Settle this Language Debate

[BigMamaBird]

My Dh and I are engaged in a spirited debate and we just can't agree.

 

Our Dd will be in Third Grade next year and we're going to start her on Rosetta Stone. I'm saying we should have her do all five levels of French first then start the Spanish version for High School. My Dh feels completely the opposite.

 

My argument is that we visit Canada at least twice a year and French is very prevalent there. Also, French is such a beautiful language and pops up very frequently in Literature. For example, I'm reading Murder on the Orient Express and the characters are constantly throwing out French phrases. My biggest argument for French is that our neighbor is raising her boys bilingual English/French. She speaks almost exclusively in French to them at home and since our kids play with them, they'd have a chance to actually use the language in a day to day environment. Also, I've heard it's easier to learn Spanish if you already know French than vice versa.

 

Dh's argument is that Spanish is unofficially the U.S.'s second language and it would benefit them in the future to say they know Spanish. He's also biased against French because of all the snooty French sterotypes. My Canadian friend had bad experiences with French speakers and SIL got all Ugly American treatment on a trip to Paris, etc.

 

So, what's your opinion? French or Spanish.

[Embassy]

Depends on where you live in the USA. If you are near Canada I might start with French. If you are near lots of native Spanish speakers I would start with Spanish.

[Unicorn.]

Your children have the opportunity to converse w/ people who speak French on a daily basis. That opportunity may not always be there, you need to take advantage of it. Definitely French.

[Mrs Mungo]

In your situation with handy native French speakers to converse with? I would choose French.

[Onceuponatime]

Oops I voted before I read your post. In your case, I would go with French.

[Dory]

If you live near eastern Canada I would go with French first, especially since you have neighbours to practice with. If you live near western Canada or in the southern US I would teach Spanish first. I voted French assuming you were near Eastern Canada.

[bettyandbob]

Go with the language that you have speakers available (neighbors) and cultural opportunities (trips to Canada). Adding Spanish after French is more solid should be no problem.

 

I'm going to assume the you and your dh are not fluent speakers in either language. In a vacuum of opportunities in either language, I'd probably go with Spanish. However, you have opportunities to provide your dd context and practice in French.

[UrbanSue]

I studied French so I'm probably a bit biased. But in your case, I'd definitely go with French.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I have an M.A. in French Lit., so I'm definitely biased. But, you're right about French popping up in literature. My boys have begun to notice that fact as well.

[Arcadia]

Our neighbors and my boy's former teachers who took spanish in high school can no longer speak spanish. Saying you (general) know Spanish is not a boost to a job/career unless you are close to the proficiency of being able to translate between the two languages.

What is sad is that out of the six kindergartent teachers in my boy's school when he was in kindergarten, only one could speak spanish. So she has to be the translater between teacher and parent when need be which is often. After that teacher left and also retrenchment due to California's budget cuts, there was no translater in kindergarten. The teacher would need to call a teacher from another grade level to translate for parent teacher meeting.

 

Just for fun pop in a DVD which has french and spanish "translations" and see which one your daughter wants to watch. My kids enjoy watching a movie in english followed by french just for fun.

[caroljenn]

I changed my vote too. I orginally voted Spanish, because in Southern California, it will be of much more use than French. I took French, and I am Exhibit A.

 

I agree with Arcadia about job prospects requiring real knowledge of a language and the ability to be completely fluent. But, I do think that in everyday life here to have some knowledge of Spanish is helpful. To have broken conversations with Spanish speakers and even to listen in on conversations is helpful sometimes (not in a weird way!). I went to a Cuban funeral about a month ago and was completely clueless about what was going on, so even a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish would have been helpful for me then.

 

For your situation, I choose French!

[KungFuPanda]

It absolutely does not matter. She comes out with 2 foreign languages. There is no wrong choice.

[BigMamaBird]

What does your daughter want to do?

 

She doesn't care either way. She just wants to do "that neat program we did the demo on!" She thinks it's cool because it's on the computer.

[gardenmom5]

My dd did six years of formal french study. then she had six weeks of intensive spanish before going to south america. spanish was a piece of cake as it bulit on much of what she learned in french and she reached fluency very fast.

[Parrothead]

French for the same reasons the others have stated.

[elegantlion]

I vote French, there is lots of French in the English language. Show your dh how the William the Conqueror brought over the Norman French. Or you could do Latin, which French and Spanish both originated from and you could both be happy.

[SunnyDays]

French for the same reasons others have stated.

 

That, and because I wanted to teach DS French (it's what I took in school, so I have at least a passing familiarity with it and really love it), but he was firmly insistent on Spanish instead. :)

 

I get where your husband is coming from on the practicality of Spanish, and that's what I'm reminding myself with DS, especially as I learn along with him! But she can pick that up later, and if you have the opportunity to converse regularly with others, jump on it!!

