Which foreign language(s) would you suggest that your kid learn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't really matter. Honestly almost any other subject would be a better use of a students time for 5 hours a week other than a foreign language, but you have to take one so just pick.

My hot take is that foreign language study in the US does more to help students learn how English works than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Spanish is useful, but unless you make a real investment in it, you are not going to be competitive with native Spanish speakers. Most jobs that require Spanish want someone proficient in the language who can also write it. I can get by with my Spanish but that's about it.

[Anonymous]

Korean so my child can communicate with their birth family. Sadly our school doesn’t offer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two different thoughts on this. One is that people who know two languages have certain advantages in terms of brain functions. You can google/research this. There is a wide array of studies and discussions about this, including the importance of the language pairing, in terms of if they are similar, such as German-English, or dissimilar, such as Korean-English.

A second thought on being bilingual is potential job/trade advantages. But here, you have to decide whether or not you will be immersed in such a bilingual environment. There are relatively few jobs/trade in the US where true bilingual capability has an advantage. I know they are out there, but it's few and far in between. For example, immigration lawyers that serve specifically the Chinese community would benefit from also speaking Mandarin.

If you think German is similar to English, you have never studied German.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

The only issues I've ever had have been easily resolved and are not anything that ocurred in the professional realm. That said, I speak French and German as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two different thoughts on this. One is that people who know two languages have certain advantages in terms of brain functions. You can google/research this. There is a wide array of studies and discussions about this, including the importance of the language pairing, in terms of if they are similar, such as German-English, or dissimilar, such as Korean-English.

A second thought on being bilingual is potential job/trade advantages. But here, you have to decide whether or not you will be immersed in such a bilingual environment. There are relatively few jobs/trade in the US where true bilingual capability has an advantage. I know they are out there, but it's few and far in between. For example, immigration lawyers that serve specifically the Chinese community would benefit from also speaking Mandarin.

If you think German is similar to English, you have never studied German.

DP and fluent German speaker here. English ist a Germanic language and yes there are many similarities und connections between the two.

https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/Germanic_languages

[Anonymous]

I love that I know how to speak Spanish. I didn’t choose it in high school because I wanted to be different but I realized it would be useful so I took it in college. It’s not just useful (I’m a stay at home mom in nova and I use it all the time, surprisingly), but it’s also just as culturally sophisticated as French or Latin. For some reason this did not occur to me in high school.

My kids refuse to take Spanish because they had FLES in elementary and they hated it and it ruined Spanish for them. Maybe someday they will come around.

But Spanish really is the best for somebody in the United States (and who doesn’t have family connections to a different language).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are two different thoughts on this. One is that people who know two languages have certain advantages in terms of brain functions. You can google/research this. There is a wide array of studies and discussions about this, including the importance of the language pairing, in terms of if they are similar, such as German-English, or dissimilar, such as Korean-English.

A second thought on being bilingual is potential job/trade advantages. But here, you have to decide whether or not you will be immersed in such a bilingual environment. There are relatively few jobs/trade in the US where true bilingual capability has an advantage. I know they are out there, but it's few and far in between. For example, immigration lawyers that serve specifically the Chinese community would benefit from also speaking Mandarin.

If you think German is similar to English, you have never studied German.

Yikes. Bad take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love that I know how to speak Spanish. I didn’t choose it in high school because I wanted to be different but I realized it would be useful so I took it in college. It’s not just useful (I’m a stay at home mom in nova and I use it all the time, surprisingly), but it’s also just as culturally sophisticated as French or Latin. For some reason this did not occur to me in high school.

My kids refuse to take Spanish because they had FLES in elementary and they hated it and it ruined Spanish for them. Maybe someday they will come around.

But Spanish really is the best for somebody in the United States (and who doesn’t have family connections to a different language).

Okay but as far as job opportunities go, it depends. If you actually want to use your language, id say mandarin or Arabic, and perhaps Russian. But often Spanish and other languages can look good on a resume because every once in a while it’s just useful to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that I know how to speak Spanish. I didn’t choose it in high school because I wanted to be different but I realized it would be useful so I took it in college. It’s not just useful (I’m a stay at home mom in nova and I use it all the time, surprisingly), but it’s also just as culturally sophisticated as French or Latin. For some reason this did not occur to me in high school.

My kids refuse to take Spanish because they had FLES in elementary and they hated it and it ruined Spanish for them. Maybe someday they will come around.

But Spanish really is the best for somebody in the United States (and who doesn’t have family connections to a different language).

Okay but as far as job opportunities go, it depends. If you actually want to use your language, id say mandarin or Arabic, and perhaps Russian. But often Spanish and other languages can look good on a resume because every once in a while it’s just useful to know.

