Immersion and other language classes in schools. Which language and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is probably the easiest language to learn and I don't think it impresses the college admissions people that much.
French a little harder but also don't think it is viewed as all that impressive on the college app. either.
Try Russian, Arabic or Mandarin. Those are harder and relate to important areas of the world.

I'm so tired of people who know little to nothing about bilingualism acting as if they're experts. As someone who knows a great deal about second language acquisition and bilingualism, I assure you that no language can be acquired and retained with a high level of fluency (i.e., becoming bilingual and biliterate at a college level) without a great deal of effort. It is true that Romance languages, including Spanish and French, typically take less time for a native-English speaker to become proficient, as opposed to a tonal language like Mandarin (it
also takes less time for Japanese, Koreans, Ghanaians, and speakers of other tonal languages to learn Mandarin). However, please don't confuse time with easy. You will find many Americans who have lived in Spanish speaking countries for years who do not speak Spanish above a very basic level (and Spanish speakers who have lived in this country for many years who do not speak English well). That is because you must make a consistent and concerted effort to learn the language and only communicate with speakers of the target language (as much as possible). There are many people who claim to speak Spanish well, but they are only fooling themselves (and apparently you).

And I assure you, college admissions professionals are very impressed with a candidate who comes from a monolingual family, but has studied Spanish (or any language) for 10+ years and is both bilingual and biliterate at a college level. If that student also has top grades in Spanish (including a 5 on the Spanish AP exam), and has studied abroad in a Spanish speaking country during high school, that student will only be helped during the admissions process. How much? Who knows--that will vary from college to college, and the strength of the rest of the applicant's file. But it will always be a bonus--never a negative, plus that student has the satisfaction of speaking two languages.

FYI, Japanese and Korean are not tonal languages. It's a little easier for speakers of Japanese and Korean to learn Mandarin b/c some words are similar and many words derive from Mandarin in the same way English/French/Spanish and other romance languages are derived from Latin.

I'm bilingual Korean/English and we chose Mandarin immersion for DC which we can support w/visits to Asia and will be useful for DC if he choses to live there.

[Anonymous]

FYI, Japanese and Korean are not tonal languages. It's a little easier for speakers of Japanese and Korean to learn Mandarin b/c some words are similar and many words derive from Mandarin in the same way English/French/Spanish and other romance languages are derived from Latin.

I'm bilingual Korean/English and we chose Mandarin immersion for DC which we can support w/visits to Asia and will be useful for DC if he choses to live there.


FYI: There are numerous tonal languages in East Asia and South East Asia, including all the Chinese languages (though some such as Shanghainese are only marginally tonal), Vietnamese, Thai, and Lao. Some East Asian languages, such as Burmese, Korean, and Japanese have simpler tone systems, which are sometimes called 'register' or 'pitch accent' systems. However, some languages in the region are not tonal at all, including Mongolian, Khmer, and Malay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, Japanese and Korean are not tonal languages. It's a little easier for speakers of Japanese and Korean to learn Mandarin b/c some words are similar and many words derive from Mandarin in the same way English/French/Spanish and other romance languages are derived from Latin.

I'm bilingual Korean/English and we chose Mandarin immersion for DC which we can support w/visits to Asia and will be useful for DC if he choses to live there.

FYI: There are numerous tonal languages in East Asia and South East Asia, including all the Chinese languages (though some such as Shanghainese are only marginally tonal), Vietnamese, Thai, and Lao. Some East Asian languages, such as Burmese, Korean, and Japanese have simpler tone systems, which are sometimes called 'register' or 'pitch accent' systems. However, some languages in the region are not tonal at all, including Mongolian, Khmer, and Malay.

Interesting, Korean is my mother tongue and I didn't realize it had a "simpler tone systems, which are sometimes called 'register' or 'pitch accent' systems" or whatever the hell you're talking about. Things you learn on DCUM...

[Anonymous]

Linguists like you may consider Korean to have a "simpler tone system" or whatever but most people when they think of "tonal" think Mandarin and Korean is not anything like Mandarin. Korean is more similar to English in "tone" importance when you speak it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, Japanese and Korean are not tonal languages. It's a little easier for speakers of Japanese and Korean to learn Mandarin b/c some words are similar and many words derive from Mandarin in the same way English/French/Spanish and other romance languages are derived from Latin.

I'm bilingual Korean/English and we chose Mandarin immersion for DC which we can support w/visits to Asia and will be useful for DC if he choses to live there.

FYI: There are numerous tonal languages in East Asia and South East Asia, including all the Chinese languages (though some such as Shanghainese are only marginally tonal), Vietnamese, Thai, and Lao. Some East Asian languages, such as Burmese, Korean, and Japanese have simpler tone systems, which are sometimes called 'register' or 'pitch accent' systems. However, some languages in the region are not tonal at all, including Mongolian, Khmer, and Malay.

Interesting, Korean is my mother tongue and I didn't realize it had a "simpler tone systems, which are sometimes called 'register' or 'pitch accent' systems" or whatever the hell you're talking about. Things you learn on DCUM...

It's possible to both speak a language and not know everything about that particular language. For instance, there are many Americans, who are native English speakers, who have absolutely no idea that English is a West Germanic language (that was first spoken in England) of the Indo-European language family that is closely related to the Frisian, German, and Dutch languages. So, consider yourself schooled. It's good to learn new things.