What language did your child take in High school?

[Lisa loves Pooh]

No HS kids, yet. But I took French. I loved it except for 3rd year when we were neglected by the instructor so she could pursue her PhD. (hard to explain--but I got an A, but didn't learn anything--sad sad sad!)

I went on to take 2 semesters in college.

Then as an adult, I went on a vacation to Paris--and couldn't remember a darn thing. (though I can read it a little...but I can't conjure up much by way of conversation to save my life.)

I chose it as I was exposed to it during a class in middle school and wanted to learn more.

Latin would have been a better choice, and given the diversity of our country right now--Spanish would have been an even better choice. French just isn't spoken in a whole bunch of countries, but I'm just mesmerized with how it flows.

Given that you speak Spanish, perhaps your children want more of a challenge in learning something else. I say let them choose what they like. Sometimes, it isn't about what we get out of it more than enjoyment.

We are studying latin now as it is part of my dd's curriculum (we--b/c I'm fascinated, so we do it together), and I hope to be able for us to learn Spanish. My understanding is that it paves the way to many languages--and it really helps that vocabulary.

I recall in High school, there were kids who took Russian--and they just LOVED it. It was just something different.

 

[kristina87]

I took German in middle school and Spanish in high school

 

[Pixiedust34]

German

 

[hereyago]

I know I may get flamed for this, but this thread makes me think about all the classes people have to take to graduate and never use them in their lifetime, let alone their careers. I know taking a little of everything makes you well rounded, but sheesh, why oh why do we need to waste everyone's time when you know you'll never use certain classes? I think it's not only a waste of the students time, but also the teacher's. And I'm not speaking exclusively to foreign languages, I really wish our education system could take a long look at conversations like this and say "Hmmm...why are we making people take these classes when 95% of them say they've never utilized it during their career?"

Anyway...off my soap box now.

No flames from me: Chorus in high school has nothing to do with what I do now,even though I enjoyed it. DD taking French, isn't going to use it for what she wants to do-be a dog trainer and have a doggy day care. She will be needing some recordkeeping-if it's called that still and accounting courses for the business aspect. But that 1 year of art isn't going to do much good in that field.

I must say though: I took Childcare for 2 years at a magnet school, but still had a couple core classes at regular high school, because the GC suggested it because I wanted to be a flight attendant and would have to learn to deal with kids. You know what I learned? I didn't want to be a flight attendant trapped with unruly kids at 40,000 feet lol. So that class actually helped me.

 

[ashleybea]

When I was in High School I took both Italian and French. But only carried on with Italian in college. It was going to be my minor but I dropped it.
Now I am highly proficient in Italian. I'm not fluent but I am able to hold up conversations.

 

[RUDisney]

Let me preface that my DH speaks Spanish. My in-laws only speak spanish. My children have taken Spanish in middle school. Now going in to High School my second child has opted to not continue in Spanish. She wants to take French. Nothing against the French of course but if she took Spanish she could talk with her grandmother! She isn't fluent in Spanish yet.

But she wants to take French. And I am venting on here instead of telling her what a mistake I think she is making.

So tell me the success stories of your high schoolers language choices. My oldest took latin! At least it helps on the SAT's. What's up with them hating Spanish?

I took 2 years of Latin and it taught me more English grammar than any English class I ever had. IDK, something about explaining that a word was in the accusative case or the ablative case made sense to me. I also took 2 years of ancient Greek and 2 years of German. Today, I can bless myself in Greek and recite the first 4 lines of the Odyssey in Greek. I can order wine or beer in German.

DD's taking Latin. Pray for all the kids taking the AP Latin exam in May. I think Chinese or Spanish or Arabic would have been a good choice, but she wanted to take Latin ever since she was in the 6th Grade.

agnes!

My DS will be taking that test, too. Right now, the only school in our area that teaches Latin is our HS... a private, Jesuit institution.

My sister (24 years younger than me) is double majoring now in French and Japanese. She plans to become an international lawyer and has already been offered a job by one of my friends who lives in Bangkok when she graduates. She's a freshman now.

