Anonymous wrote:Anyone who suggests anything other than Spanish for a second language for an American to learn to speak is at best a snob and at worst a racist.

My DC is learning Arabic because he wants to work on middle eastern issues for the government or military someday. That makes him a snob or a racist?

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who doesn't say Spanish really needs to explain why. It's by far the most common second language in the US and our neighboring countries. And it's much easier to learn than Mandarin; I know several people who majored in Mandarin and still don't speak it well enough to use in business. And I say this as someone who studied French and whose child chose Latin (despite my suggestion that Spanish would be more useful).

There are valid reasons to learn each language, which is why they are offered.

Spanish. I was a French minor in college, and traveled extensively, and worked as a bartender in France after college and before graduate school. Spanish would have been much more useful for everyday living - especially if you decide to go into medicine.

Spanish

Anyone who suggests anything other than Spanish for a second language for an American to learn to speak is at best a snob and at worst a racist.

Spanish, obviously. I speak French but Spanish is the unofficial second language of the U.S. and the first language of most of this continent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese.

Yeah, good luck with that!

+1 Does anyone who tries to take up Mandarin gain proficiency if at least one parent doesn't speak it in the home? Not from what I can see. Seems like a colossal waste of time. Spanish is much easier and more useful.

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

And you can talk to Julius Caesar.

Somebody always suggests Latin, and it’s such a stupid suggestion

Pick a language! It does not matter. Very very very few jobs require you to understand finer literary points of a 2nd language.

Spanish, yes it would be helpful. But all you really need is a basic grasp of it to be able to understand and talk. Dont need 3-4 years of HS for that. Choose one that interests your kid.

To try to find the geopolitical implications of which language would be important 20-30 years down the line and learn it is foolhardy.

If you have that kind of foresight buy the next 1000x stock bagger and language choice would be moot in that case.

French. The African continent is the last open and underdeveloped market.

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.

They should study something that they like and are interested in. Trying to game what will help them with work or whatever in the future is a fools errand.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who doesn't say Spanish really needs to explain why. It's by far the most common second language in the US and our neighboring countries. And it's much easier to learn than Mandarin; I know several people who majored in Mandarin and still don't speak it well enough to use in business. And I say this as someone who studied French and whose child chose Latin (despite my suggestion that Spanish would be more useful).

Too easy.

Anyone who doesn't say Spanish really needs to explain why. It's by far the most common second language in the US and our neighboring countries. And it's much easier to learn than Mandarin; I know several people who majored in Mandarin and still don't speak it well enough to use in business. And I say this as someone who studied French and whose child chose Latin (despite my suggestion that Spanish would be more useful).

c'est à se taper la tête contre les murs…

mdr