HS language choice —does it matter
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Anonymous
Why? What good does taking high school Latin do other than prepare you for the SAT? Who do you talk to? |
Anonymous
DP but you realize that there are countries other than Russia where Russian is spoken, right? As well as Russian speakers in non-Russian speaking countries. And there are books, movies, TV shows, etc. in Russian. |
Anonymous
Latin is great prep for lawyers; all kinds of legal terms are Latin. Ditto for medicine. |
Anonymous
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According to a US Census report in 2022:
“The Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the United States. So it is not surprising Spanish was the most common non-English language spoken in U.S. homes (62%) in 2019 – 12 times greater than the next four most common languages.” This is the country we live in. These are the countries that we live closest to. From a practical standpoint, it only makes that this be the second language we study. How many of you can understand a word that Bad Bunny is singing? Embrace. Don’t reject. |
Anonymous
But the purpose of studying a second language isn’t to become a doctor or lawyer, it’s to be able to speak to more people and understand them. It’s one of the most practical offerings at the high school level. |
Anonymous
Sure, but the large majority of native speakers are Russian, and there are more than three times as many native Spanish speakers as Russian speakers — the majority of whomlive on our hemisphere and we’re allowed to visit their countries. Of course, whether they’re allowed to visit ours anymore is an open question. |
Anonymous
The UN, State Dept, and intel agencies have LOTS of job openings for people who know Russian or Mandarin. As an example, NSA only wants them to be able to listen/read and translate; NSA explicitly does not want their people to go to any high risk country. NGIC in Charlottesville and NASIC in Ohio also want those people. Langley HS in FCPS has a full Russian language program as a first foreign language. Every year there are students who transfer to Langley HS from some other FCPS HS in order to study Russian. It can be a great move career wise. Same applies to Mandarin Chinese, which some schools in MCPS offer (e.g., Potomac’s ES in MCPS has a Mandarin Chinese immersion program that people fight and claw to get their DC into). |
Anonymous
It’s necessary for studying Classics and opens up a fascinating part of western history, improves English language vocabulary (yes, for the SAT but also beyond that), provides a base for learning any Romance language much more easily, helps kids learn the grammatical structures that underpin these languages, etc. |
Anonymous
That might not be YOUR purpose in studying a foreign language, but it absolutely is the purpose of many other folks. |
Anonymous
Yeah, ok, that’s great but (1) the large majority of high schoolers aren’t interested in or ultimately won’t pursue those career paths and (2) not everything is about career. |
Anonymous
It is not an accident that my HS (different metro) requires 2 years of Latin. Most who graduate from that school do go on to become MDs or lawyers. The school requires that because they know the knowledge will be useful to most graduates. |
Anonymous
But this is just generic thinking. Are you interested in Russian literature, history, traveling to Eastern Europe or Central Asia (even where not native, it is still the lingua franca in many places) or working in intel/national security? Then you should definitely learn Russian. If not, then you shouldn’t. If you want to travel in the Western Hemisphere or live in an area with lots of Spanish speakers and want to talk to them in Spanish, learn Spanish. If you don’t want to do this, then don’t. They aren’t necessarily interchangeable. But a certainty is that learning a language you don’t really have interest in because it seems the most “practical” will likely result in failure. |
Anonymous
But that’s not what foreign language study is designed for regardless. I’d rather be a doctor or lawyer who can communicate with more patients and clients than one who needed the crutch of Latin to prepare for the career in the first place. |
Anonymous
The State Department barely exists anymore. Spanish speakers aren’t going anywhere. |
Anonymous
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We suggested Dosnush because my kid appreciated having opportunity to practice.s. Spanish is on signs almost everywhere and she encounters Spanish-speakers out and about almost daily. Her brother took Spanish and I started brushing up on what I remembered from 30 years ago. We have traveled to Spanish speaking countries and she was able to have an impressive conversation our hotel cleaning person after her first year and She chatted with our Uber driver (with light joking) after 3 year
My niece attends a K-12 school and started Chinese in 6th grade and Spanish in 9th. These were both in-person classes. Her school has a mandarin teacher who is credited in textbooks curriculum  however After 6 years niece’s level in Chinese was lower than 4 years of Spanish. Which is understandable, because I think she spent 1 year just getting familiar with the “alphabet” and phonics of a new language. She is currently minoring in Chinese in College.
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