Foreign language poll

[OnTheBrink]

What foreign language do you think is most valuable for a child to learn (other than Latin, I mean)?

[nukeswife]

Well I should have read your post before I voted :lol:

 

I chose other because I didn't see the "besides latin" part. I guess my response still applies because I think a lot can depend on where you live, what professions might be involved etc. Such as if you live an area where a language other than english is really prevalent. I know Spanish is a big one, but some areas might have languages even more prevalent in that area. As for the Latin, I think that's one that can be profession based in importance. I know after working in a medical job that Latin would have been very helpful to me. I'm sure in other professions this may also be the case as well. Then again there may be a religious aspect to look at as well, for things such as Hebrew etc.

 

Anyway that's just my .02

[langfam]

I say Chinese because China is the fastest growing economy in the world. India is also growing very fast, but they speak English in India because it's a former British colony.

 

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=foqqed2TPz8C&dq=china+economy&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=YQ1GiiWHj6&sig=LdASwJh3-cJWr6XMVs4dkP7-70U&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=china+economy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1&cad=bottom-3results#PPR7,M1

[Guest Lorna]

It all depends on what you want to do with your life.

If you live in the USA, I imagine Spanish is very important. If you live in Europe then German and French are important.

Of course Arabic and Hebrew are very valuable to someone of an Islamic or Jewish faith or someone that might want to study in the Middle East or simply go further in their religious studies.

I voted for Japanese because it would demonstrate an exceptional talent for languages if you could master it without being raised in Japan.

We study French and Danish - I wouldn't vote for Danish although they are actually one of the richest nations in the World. They all speak beautiful English...

[Rebel Jedi Mom]

Where we live, Spanish is a definite plus.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

It depends on why you are learning a language. Do you want it to study a certain subject, to converse with your neighbors, to speak a language with other family members...the list goes on and on. Latin is useful for its application to English, but that can also be said of the Romance languages as well as Greek and German to a certain degree.

 

Sometimes I think that with younger children the best approach is a language they can encounter frequently. A language based on family members knowledge or where you live or perhaps ethnic or religious affiliations. The more chances you have to practice the better your skills. Later, as a teen or university student you will be better prepared to choose a language based on your personal and educational needs.

 

Often the first step is not to learn a language but to learn how to learn a language, to overcome the fear of speaking and using another language. That experience can transition to any further study.

[fivetails]

I voted for French - but that's because we live in Canada and French is our second official language. :)

[Peela]

I don't think its a valid question really because everyone's personal circumstances are different. For me, I teach my kids French because I am Australian.....which is no where near France, but being of British background, it is part of our culture. However, I actually teach it because I learned it for 4 years at school so it just seems practical to teach the language I have the most background in.

Probably Chinese, Indonesian or Japanese would be very practical considering our proximity to those countries. And if I lived in the U.S. I would probably choose Spanish.

If I had to start form scratch I might choose Sanskrit or Hindi, because I love India and have been there several times. So just for the love of it, I could have chosen that.

But I chose French because its easiest for me to teach. Doesn't mean its right for anyone else.

[Plaid Dad]

I couldn't answer the question because there are too many variables to consider:

 

 

• Where does the family live?
  
• What are the goals in learning the language (communication? reading literature? professional preparation)?
  
• Is it the native language of other family members (extended family? newly adopted child?) or part of the child's heritage?
  
• Does the language have religious significance for the family?
  
• What other languages does the child already know?
  

 

 

That last one is important. A child who already knows Latin will be able to pick up a Romance language much more quickly than a child who doesn't. That will cut down the time needed to achieve fluency, opening up the possibility of learning more than one modern foreign language during one's school career.

[Closeacademy]

Like most of the others it really depends upon circumstance and life goals.

 

I've been working with my girls on Spanish since they were toddlers because I know the language and it is easy to teach. But I don't think it is the most important after Latin.

 

We are doing Latin for all the obvious reasons and they may do Greek as well.

 

But we are looking at Russian or Japanese for a serious living language study. Japanese because we want to live in Hawaii and there is a large population there and speaking the language makes you more employable. But Russian is a good language too as that place is really opening up and they are open to working with women whereas the Japanese (at least in the multitude of factories around here) shut out women executives.

[snickelfritz]

It is spoken very frequently around here and our libraries offer bilingual story time. In fact, since my dd has seen Dora....she's convinced that she can speak Spanish. She'll hear someone speaking it and she'll say "They speak Spanish, too!" As in....they've joined her club. :001_smile:

 

I have hopes that I can recruit someone to speak to them in Spanish a few times a week.

[Parrothead]

Another guilty of not reading the OP. I picked other because I was thinking of Latin.

[Jenny in Atl]

For where we live, Spanish. But, I wish we could learn them all. I have always envied those who have learned multiple languages. We have dabbled in German and French, but w/o using them daily, they just fade in all the other stuff that fills up the day. :tongue_smilie:

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I voted 'other'. For us, the best foreign language is English. :tongue_smilie:

[April in NC]

I agree with others who say that it really depends on so many things, especially where you live!

