What are the foreign language trends among children of elites now? What are some considerations in picking a language.

[Anonymous]

I don’t it matters at all what language you take for 3-4 yrs in high school. You’re going to forget it anyhow. I disagree with Spanish being all that useful anyhow. Unless you plan on working with migrant workers or uneducated immigrants, they will know English. English is taught starting in early elementary school throughout most Spanish speaking countries and anyone with a college degree is going to be extremely proficient in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Latin as preparation for law or med school.

And if you don’t want to do either of those?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin as preparation for law or med school.

And if you don’t want to do either of those?

It’s still beneficial and helps expand vocabulary, grammar, and analytical skills for English. IMO, Latin is the most useful of all the languages

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin as preparation for law or med school.

And if you don’t want to do either of those?

It’s still beneficial and helps expand vocabulary, grammar, and analytical skills for English. IMO, Latin is the most useful of all the languages

No it’s not it’s not spoken

[Anonymous]

Mandarin would be my pick. The Chinese run everything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The super elite travel so much that they are fluent in English, Spanish and French and know enough to get by in Italian and Japanese. Maybe some German.

[Anonymous]

Mandarin Spanish English. You could communicate with 95 percent of the world

[Anonymous]

Knowing a foreign language for any practical purpose is rapidly becoming useless.

The new Airpods come with a foreign language translation feature. It's buggy...but like all technology it will get better and within 5 years it will be really good to excellent.

I believe there are studies that learning a language is great for brain development and makes you smarter in other areas...not sure how reliable they are.

We all benefit from being native English speakers because English is the language of business internationally (both spoken and written).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is by far the easiest language for Americans to learn. So a vote for that.

Mandarin is not as hard as people think. No verb tenses, for example. So no endless conjugation, which feels like what I spent years doing in French class. But it is very different from romantic/alphabet based languages.

The grammar isn't hard that's true. The pronunciation and the high-context levels are the big challenges. You also have to be immersed in the culture to really be fluent.

[Anonymous]

English
Aussie English
Sign language
Arabic
Mandarin
Hebrew
Hindi
Farsi
Spanish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m certainly not an elite, but I suspect that if elites care about foreign language they probably hire native speakers as nannies and start lessons in elementary, if not preschool. They may send their kids abroad or seek out immersion programs. Whatever your kid learns in middle school isn’t likely to impress elites.

I suggest that if your child has any preference at all, you let them choose. A language’s usefulness depends on the skill of the speaker. Whichever language motivates them to learn and possibly continue to more advanced levels will benefit them the most. As PPs have suggested, there are great reasons to choose many languages. Keep in mind, however, that much of the world speaks English better than your child is likely to learn any foreign language.

The best time to learn a foreign language is at the age when they aren't smart enough to choose anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin as preparation for law or med school.

And if you don’t want to do either of those?

It’s still beneficial and helps expand vocabulary, grammar, and analytical skills for English. IMO, Latin is the most useful of all the languages

No it’s not it’s not spoken

So? You will never need to speak another language besides English

[Anonymous]

My parents made me study French from Kindergarten through college...I mean by the time I was in college, it didn't make sense not to get the minor...

Anyways...I can count on 1 hand how many times in my 40+ years I've used French ....learn Spanish, it's much more practical.

[Anonymous]

My recommendation would be for your child to pursue one language for all of high school in the hopes of attaining a certain level of proficiency such that they can place out of the language requirement at his/her college. This is especially true for STEM majors and those at liberal arts colleges, where, if the student does not place into a high level language course, s/he may be devoting four semesters over the course of freshman and sophomore years to fulfilling the requirement. At a SLAC, that means that 25% of your classes per semester for eight semesters. If a student is not interested in a language, that requirement takes a bite out of that student's ability to explore other disciplines.

[Anonymous]

The true value in learning a foreign language for most US students is that it deepens their understanding of English grammar by forcing them to compare and contrast.