What language did your child take in High school?

[java]

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?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My DD is a 9th grader and is currently taking Spanish. I don't see how it's going to help her based on what her current career direction is.

I took French. I don't remember a word of it. If I took Spanish, I don't see how it would have changed anything.

 

[FINFAN]

French...her counselors, us everyone told her to take Spanish but she had absolutely no desire to learn it...she DID have a huge desire to learn French..she did great while many of her friends barely made it thru Spanish since they did not want to take it. I think it is all personal preference. One can get Rosetta stone if they have a need for a language for work etc. My DH is an Engineer and when he noses around, he is asked which Asian dialects he speaks...so...given how much outsourcing is going on, really, she may be better off taking an Asian language.

 

[agnes!]

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!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Oldest took Spanish (college sophmore now & has taken Spanish in college as well. She is not fluent however she could speak and understand enough to get around), my youngest is taking French and she LOVES it (8th grader).

That being said, kids seem to shed their heritage language and honestly it is up to the parents to teach them their cultural language to keep it going.

If you want your children to learn Spanish, then learn it with them. Are you fluent? If you had only spoke Spanish to them they would have been forced to learn it.

The hard part is if they want to use it for college and beyond they must learn to read and write the language and not just speak it fluently.

My dd's have friends from many cultures who have shed their language. Heck my neighbor is Mexican and never taught her kids Spanish.

My heritage is Polish and the parents did not pass that down either. I am only a 3rd generation immigrant here.

 

[laurie31]

Honestly, I think your DD has a better chance of learning to converse with her grandmother by actually doing just that.

I think Spanish is the better language to study, but DD12 made the same choice. She wanted French. I have no idea how French will help her, but I do know that learning another language - any other language -is good for her academically and mentally.

Let your DD take French, with the stipulation that she must spend a certain amount of time (you decide how long- 2 hours a week, maybe?) talking with her grandmother (either in person or by phone/skype if she doesn't live close to you) and she WILL become fluent in Spanish over time. She may not know all the grammar rules, but she will be able to speak it.

 

[illuminationsfanatic]

I took French in high school and didn't take any foreign languages in college. I haven't used any of the French since then nor do I remember much My brother took Spanish in high school and is now taking Spanish and Arabic in college. He wants to be a criminal profiler for the FBI, so both of those languages will a big help to him. He's extrememly glad that he took Spanish in high school. I think it just depends on what your DD is planning on doing in the future as to whether or not it will make a big difference as to what she takes now.

 

[Cindy B]

My son is taking Italian. He's a sophomore now and LOVES it. Previously, he took Spanish in elementary and middle school. The Spanish he did take did prepare him for Italian.

If your student doesn't want to do Spanish and Italian is available, I would recommend it. My son is also involved in the arts so the Italian is helpful for reading scores, operatic terms and other items.

Plus for the food unit, it is very easy to make an Italian dish versus other cuisines. (We just made biscotti yesterday!)

 

[kellydizfan]

My DD17 who is a Junior is taking her fourth year of French. She took the Regents exam last year as in 8th grade she took the accelerated class - 1st & 2nd Part in 1 year. She took it because she sings and thought it was the better language to know. She struggled but passed it - doing alot better this year but also a different teacher from the first three years as her other teacher retired last year and she likes her better now then when she was in her class as she sees her at work alot. I had to pay $140 for college credits this year with it also. She wanted to switch to Spanish this year but there was no room for her. MY DD13 who is is in 8th grade is taking the accelerated Spanish -loves it. It all depends on the child I guess. MY DD13 has a different teacher yet from DD17. Our school only offers Spanish or French. I took a year of German when I was in high school - hated it.

 

[LisaNJ25]

My son took Spanish all through elementary and middle school.. decided to take German is High school Tried to explain to him to take Spanish since his dad is Hispanic and he has that whole side of the family to help... my German side doesn't speak it

So what happens.. he ends up failing it his freshman year and had to take Spanish is sophomore year.

 

[NMAmy]

Spanish and French are very similar. I took both in high school and by the time I hit my senior year, I would sometimes absentmindedly answer my French teacher in Spanish.

DD learned Spanish in elementary school and all the way through high school and she also learned some Navajo in school. In high school, she switched to German. I picked up a lot more German when I lived there than I had realized. Helping her study brought it all back.

I think learning any language is helpful. I do wonder why your husband didn't teach your kids Spanish when they were little. I have a lot of friends who have bilingual children because one parent grew up in a Spanish speaking household and continued that with their own kids.

 

[Duckfan]

I took French in college. Don't use it. My dd took Japanese in high school and college, she would like to travel and maybe live in Japan.

 

[jazzielady]

MY DD14 chose French since she has a built-in tutor at home (I'm a retired French teacher)

We just got back from Puerto Rico where I was able to understand much of the written language becausse of it's similarities to French.

When I was teaching, we had a number of native Spanish speakers who flunked Spanish b/c all they knew was how to speak. Their writing and grammatical skills were completely off.

It's essential to learn the 4 skills, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While speaking and understanding the spoken word are infinitely important, the other 2 skills are irreplaceable.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

My older DS took Latin and Spanish in high school. He passed both regents exams, but cannot speak a word of either language. He's taking German now as an elective.... maybe it will help him understand what he's eating at Biergarten, but I doubt it will do more than that.

My younger DS is in middle school, taking Italian, who knows what he'll take in high school. Here, the kids in the Scholars/honors program all take whatever language the school chooses for the group, so my kids had their language based on being scholars, not on their own choice or preference.

 

[tvguy]

In high school I took Spanish, my wife took French. Neither of us use it.

Our kids took Spanish in Junior High, and French in high school. Neither use it.

And when our kids were taking French, my wife swore they were learning a different French than she learned 35 years ago.

 

[Momvic5]

My ds(freshman) started with Spanish. He hated it so he dropped it after the first semester and will be taking two years of American Sign Language. As a family, we took Chinese lessons for about one year. It was very hard.

I took two years of German in high school. I can still count and say friendly phrases, but other than that, I don't remember enough to do anything with it.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I took French. I am so glad I did! I used it OFTEN in my career as a flight attendant. I think most Spanish speaking individuals know enough English. I NEVER had issues on my Mexican or Central American flights... I would have been LOST on my Canadian flights!

 

[krcit]

My district teaches Spanish starting in Kindergarten so my kids decided to continue through middle school. My oldest is a sophmore and she took Spanish through 9th grade and this year switched to American Sign Language. My middle dd will stick with Spanish through 9th grade and pass the regents and then probably switch to italian or ASL.

 

[shortbun]

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.

 

[Longsx3]

My DD is a freshman and did not take a language this yr but will take American Sign Language next year.