How to decide which foreign language to study?

[Pixiedust34]

How did you decide which foreign language for yourself and/or for your kids to study?

My tentative plan is to have our kids study German during their middle school years. I've read that having a background in German might help with studying sciences in college. For those in science/healthcare professions, did a background in German come in handy in any way? Also, German is one of the most common known languages in Europe so knowing it might help with a career someday.

For high school, I'm thinking about having the kids do Latin American Spanish for 2-3 years. I'm picking Spanish because I think that's the language that they'll most likely encounter in the workplace and community.

Which languages did/do you and/or your kids study, and why?

As an aside, I also think it might be handy for our kids to learn either Chinese or Arabic because that might also help with a career a decade or so from now, but I think we're sticking with German and Spanish for the reasons I posted above.

 

[kgle]

I don't believe that I have run across any german words in my science and health science classes. If anything- they are of latin roots.

I definitely think Spanish is a must for any career. I plan to have my son study Spanish no matter what.

 

[clarabelle]

Are you homeschooling?

My DD wanted to do French (she goes to private prep school) I wanted her to do Spanish -for the reasons you stated. But decided I would let her choose. I did push for Spanish however.
Anyway, She chose French for MS and then switched to Latin in 8th grade.
There was something good that came out of her choice. Because the majority of the kids were taking Spanish she wound up with some really small classes.
The way the schedule worked out the French kids were in some other classes together that wound up having 6 or 7 kids in them. So that was an unexpected bonus.

 

[monkey68]

I was a biochem major in college, current medical student, and although I don't have a background in German, I don't think there are many words deriving from German, maybe electrokardiogram, which in English is electrocardiogram (EKG vs. ECG). Greek if anything would be more helpful, I think. But seriously, I doubt the kid is going to learn enough in 2 or 3 years for it to be of any real use, so why not just let them choose what language they want? My mom let me choose when I was in middle school, and I picked French because I had a love of Paris at the time. I studied it all the way into college, did a study abroad trip in Paris, and although my French is pretty darn good, and I can easily understand what people say, speaking myself is harder, although I can still get around France with little problem.

I think my point is that only a couple years of school study is probably not going to cut it for the language to be of any use to them, so just let them pick a language they like. It's also the kind of thing where if you don't use it, you lose it, so if they study German in middle school, who's to say they'll remember any of it, besides a few random words, when they're in the workforce?

 

[PlutoPony]

More and more we are hearing that colleges want 3 years of one language or at least 2 years each of 2 different languages. My son was torn between Spanish and French..... the Spanish teacher is much more engaging and he went that route thinking he'd enjoy it more.

 

[NMAmy]

I took Spanish because that was all that was available when I was in 7th grade and continued taking it through high school. I also took French my junior and senior years of high school--mainly because it was very easy once I had the background in Spanish. I ended up living in Germany for a year.

I let dd choose what languages she wanted to take. Starting in elementary school, they did some very basic classes in Spanish and in Navajo. Living in New Mexico, dd was exposed to both of these languages on a daily basis. When she got into middle school, she continued with Spanish and then switched to German. That was her choice and she really enjoyed it.

I really think that taking any foreign language class is very helpful--I don't necessarily think that one is better than the other.

 

[Mom2Nick]

Why don't you let your children decide what languages they would like to learn?

 

[beckmrk04]

Why don't you let your children decide what languages they would like to learn?

Learning another language is a labor of love.

I chose french because I love the language and had always wanted to visit the country. I did get to go to France, and I hope to go again. I have retained a lot of it because I loved it so much, although I am much better at understanding it (listening/reading) than I am at speaking it.

But really, to really understand and learn a language- the best way is to immerse yourself in it. That can't be done in a classroom.

So, I pick "let your kid decide" and don't rely on a language as some sort of breakthrough for a career.

 

[Pixiedust34]

German is the language that ds picked to study, so the main reason I went with German is because ds wants to learn it. Dd isn't inspired to learn any particular language, and will go along with German for middle school. It's a lot cheaper for me to buy one foreign language program at a time than two different languages at once. : ) I'm trying to look at how useful knowing a little bit of German might be if that's the language we study next year.

You're right in that 2-3 years of a language isn't much, though it's a foundation and I think it's good for the brain to study 2-3 year of a foreign language. We do homeschool, and although foreign language is not a middle school requirement for us I'd still like for the kids to begin their foreign language studies during the middle school years. During the high school years, I want them to have 2-3 years of a foreign language for their high school transcript.

I'm going to be ordering all of our school materials for next year sometime in April, so I'm making my final list of what we will be studying.