[misty.warden]

In your situation, definitely French. Native speaker exposure is so helpful. Personal bias: I don't really like Spanish so I'd learn French even if I lived in California.

[Ali in OR]

Plans change, situations change, good intentions to teach multiple languages are just that--good intentions (ask me how far we got with Greek...at some point we just ran out of time). At the end of the day, Spanish is far more useful in this country than French. The top priority for me would be Spanish. French would be a fun extra. I would not rule out starting French after just a couple of years of Spanish. But by the time they reach high school, you may not have the time or energy to do a different language, your child may be in a school that offers Mandarin and she wants to do that instead, etc. I would go with Spanish.

[katilac]

As dd is open to either, I say the teacher gets to decide, lol.

 

Being around native speakers is a huge plus, but I wouldn't put a TON of weight into 2x year visits. Edited to add that I fail at paying attention; I totally missed the bit about your neighbors. That is a big plus, imo.

 

Also, you are leaving out some choices: she can go through one level of language A and then add in language B, it doesn't have to be linear. I'd personally be fine with her starting both the same year - she's very young, and you don't need to worry about short-term confusion. It can actually be very helpful to study more than one language at once, and it's very common in other countries (ie, most places other than America, lol).

 

Let me share two very cool things I just discovered for language practice:

 

1) Verbal Planet: they hook up students with tutors over Skype! dd14 just started with this, and said it is uber-helpful. Her tutor is a native French speaker who also knows several other languages (cool b/c she would also like to do this), he follows your lead on formal or informal lessons, and it's only costing us about $18 for a 45-minute lesson (yeah, a lot of money in one way, but not a lot of money for language lessons or any type of tutoring). We can schedule as many or as few lessons as we like. dd is in French 1 and is thinking one tutoring session every 2-3 weeks for now, continuing over the summer. There are many, many tutors to choose from.

 

2) Meetup.com: we have local meetups for anyone wishing to learn/practice French! This is probably not practical for the OP's young daughter, but dd14 is very excited about it, and is fine with it likely being all or mostly adults. We go to our first one later this month. They usually meet every two weeks at a coffee house in the city, so there's the 'cool' factor to keep her excited, plus some comradeship and understanding in addition to the practice.

[Orthodox6]

If those are the only two choices, I would recommend Spanish. More euphonious a language (a personal preference, I admit), and better poetry and literature for later on. It is the Rosetta Stone that I would avoid! :001_smile: From what I have read and heard from people, everybody falls for Rosetta Stone . . . and nobody learns the language from the product at a useful level. ("Useful" meaning speaking, hearing, reading, and writing with competence.)

[katilac]

If those are the only two choices, I would recommend Spanish. More euphonious a language (a personal preference, I admit), and better poetry and literature for later on. It is the Rosetta Stone that I would avoid! :001_smile: From what I have read and heard from people, everybody falls for Rosetta Stone . . . and nobody learns the language from the product at a useful level. ("Useful" meaning speaking, hearing, reading, and writing with competence.)

 

We have Tell Me More, which is a similar program. It is useful for practice and learning vocabulary, but I agree that these programs, used alone, will not lead to proficiency. I do think they can be a worthwhile supplement, but not necessarily the most cost-effective one.

[Catwoman]

She doesn't care either way. She just wants to do "that neat program we did the demo on!" She thinks it's cool because it's on the computer.

 

I can't speak for everyone else, but I would like to caution you that your dd is still quite young for Rosetta Stone, and it may very well bore her to tears in a relatively short time. Also, it will be a long time before RS will teach your dd to actually hold any kind of conversation in either French or Spanish (unless she wants to tell you that, "the ball is under the table," ;) so that may be discouraging for her.

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't give it a try; I'm just suggesting that you be prepared to put it back on the shelf for a few years if she doesn't take to it pretty quickly. The demo makes it seem like it's a lot more fun than it really is.

[beaners]

Also, I've heard it's easier to learn Spanish if you already know French than vice versa.

 

 

I learned Spanish first, then French. I still do a lot with my French like reading news online and watching some things. I hardly ever use my Spanish in comparison. Learning any second language makes it easier to learn an additional language, so I wouldn't worry too much about the easier/harder you've heard.

 

I like French better, so that's what we started with. My husband wants us to do Spanish for utilitarian reasons. It's in our plans, just not until later.

[Dmmetler]

I took French and Latin in school, then went to college in an area with a high Hispanic population. Within about a year, I could pretty easily carry on a conversation in sort of Spanish with someone who didn't speak English-I might not have gotten every word right, but I was able to, via cognates from French and Latin, maybe it work (I suspect being a music major and regularly singing in Italian might have helped, too). I could also read a Spanish language newspaper article and understand it.