She's the type to which languages come easily. She is already fluent in Spanish, Italian, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Thai. English is her first language. She has a Vietnamese roommate, so she plans on being fluent in Vietnamese by the end of this school year.

She also dabbles in Urdu, Arabic, Russian, Icelandic, Danish, Hindi, Korean and German. She's planning to spend her junior year in France, near the German border.

That being said, don't ask her to divide 10 into 250. She can say 25 in dozens of languages, but she can't do math to save her life.

My point? Languages teach you study disciplines. If you are serious about learning a language, you can do it with the help of a HS course, but to truly learn a language, you must use it.

I learned enough Russian to get by with my kids when I was 35. I learned it from a book that was phoenetically spelled. You wouldn't want me to read you something that is printed in Russian because I have to sound it out, but if you want me to find out how much something costs, I can ask for you, or I can order your dinner. HS Russian would never have taught me that.

 

[mommasita]

Well, here it is English/French from K on. Actually more French than English, but I wanted it this way for my children, because we speak English at home. I wanted them learning the RIGHT way, as French is a lot harder IMHO. They are both fully bilingual, and on the way to more:

DD11 is in Grade 6 in an IBO school, and has integrated Spanish since Grade 3. She now goes to Italian school on Saturday's and has an extra course of Italian weekly in School.

DS14 is taking German in HS.

I have a passion for languages and think that ALL are beneficial, and educational.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

DD (Freshman) is taking Spanish this year. She had Spanish in grammar school, but it wasn't a very intensive program. She wanted to take French, but I told her I thought she'd have more occasion to use Spanish going forward. She took my suggestion and chose Spanish. However, she did say she's still interested in French. She may take two years of Spanish and two years of French, which is what her Spanish teacher told me she did in high school. The teacher said she can't go wrong with the Spanish now, because it will better prepare her for French later. Her teacher said the only reason she didn't continue with French in college was because she had to chose between the two. There was no room in her schedule for both.

 

[Marionnette]

My daughter took French in high school. She's taking Italian in college. I think that studying any language is beneficial to a student. The younger they begin, the better! I can understand why you would want your child to study Spanish. But given that they will have the opportunity to pick up that language thru interaction with their grandparents, perhaps it's not a bad idea to take advantage of the learning opportunity to take French at school.

 

[JessicaR]

Both boys take French. Their choice. One is second year and my oldest is 6th year. They both enjoy it a lot. The classes are smaller so that could have a bearing.

 

[Inigo]

Both of my kids had four years of Latin, and they still use it occasionally to say witty things. Plus a knowledge of Latin helps with understanding romance languages since the romance languages are Latin-based.

DD also took two years of German in HS, just because. I found this funny since German is not a romance language, so she couldn't transfer her Latin skills over to it.

I had three years of French in HS, tested out of two years of it in college, and took one year of it in college. I can fluently say, "Hello, how are you? My name is _______." I can understand a lot when I read it, but if someone said something to me, I'd just stare at them with a blank look on my face.

I can also say, "Kiss me" in seven different languages. It amazing the things that are important to remember.

 

[Becky2005]

I know I may get flamed for this, but this thread makes me think about all the classes people have to take to graduate and never use them in their lifetime, let alone their careers. I know taking a little of everything makes you well rounded, but sheesh, why oh why do we need to waste everyone's time when you know you'll never use certain classes? I think it's not only a waste of the students time, but also the teacher's. And I'm not speaking exclusively to foreign languages, I really wish our education system could take a long look at conversations like this and say "Hmmm...why are we making people take these classes when 95% of them say they've never utilized it during their career?"

Anyway...off my soap box now.

Trust me we are going through that now with DD -- basically we could *barely* find classes she could take her Senior year to fill her schedule. Pretty much after she takes US Government, 1/2 year of PE & 1/2 year of English, she has fulfilled the graduation requirements. Of course, this is what happens when you take 3 years with no study halls. She had to take TWO study halls this year just to fill up the space, she is hoping at least one of them is first hour or last hour (because they let them come in late/leave early). She thought of graduating early but she wants to go on the choir trip that happens every other year and that doesn't happen to 2nd semester, so she'd be out of luck. We feel like most the stuff really is just TIME filler because she has to take *something* and they don't have enough classes for what she wants to do. The only other option is something like Cosmotology which takes up 3 class periods but that is almost too much & costs $$$.