 

I had a yen to study German when I started community college classes in my teens. So I studied German there, and also when I attended college. I even had to pass a proficiency exam in German as a condition of getting my degree. I LOVED learning German - it was consistently one of my best grades.

 

Since graduating from college a decade ago, however, I haven't used it AT ALL. I'm glad I learned it, really I am, but I regret not picking Spanish. At this point, I've lost most of the German that I learned. I still know basic stuff, and it would be really, really, easy for me to teach German to my kids. But I'm going to be a little more realistic this time around, and work on a language that we will actually be able to use. (And around here we would definitely be able to use Spanish!)

 

Besides, Spanish will help us in a few years, when we are ready to learn Latin, lol! I know this is sacrilege around here, but I can only teach so many subjects well, and we've made the decision to focus on a spoken language rather than Latin in the youngest grades, since there is such a window of opportunity in terms of accent development and language acquisition in the young child. We'll probably add in Latin in a couple of years.

[homewithtrinity]

In Texas a good chunk of the population speaks Spanish.

[Susie in CA]

I picked Spanish; not because of where we live but because it is the language most spoken after English.

 

However, we are learning German first because I am from Austria and have family there. We go there a lot. We will add Spanish in 5th for above reason. In 9th we'll add another language. The kids can choose at this point which one. (Greek, Latin, Chinese, Arabic etc.)

 

Susie

[Mallory]

Spanish is very common here. When we moved I stopped with Latin, because I still had such little kids (they were 5 and 6 (and newborn) when we moved), and I feel much more comfortable with Spanish.

 

Hopefully we will get back to Latin, but not knowing how long we will be here, I couldn't pass up the chance for real exposure to the language.

[momof165]

I voted for German and like to add Russian, maybe Spanish later. Both, my husband and I are bilingual/trilingual - so, it's easiest to teach the languages we are fluent in. :D Isn't that an easy way out?

 

Sonja

 

___________________________________

 

Married to the love of my live for 10 years

Teaching my ONE and ONLY ds 8

[Beth in Central TX]

I voted for Greek because I agree with Tracy Lee Simmons in Climbing Parnassus that a classical education is one that includes both Latin and Greek.

[Virginia Heather]

We live in northern VA, and from what we're seeing up this way, both dh and I feel we'd be doing our dc a disservice to ignore the influence. We've both studied and would prefer French (and perhaps we'll get to it, too), but when we tack another language on top of our latin studies, it will be spanish.

[OnTheBrink]

Thank you to those who answered. I purposely didn't put in a bunch of variables, because I wanted to know people's reasons for picking the language they've picked.

 

My dd is 10; we've done Latin for 2 years and we got out of it what I wanted to get so I'm not overly concerned that we continue with it, although that's not ruled out. We live in the midwest in a relatively small city. There is a Spanish population here, but honestly, I only hear the language spoken in restaurants. I'm from San Diego, so I'm quite familiar with Spanish myself and it would be the easiest for me to teach. We have many missionary families in our church who have worked in Spain and Venezuela, so there are many opportunities for her to practice in real life situations. However, I see value in learning other languages, as well; specifically, French or German.

 

I've considered starting Greek, for helping her with scripture study as she matures. I'm not married to being a pure Classical educator, so that's not really an issue. I'm sort of a hybrid of Classical and CM.

 

Beyond that, I have no clue what my 10 year old's life goals are. She doesn't, either! (Does anyone's 10 year old have their life's goals established?)

[Audrey]

Where we live, French is your best move, politically speaking.

[Vanna]

Well, I'm not saying Spanish is "the best" out of every language out there to learn. I just think it's the easiest: it basically spells just the way it sounds and if you/your children are learning Latin, it's a nice extension as many words are very similar.

 

HTH!;)

[Holly]

I voted for "other". A "foreign" language that would come in very handy would be sign language. In high school I worked at McDonald's and we constantly had deaf customers come in, and it would have been nice to say something other than Thank You to them. Many churches have deaf ministries, and your DC could use the sign language to translate church services for others.

 

Also, Spanish would be good for our DC because we have a rather large Hispanic population in our area. I think anything they would likely encounter would be nice to learn.

[Tutor]

I put "Other" because I think that Chinese and Swahili are going to be very valuable for functioning in the global market. Chinese for obvious reasons. Swahili because it is still the trade language in much of the Middle East and the east coast of Africa.

[Brindee]

I picked other. I think Spanish is a good one to know. But My oldest ds wants to go to college for a year in Germany, so he started studying German. My middle ds wants to be a pastor, so he is studying Greek. My youngest likes, and is studying both Spanish and ASL. I think ASL may be good, since it would help her have a broader base, and an extra possibily for work as she gets older.