Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore came home from school stressed that his Spanish 4 teacher only speaks Spanish in class and she talks fast and no one understands what’s going on except one kid who speaks Spanish at home. He said everyone’s saying the class is a gpa killer and he’s really worried he’ll end up with a C or a D. I had heard that there’s a big jump from Spanish 3 to Spanish 4, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had luck with a tutor for Spanish 4? I feel like my son doesn’t know any Spanish despite getting As and Bs in Spanish 3. We would’ve let him drop it this year, but we keep hearing most colleges require two years of the same language *in high school* (and he keeps telling me he has lots of friends who aren’t doing that, including some who have older siblings who’ve been through the college process). What are we missing? Should we have let him drop it??

If at all possible, for liberal arts colleges, you should take the language through the first AP level. This is not only for admission, but, often, language is a graduation requirement. If you know that your student is going to focus on STEM and not at a liberal arts college, you can consider dropping. Get the tutor.

You are talking top expensive liberal arts schools. Taking Spanish for 5 years is not the norm.

In a lot of the US, the pathway to AP is all in HS - Level 1, 2, 3, AP

That's rare. Usually 1,2,3,4,AP for non heritage speakers.

You don't need AP Spanish. You can take Spanish in college.

No its not rare. Its completely normal, standard progression outside of Bethesda MD

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that everyone gets A&B’s in Spanish 1-3 is the problem.

Most kids drop as most Spanish teachers in MCPS are terrible

Correct. By Spanish 4, a student should be able to handle a class being taught 100% in Spanish.

Even at the back to school open house, Spanish 1A the teacher said she speaks 60% of the time in Spanish and that if your kids complain not to worry, they will learn. Immersion is the best way to learn if you care about language learning outcomes. As for protecting your kid's GPA, that I could not tell you...

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'll start looking for a tutor now. I wish MCPS started teaching everyone Spanish in K. Even just once a week as a special in elementary school would have gone a long way with kids that young and given them a much better base.

This.

It would have the additional benefit of laying a solid foundation for grammar as well. Heck, perhaps we can persuade mcps to bring back grammar?

ICYMI: private schools teach grammar and foreign language starting in elementary school. In fact, both are critical components for academic success.

Someone uptread recommended Spanish soap operas. I don’t recommend those. They are boring. I highly recommend the duoling Spanish podcast — it is so well done and is perfect for kids in years 2-4. Skim thru and pick ones that look interesting but there’s one season where they did an Argentinian bank heist that was great and another where they focused on art thefts that was also really fun. I personally loved the singing grandma story the best.

For TV shows, if you are okay with TV-MA, I recommend Casa de Papel (money heist) or if you want comedy and less violence Vecinos, paquita Salas, or House of Fllowers. There is also a very cute teen based show about a lesbian teen in Mexico called The Most Beautiful Fllower (that makes it sound raunchy but it’s more cute — think more like an Mexican my so called life.) All on Netflix. Acapulco on Apple is half in Spanish and is so fun. I recommend turning on the Spanish close captioning so they can see the words as well as see them.

I used to love watching Spanish game shows but just have t found any fun ones lately. The old version of family fued (cien Mexicanos…) was my favorite but then they changed the host and made it more American instead of Mexican (cien Latinos) it just wasn’t as good.