She is taking Spanish I Senior year just because she needed something. She already took French II her Freshman year but didn't continue as she barely passed the class (she was out for 7 weeks & although had a homebound tutor, still hard to catch up in a language class like that). Her only concern now is that she is going to end up mixing French and Spanish together, which is quite possible.

DH took German and I took Spanish -- so of course, my kid decides to take French!

I took one year of Spanish but probably learned more with my sister who took about 3 years and would speak it at the table all the time, so I had some of the basics down before even getting to HS. I, of course, learned really fast even if I understand 1/2 the conversation to just pretend I have no clue because the ONE time I actually didn't wait for a child to interpet for their mom -- the mom got all excited and started talking a mile a minute at me (this was at least 15 years ago though - it wasn't that hard, I know my numbers 1 - 10 and still do!) and I'm sure I had deer in headlight look as I was trying to figure out what she was saying. I CAN somewhat tell you my dog is NOT green though. I had the Spanish teacher ask me if my dog was green on the oral exam!! Everything else I blanked out because I hated those oral exams but for some odd reason asking me if my dog is green stuck in my head...I can READ Spanish much better than I could speak it back then. It will be interesting to see if any of it comes back to me this year although there are definitely words I know for sure...just not a conversational level. I bet I could still read Kindergarten level books though.

 

[Inigo]

My 2nd oldest is a jr in Honors Spanish 4 (will take AP next year) and Honors latin 2. She LOVES latin and wants to be a latin teacher someday. Do many high school have latin? Do you think she'll get a job?

I would imagine the school would love to have a Latin teacher since there are so few of them! We were so happy the Latin teacher at our school didn't retire until DD and her friends graduated because we were worried they wouldn't be able to find another teacher. We were thrilled when the school found another Latin teacher to replace Jo when she did retire. We're one of the few schools around our area to have Latin.

She could, hopefully, teach both Spanish and Latin.

 

[Shmily1]

I took two years of spanish. I know how to count to 15 (I learned that when I was about 8) and I know beber and comer are to eat and drink. DS20 took french because there was only one guy in there and a room full of girls. He still remembers some of it and probably more than he lets on because he remembers everything!! DD19 took spanish and remembers none of it. She took it because she had to take something. Those are the only two options we have here.

 

[golfgal]

I don't think it matters what language a high schooler takes. They don't become fluent with just high school language. French and Spanish are romance languages, derived from latin for the most part. I took 4 years of high school french and 2 years of Latin then tested out of college language. Today, I can still speak French(conversationally) and I'm learning Spanish right along with my son, a high school freshman. If kids know you really want them to do something and they have a real choice, they may choose another option because it's more interesting that say, speaking the language they've heard around them for years. If you really wanted them to speak Spanish, too bad their dad didn't speak Spanish with them from birth. I have a girlfriend who learned Portugese and English growing up in Brazil; she's studied Spanish on her own and took French in high school and college. Imagine that most Americans can barely speak English and feel happy that your child is studying another language.

I TOTALLY disagree that kids in high school don't become fluent, they most certainly do if they have good teachers.

Now, if your child is taking a language to fulfill a requirement and has no plans to use that language in the future, there is nothing wrong with taking French or German. If they want to use a language in the future, Spanish, Japanese or Chinese would be the way to go.

DS18 took Japanese in high school and is now taking Chinese in college. Our twins are taking Spanish in high school. They also have the option for French, German, Russian, Chinese and Japanese in our school.

 

[Pigeon]

I'm making my kids take Spanish. The school system offers Spanish, French, German, Russian and Latin. With the possible exception of Russian, I think Spanish is the only language with any practical utility.

I wish they offered Mandarin instead of, or in addition to, German, French or Latin.

 

[agnes!]