 

[mom2rb]

My boys are learning two languages. I home school and they are using Rosetta Stone. The rule in my house is, I pick one and they can pick one. I chose Spanish. We live in Texas, they definitely need to learn Spanish. They chose Japanese. Like most video game loving boys, they are obsessed with Japan.

 

[Rora]

Spanish is very helpful when it comes to careers.

In addition, the school I teach at is offering Chinese as it is "the next big language", much like Spanish.

My mom was a Spanish teacher so I took Spanish and resented it. Then in college I took Latin and it was the best thing I ever did. It helped so much with regular English. Latin is the best language to take for tests like the SAT (helps you figure out what that word on the reading test means!), plus, so much of English is based on Latin.

 

[DVCLiz]

Both of my daughters had a required Spanish class in elementary school. In middle school, they took one semester of Spanish and one semester of Latin the first year, then they chose which of those two languages they wanted to take and took it both remaining years of middle school. One chose Latin, one chose Spanish. My daughter who chose Latin in middle school had it for two full years, then switched to Spanish for high school.

They each chose on their own, and they each chose the language they wanted to study in high school. DD20 then chose to continue and major in that language in college.

I never considered making the choice for them - by seventh grade they were old enough to make the choice based on what their interest was, and I would never dream of choosing a class for them in high school!! Time to let them start making their own decisions at that age...

 

[DisneyMomOK]

spanish is very helpful when it comes to careers.

In addition, the school i teach at is offering chinese as it is "the next big language", much like spanish.

My mom was a spanish teacher so i took spanish and resented it. Then in college i took latin and it was the best thing i ever did. It helped so much with regular english. Latin is the best language to take for tests like the sat (helps you figure out what that word on the reading test means!), plus, so much of english is based on latin.

11111111

 

[wellesleyprincess]

I've studied German, French, and Italian.

Personally, I've found German more helpful in my philosophy studies than I would have in Science. There are great German philosophers like Kant, Nietzche, Hegel, Clauswitz...

I did French through the AP level. While Spanish is definitely helpful in the workplace, French is also very useful. Several international organizations such as the UN use French and English as their official language.

Italian was just for fun. If you are going to have your kids study two different languages, then a Romance language (or Latin) and a non-Romance language would be a good idea. In my experience once you have one language in a family of languages, it is much easier to learn others that are in the same family.

 

[kaytieeldr]

More and more we are hearing that colleges want 3 years of one language or at least 2 years each of 2 different languages. My son was torn between Spanish and French..... the Spanish teacher is much more engaging and he went that route thinking he'd enjoy it more.

Ah, heck - it's ALWAYS been like that. Okay, maybe not always,,, but I was in high school 35+ years ago, and if you were in the College Prep track, that was a requirement: three years of one language or two years each of two languages (and the five years of part-time French we'd started learning in fourth grade didn't count ).

 

[chobie]

We live in south Florida and my daughter is taking Spanish, but it seems like they really gear Spanish classes down here for kids who speak Spanish at home -- its almost assumed the kids speak Spanish at home so everything is more geared toward grammar rather than learning to speak it. We've had to hire a tutor and its very expensive. Her grades are improved but she can barely speak a sentence and she's almost through her second year.

 

[Cool-Beans]

If you're thinking about help with medical terminology, study Latin and Greek. After that, study French, Spanish, Italian - all Latin-based and some of the terms will be a little familiar, I guess. I don't see German being much help at all.

I encouraged my kids to take Spanish because it would come in the most handy in our country - a language they might have a shot at using. But it was their choice. They took what they wanted. I think one of them specifically didn't take Spanish BECAUSE I encouraged it - he's contrary like that - but whatever.

There is so little in school that you get to pick and choose - I'd let the kid take whatever suits his fancy.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I would base it on what part of the country you live in. We are in Buffalo NY, a hop, skip and a jump away from Canada, so we chose French. Plus, I'm French and had French speaking parents.

 

[golfgal]

Our oldest is studying Japanese. He chose that because he wants to get into computer game design-he loves the Japanese, doesn't like math and computer programing so we will see where this will go . He wanted to take Chinese next year as well but the school only offered a 2 hour daily course and he couldn't fit it into his schedule. It sounds like no one else could either because they only had 6 kids in the entire high school sign up for the course. I would pick a language that is whatever the newest immigrant group is-Somali for example. There are always clamoring for people who speak Somali around here.

 

[tasha99]

I think German could be helpful for the sciences if you go far enough to read other people's research that has not been translated. I remember hearing that 20 years ago--might not be so true anymore. It also wouldn't give anyone a leg up in undergraduate level courses.

My choice would be Spanish, ASL, or to just let the kids pick. Do you speak a foreign language (even from a long time ago?)