But you don't know what opportunities you missed by not speaking another language. Personally, speaking more than 1 language has perpetually yielded benefits. I do get that there's a certain segment of the population that may not even be interested, though. |
Anonymous
Other than ease of travel, I haven’t missed any opportunities. I’m a math teacher. |
Anonymous
We have 2 kids, one studying Chinese and the other Spanish. Parents speak several other languages (one parent immigrated here as a teenager) but neither Chinese nor Spanish. Chinese takes much longer to develop but if you or your kid are committed, they can learn to speak well over a long time. My kid has a great tutor and listens to podcasts - he speaks much better than I did at similar levels of 3 other languages. There are also a ton of online ways to enhance your conversation skills. |
Anonymous
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Latin, because it provides the best support for English, and everyone a middle class person is likely to run into speaks English.
For what little that is relevant and not published in English, there's translation software that will get you a lot closer than four years of high school language will. I write this as a world traveler and a recreational language learner, BTW. |
Anonymous
That's only because you don't know they existed in the first place. You may be unaware of this but you likely have students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds who speak different languages. Your ability to connect with them is enhanced by speaking another language. Do you have to teach in that language? Absolutely not, but personal and professional relationships can be strengthened through cultural connections. Also, if a teacher wanted to engage in employment abroad, speaking another language would enhance those opportunities. I speak Spanish. My life has been made endlessly easier by doing so - even in small ways - going out to eat, going to the store, traveling, and in my work (nearly all day but that's area specific). Most people who are monolingual never understand or realize there's a world in which switching languages is possible (and helpful) but it is. If understanding others is not in your purview, though, this argument is moot. |
Anonymous
Talk to most adults who took high school or middle school Spanish. They don’t remember anything beyond Adios. Is Spanish easier to learn for an English speaker? Will your child waste their time if the language isn’t reinforced either in the home or through other enrichment? Most probably yes. |
Anonymous
| If they didn't have even tourist level knowledge of spanish I would pick spanish because it helps with english reading comprehension too (much like Latin but more useful beyond vocabulary). I secretly want them to pick mandarin so I can practice it too but it would be silly to not have them learn spanish first. |
Anonymous
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I have studies 6 foreign languages over the years. My native country has only one official language, but we have a very extensive foreign language program. I grew up only hearing my mother tongue, but also hearing another language like you would hear Spanish here.
Most people speak 4 languages back at home, because foreign language teachers are easy to find. I do not suggest one language over the other, but I do know that most of us taking learning yet another language with ease. My friends who work abroad, learn a new language every 3-5 years working for government. Our mother tongue is extremely difficult and it makes other languages seem easy. After two foreign languages, we all knew the drill. I's start with Spanish, add French and Russian. |
Anonymous
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Fluency in these languages takes the new generation to a better world.
Patience Love Gratitude Consideration |
Anonymous
I agree with this as well. It always gets ridiculed for being dead, and many schools don't offer it, but Latin is SUPER helpful with English. I totally rocked the SAT thanks to my Latin classes. And in a strange twist, when I took German in HS, I was the only student who instantly understood cases. |
Anonymous
Sure, the love umbrella will protect us from the storm. 
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Anonymous
“Love will keep us alive” says a song from the late 70s or early 80s. |
Anonymous
| DS will grow up speaking English, Hindi and Russian. He goes to a Spanish-immersion daycare. |