I know I may get flamed for this, but this thread makes me think about all the classes people have to take to graduate and never use them in their lifetime, let alone their careers. I know taking a little of everything makes you well rounded, but sheesh, why oh why do we need to waste everyone's time when you know you'll never use certain classes? I think it's not only a waste of the students time, but also the teacher's. And I'm not speaking exclusively to foreign languages, I really wish our education system could take a long look at conversations like this and say "Hmmm...why are we making people take these classes when 95% of them say they've never utilized it during their career?"

Anyway...off my soap box now.

Oh no...as I said in my original statement I'm not speaking exclusively of just language classes. I'm simply speaking to any class that if you were to poll people of any specific industry they could look at a college curriculum and say "I've never needed that class."

And as far as a doctor goes, I would for sure think language classes would be beneficial given the industry.

Trust me we are going through that now with DD -- basically we could *barely* find classes she could take her Senior year to fill her schedule. Pretty much after she takes US Government, 1/2 year of PE & 1/2 year of English, she has fulfilled the graduation requirements. Of course, this is what happens when you take 3 years with no study halls. ...

Oh YEAH, we went through this with DD as well.
State requirements are that kids need 4 years of Math, English & Science & at least 3 years of one language in High School. She fulfilled the Math by the end of Junior year because she took a HS Honors Math class & the language at the end of Sophmore year because she took a Latin 1 class in middle school.
Well, she loves one of the teachers who's teaching AP Calc A/B plus wanted to have the HS Latin teacher all four years (both teachers are truly AMAZING). *So* this year she is taking AP Calc A/B and AP Latin (even though she didn't *have* to but because she wanted to...and even though it loaded up her schedule I agreed with her about all her reasons).
She wanted to take a Shakespeare seminar but then couldn't because the system wouldn't count the seminar as the 12th Grade English requirement, so her choices were either AP English Lit OR 12th Grade General Ed English...nevermind that she already took AP English Language as a Junior. Suuuuuuure, made perfect sense to me too. She'll still now wistfully occasionally say that she wishes she could have taken the Shakespeare class.

agnes!

 

[Kathi OD]

All 3 of my kids took Spanish, as did DH and myself. I probably remember and use more of it than any of them, although I'm not anywhere near fluent. I that because I sometimes get Spanish-speaking students in my classes, and I think that exposure, limited as it is, is what helps me to remember some of what I learned a million years ago.

 

[JLTraveling]

You never know how things may end helping in the future. I took French all through high school and American Sign Language in college. After graduation, I landed in a job providing services to the children of newly-immigrated Department of Agriculture workers.

90% of the kids were Hispanic. Most spoke some English, but their parents almost exclusively spoke Spanish. Naturally, I really wished I had taken Spanish. BUT, I found out how similar French and Spanish really are. I don't have any particular affinity for language learning, but I became comfortably conversational in Spanish within the first month (12-14 hours per day of immersion).

Meanwhile, we had a couple of French-speaking families from Haiti. One of the sons happened to be Deaf, and he spoke French Sign Language. His parents and relatives had never bothered to learn, so when he left Haiti, he literally left behind the only people he could communicate with.

Now, I was the only one who could communicate with the French-speaking families. I also found out that ASL is based on French Sign Language. So I was also able to communicate extremely well with the Deaf child.

I ended up turning it all into a big teachable moment. The Spanish-speaking kids learned conversational French, the French-speaking kids learned conversational Spanish, everyone learned our own blend of ASL/FSL, and we all learned to swear fluently in Spanish thanks to a couple of our more, um, colorful kids

You just never know where life will lead. Now that I am a travel writer, I spend a lot of time in hostels. I've picked up a fair amount of German, Czech, Turkish and Russian, and I can toast in over a dozen languages. More importantly, I've learned HOW to communicate with anyone, even if we don't exactly know each other's languages. To me, that's the most important lesson of all.

 

[daughtersrus]

Some schools in our area offer sign language as an option. Both of my older DD's are/were Special Eduction majors so they wish that would have been an option for them. This is something that they are learning on their own or at in-service type classes. They use this not only in the classroom but with their part time jobs with the Special Rec division through our local Park District.

Instead, they both took 2 years of Spanish and say what a waste it was.