So in your world one can’t “use” their language by, you know, speaking to people in their community? It HAS to be used in the context of a JOB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Latin. Seriously, it helps them understand English so much better.

Latin will also help them in science classes. This is true from medical fields to any majors that include biology such as environmental conservation.

Agree with this! Sadly our high school just decided to eliminate all Latin classes, right before school started.

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.

Everything I need to know about English grammar I learned in Latin.

Truth!

DP. I think Latin is highly overrated in this regard. I got 800s on the English part of the SAT and the English SAT 2 and a 5 on the English AP, all without any study beyond my actual schooling, and I speak French because I studied an extent language from middle school through college. It's fine to study Latin if you enjoy it, but its usefulness is exaggerated.

+1

People need to justify to themselves what they did was not a waste. So the invent various rationales for it.

PP's anecdotal story about herself is not evidence but essentially this argument: "because I got an 800 on the English SAT and scored a 5 on the English AP without having studied Latin, this means Latin doesn't make you score higher on such tests."

In addition to improving vocabulary, there is evidence studying Latin helps with logic. Ahem.

Anyhoo, here are some links to read.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/655970/summary
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1977.tb02999.x
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/files/latin.html
https://www.bolchazy.com/Assets/Bolchazy/extras/LatinAdvantageandSATscores.pdf
https://www.brainscape.com/academy/learning-latin-roots-to-improve-sat-scores/
https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/latin-develops-mind/

By the way, for those concerned about college, a few years ago the Dean of Admissions at Harvard said that having Latin on a transcript made an applicant stand out.
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/high-school-latin-catches-attention-of-selective-universities/article_090c5787-20c3-54d2-8a38-15d24116b4f2.html

Students nationwide are finding that excelling in high school Latin can propel them to the most selective colleges, including Harvard University, whose undergraduate admission rate was 6.9 percent this year. Because so few students these days master Latin, it can help an applicant.

“We certainly do take notice,” said William Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid. “It can end up tipping the student into the class.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that I know how to speak Spanish. I didn’t choose it in high school because I wanted to be different but I realized it would be useful so I took it in college. It’s not just useful (I’m a stay at home mom in nova and I use it all the time, surprisingly), but it’s also just as culturally sophisticated as French or Latin. For some reason this did not occur to me in high school.

My kids refuse to take Spanish because they had FLES in elementary and they hated it and it ruined Spanish for them. Maybe someday they will come around.

But Spanish really is the best for somebody in the United States (and who doesn’t have family connections to a different language).

Okay but as far as job opportunities go, it depends. If you actually want to use your language, id say mandarin or Arabic, and perhaps Russian. But often Spanish and other languages can look good on a resume because every once in a while it’s just useful to know.

So in your world one can’t “use” their language by, you know, speaking to people in their community? It HAS to be used in the context of a JOB?

By that I meant “if you want a career where you are guaranteed to use your language in your job.” I’m the PP who is a stay at home mom and I use my Spanish all the time so no I do not think that using a language needs to be in the context of a job.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of thoughts on this and children who have lived overseas and learned a number of langauges in various ways.

I think it's pointless for the vast majority of kids to learn Chinese - because the vast majority of American kids won't learn it well enough (e.g., in high school) to get anywhere with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that I know how to speak Spanish. I didn’t choose it in high school because I wanted to be different but I realized it would be useful so I took it in college. It’s not just useful (I’m a stay at home mom in nova and I use it all the time, surprisingly), but it’s also just as culturally sophisticated as French or Latin. For some reason this did not occur to me in high school.

My kids refuse to take Spanish because they had FLES in elementary and they hated it and it ruined Spanish for them. Maybe someday they will come around.

But Spanish really is the best for somebody in the United States (and who doesn’t have family connections to a different language).

Okay but as far as job opportunities go, it depends. If you actually want to use your language, id say mandarin or Arabic, and perhaps Russian. But often Spanish and other languages can look good on a resume because every once in a while it’s just useful to know.

That is an idiotic take. I spend a huge chunk of my professional work day speaking Spanish. My fluency in Spanish has been endlessly useful and the winning ticket in many contracts. Also, if you plan to live and work in Texas, Fl, CA, AZ, NM or a handful of other states, it is easily a part of your day-to-day. If you work in law, medicine, business, IT, telecommunications, or similar, Spanish all day

[Anonymous]

^ sorry, cut off. Same with Arabic and the vast majority of hard languages.

If your kid is going to just take 4 years of high school langauge, pick an easy one so they have a chance at being able to communicate something by the end. Or see if the teacher is acttually 1) native and 2) a professional educator. Most aren't both. Foreign language training is terrible in this country.