High School Foreign Language - German?

[Daisy]

Would it be crazy to allow my daughter to learn German for her high school language?

 

I don't know the language.

I only know one person who speaks it (she's from Germany).

We live in SoCal where knowing Spanish is what is really going to get my daughter a decent job.

 

But my daughter wants to learn German! :glare:

 

If yes, what resource is there for a family who doesn't have a clue about German?

 

If no, do you have any suggestions for Spanish? Again, independent. Hubby and I have a decent Spanish vocabulary but frankly I don't even know how much of it is real Spanish and how much is just spanglish. Hubby and I both had 2 years of Spanish but don't remember all that much.

[elegantlion]

My ds is considering adding German to his languages in a few years. I recently found this class through University of Missouri high school. It goes through German III. You can preview a lesson, which I did briefly, and it looks interesting.

 

I believe OSU has a German program as well.

[JennMcNeal23]

I would encourage her to learn Spanish. If she wants to take German later in life for fun or in college, she can. Spanish is invaluable to learn these days. If she can understand and speak Spanish, she will have so many more job opportunities than if she learned German. I am from Texas so, I understand the importance of the language just as you do in Southern California. I know she may be very interested in German, but speaking Spanish will be a much better skill to add to her repertoire.

[Matryoshka]

I would encourage her to learn Spanish. If she wants to take German later in life for fun or in college, she can. Spanish is invaluable to learn these days. If she can understand and speak Spanish, she will have so many more job opportunities than if she learned German. I am from Texas so, I understand the importance of the language just as you do in Southern California. I know she may be very interested in German, but speaking Spanish will be a much better skill to add to her repertoire.

 

I speak both Spanish and German fluently. I worked for 10 years in international marketing and software translation. I used my German constantly, and my Spanish was only useful insofar as making it much easier for me to read French.

 

Spanish is a very useful language, but so is German, especially in international business vs. social interaction type situations.

[Guest aleciarolling]

Greetings! I teach Latin, French, and German and I speak only German at home with the kids. It has been a great language for understanding grammar later on, since German grammar is almost identical to Latin (a very systematic language). Those students who do not enjoy Latin (or even Spanish) thrive in a German class (although sometimes this goes the other way around, too). I usually recommend that parents and students do a language that the student has a great interest in at first, since we wish the student to enjoy learning the language as well. Good luck!

 

Alecia

http://www.therollingacresfarm.com

Edited January 20, 2012 by aleciarolling
to follow the message board rules more precisely

[J-rap]

I have two children who have learned German, one by living in Germany and among Germans and another by three years of online classes. Neither is fluent, but they are both at a point where they can get by. We have done a lot of travels as a family, and have found that German is often a language that we can speak (my husband knows it some as well) when neither party knows each other's primary language. This happened many, many times, in both Eastern and Western Europe.