 

So, in general, any romance language is going to build on any other. I wouldn't stress over which to do first, except that if you have opportunities to use it, it's going to be easier than if you don't-so for my DD, that means Spanish and Latin first, because it would be hard to find a French speaker, but Spanish speakers basically just require going to a nearby playground.

[MommaOfalotta]

I haven't read all of the responses.. but I voted for Spanish even though I love the sound of the French language. I opted for French instead of Spanish in school because everyone was taking Spanish.

 

However, with Spanish being such a widely used language today, I would rather her learn something I feel will benefit her in the future. Its hard to tell where college or future careers with take her, but chances are Spanish will remain a valuable asset.

 

Then learn French :)

 

 

(Believe me, I would much rather dd learn French first, too. I think it is so fun!)

[J-rap]

I don't think it really matters. Do you or your husband speak one or the other? Homeschooling a foreign language was by far the most difficult subject for us, personally, to teach at home. And in fact they ended up doing it online or in an actual classroom as they advanced. In any case, it was a HUGE advantage to have someone around who spoke it and who could help them from time to time. So if you or your husband speak one of them, I'd maybe start with that one, otherwise I might go with French since your neighbor speaks that one.

 

In our case, my husband spoke both French and Spanish fluently, so some of our children learned Spanish and some French. His knowledge of the language was so, so helpful. My daughter who speaks French is more interested in the arts, and French seemed to be a good partner with that. She was also just intrigued by all things French, and has spent a year in France and a semester in French Africa and loved it.

 

One of my daughters who learned Spanish was more intrigued by the Latin American culture, so she chose Spanish, and she is now living and studying in Costa Rica! So you never know where a language will take you!

 

I think French is probably more difficult to learn as a first language, which has both advantages and disadvantages.

[Ewe Mama]

I would opt for French, due to your location.

[Amy in NH]

Latin first, then let the kids choose.

[TravelingChris]

I learned French first. Then I became an immigration inspector. Spanish is required for being an inspector. We had four levels of Spanish classes in immigration school. Level 4 was comprised of native French speakers and two inspectors who had Spanish as their college majors. Level three was mostly people who had studied Spanish for a few years (not just one) and two of us who had never had Spanish but had done French study in high school and then later in college, just to fulfill a requirement, not as a major. Both of us were better in Spanish than most of the people who actually had taken a bit of Spanish. We had been placed into our levels by testing.

 

In my family, I had my son learn French, and he did really learn it pretty well living in Belgium. The two girls who both had big spelling problems I had do Spanish. I may yet have the youngest do another language too.

[BigMamaBird]

Thank you everyone for your input. We placed our order for French Level 1 today!

[unsinkable]

Haven't read the replies...but unless Rosetta Stone has drastically changed, I wouldn't count on using/learning/ retaining much of either language w/o supplements.

[jhschool]

Learn them BOTH at the same time!

 

That's what we are doing.

 

Why leave one out? Why wait?

They are both easy languages, and your kids are young!

They'll learn quickly.

 

Bonne chance! ¡Buena suerte!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

French is the harder of the two to learn, so it might be better to start earlier. That being said, I took four years of French in high school and a couple of semesters in college. This was more than enough for me to do immersion school and marry a francophone. ;.)

 

While in high school, I also took 2 years of Spanish. It was a piece of cake to pick it up once my brain was already in the mindset to learn language, and the two are very similar.

 

I would suggest starting Spanish much earlier than high school though- maybe 7th grade. There is no reason that she couldn't keep learning French while adding Spanish, and also, she should continue French in some way or another in high school, or she will lose it quickly.

[abacus2]

In your case, French first. I believe it is a good idea for Americans to study Spanish too, but start with the language you are exposed to more often.

[BigMamaBird]

Learn them BOTH at the same time!

 

That's what we are doing.

 

Why leave one out? Why wait?

They are both easy languages, and your kids are young!

They'll learn quickly.

 

Bonne chance! ¡Buena suerte!

 

 

I'd really love to do this, but it's Mom's confidence that is holding us back. Maybe after we get a year of french instruction under our belts I'll feel more comfortable doing two. I am going to do the lessons right along side her because I personally want to learn another language or two. But I would rather go slowly and thoroughly than try to overdo it and burn out on everything. I flat out KNOW she could do two at once, her memory is astonishing.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Kids here study French (first language), add in German in 3rd grade, then add in English in 6th grade. They get Latin in as well, at some point. So multiple languages are absolutely possible. I think you are right to stagger the starting times though, or else you'll be massively confused. "Très bueno!" "J'aime les huevos y le jambon!"

 

(This happened to me all the time when studying two languages concurrently, but it did sort itself out eventually)