Has anyone's child switched foreign languages in high school?

[Lorna in the boonies]

My dd is in 9th grade and is currently taking Spanish I. She really, really wants to switch to French next year. I told her I'd consider it.

 

Does anyone know how such a thing would go over with colleges? Would they frown upon starting off with one language and then taking 2-3 years of a different one?

 

I don't really care which one she studies, but I don't want her to be at a disadvantage when it comes time for college admission, either.

 

Also, I don't know how much of it is that she really wants to take French and how much of it is that she is just tired of Spanish, if that makes sense.

 

I can help her with Spanish, but she would be on her own with French (which is why she went with Spanish to begin with). We use BJU HomeSat, so I would not be her primary instructor.

 

My personal opinion is that she should just stick with Spanish, but I told her I'd consider it, and that is what I'm trying to do.;)

 

Thanks for any experience anyone can share!

[Jan P.]

My ds did this. He switched from Latin in 9th grade to Spanish in 10th. I really didn't have him finish a full second year of Spanish until 12th grade. My umbrella group advisor listed all of his grades by subjects instead of the subjects listed in a year format, so I don't think the colleges thought anything about it. To be honest, I think most of these colleges are so inundated with paperwork that they just see if your dc met their requirements.

 

My ds was accepted at every college he applied to.

 

FWIW,

[Gwen in VA]

My dd switched from French to Latin at the end of 9th. We hired a tutor and she hustled and hustled and managed to take AP Latin her senior year, so the switch was actually a positive on her transcript -- it showed how motivated she could be!

[Raders Fan]

My ds dropped Spanish to start German. (He was in PS as the time and bored to tears with Spanish.) He was also taking Japanese through independent study. It didn't seem to be a problem. He was accepted to his first choice school and received some nice scholarship money.

[Happy]

My son dropped French after a year and a half to study Dutch since we have more friends that speak Dutch than French.

 

As long as he gets the minimum of two years, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

We called a few colleges he is interested in to see if we were messing up by studying Dutch, rather than one of the more common choices. None of them cared at all. I remember thinking I wished I'd asked them about Klingon to see if I could get more of a reaction. :rolleyes:

[Karen in CO]

My ds switched from French to Japanese and it is probably the best choice he has made in school. He loves Japanese with a passion. He hated French and found it boring. He took Spanish in middle school and hated that. He is in his forth semester of Japanese at the CC and has added Italian to his list of languages. He has performed in his school's annual Japanese play and finished second in his group in a Japanese speech competition. If I had made him stay in French, he would have taken one more year and never touched another foreign language.

 

As long as they get the 2-3 years of the same language, I don't think schools care. I think it is better to take a language you are interested in than stay in one you aren't.

[Lorna in the boonies]

Thanks, everyone.

 

I guess what I need to ask her, then, is would she rather stick with Spanish for only 1-2 more years or switch to French and take it for 2-3?

 

I'm definitely more willing to consider it after having heard your stories -- thanks again!