Elementary Spanish or French?

[EliseMcKenna]

Here is our situation. I have three daughters, ages 5 to 9-years old. I took French throughout high school and college, and while I'm certainly not fluent, I am more comfortable with French vocabulary and verb conjugation than any other second language. I only took one semester of Spanish in college. However! My husband is Cuban, and his entire family speaks Spanish fluently. That said, DH's parents spoke mostly English as he was growing up at home, and since he hasn't lived in Miami for many years, he insists his Spanish-speaking skills are weak. (So I cannot seem to convince him to do immersion weekends with us!)

 

We live in the opposite corner of the U.S. from DH's family, so we rarely see them in person. But, knowing that my daughters have this Latin heritage, should we choose Spanish first? Instead of the language I'm more comfortable with?? 

[Miss Tick]

If you will be doing the bulk of the teaching, go with the one you are comfortable with. You could always add Spanish in two or three years.

 

One idea would be to do one following a curriculum, and then add the other in later with supplements, and building off the first. So, if you find a French curriculum you love, in two years you could have everybody watch Spanish salsa and study picture dictionaries in Spanish.

 

In our house we started with Spanish (the only other language i knew anything about) using videos and stories and browsing picture dictionaries. Later we added Latin for the olders using a curriculum and I learned along with them.

[CadenceSophia]

I would sit down with your DH and ask him on a scale of 1-10 how much would he enjoy the kids learning Spanish. If he is truly indifferent or has some negative associations, I would go with French. If he is even a little positive or appreciative, go with Spanish.

 

There are better resources for Spanish than early French, tbh. The really good resources for French start around a high school maturity level (which could be a bit before high school depending on the kid). Not that there are none, but Spanish has a seemingly unending supply of neat things whereas French is tougher to dig up the right material as you get past the very basics into the intermediate learner stage.

[happypamama]

I'd go with whichever your children want more, and barring that, whichever you're more comfortable with if you'll be doing the teaching. I took many years of high school French and several semesters of college Italian, plus I started studying Latin alongside my children starting when my oldest was about nine. It was definitely easier for me to teach beginning French than beginning Spanish when my oldest requested that, but I've been able to muddle through decently. There are more materials for Spanish available though.

 

(And it may depend on your local area too. Spanish is more common in many parts of the US, and DD sees and hears things she can understand all the time around here because there are some Spanish-speaking immigrants, and Spanish is probably more useful in most of the US overall. But the area I grew up in had a fair number of immigrants from Haiti, and knowing even a little French was helpful. So I wouldn't let that deter me from French if that's what my family wanted to learn.)