Rose2014

DD is comparing two schools. She is multilingual in 3 languages and has an ear for the fourth language. She has been exposed to the fourth language and has some understanding of it. In one of her languages where she is a fluent speaker, her reading/writing is about a 5th grade level. This language is one of the five UN languages.


School 1 has a program in her spoken language. She could continue studying it. Her reading writing would improve. The language would be forever cemented with the abilities to speak,read and write. She would probably start in year three of the school program.

School 2. It does not offer her language, but it offers a second UN language. She is familiar with the spoken language, has heard it, has limited understanding, but does not speak it. She doesn't read or write in it.


If you are already speak 3 languages, read and write fluently in two of them, do you start learning a fourth language or do you refine your reading writing in the language that you are the weakest in? (Weakest meaning already above most students first two years.)

Of course, she might not be accepted at either or might only be accepted at one school- so the decision may be made for us. However this is something that we are considering.

leppy8882

Strengthen the spoken only language. If she's going in as a freshman, it will make things easier at least for the first year, at which point she can easily switch languages having completed the requirement. Or continue in the language. An argument against this may be college reasons, however, she's already bilingual. Is the 3rd language one spoken in the family? If anything, making the first year a little bit easier may outweigh any college benefits of having 4th lanuage. In real life, full proficiency in a few languages can be far more valuable than a little bit of many languages. I have heard/found that prep school languages tend to focus more on the reading/writing rather than speaking. How many levels does School 1 offer the language for? Does it offer the 4th language?

dodgersmom

Oh for goodness sakes - it doesn't make any difference! If she ends up having the choice, she should study whichever language she prefers or attend whichever school she prefers.

It would be most advantageous to her, in the long run, to be familiar with as many different language families as possible. If she doesn't already have French or Spanish, for example, it would be useful to have one. She doesn't necessarily need both.

But, in the end, she should do what interests her the most. No matter how many languages she already speaks, if she doesn't enjoy her language studies, she won't continue . . . and that's what's important.

Periwinkle

It is generally thought that college admissions officials like to see at least 3 years of language study. If she chooses a language she already knows, will she run out of language levels?

If she already has some level of knowledge of four languages, I wouldn't worry about her losing a language. I've read it gets easier for linguists to learn languages after a certain number of languages.

I'd suggest trying the classical languages--Latin and/or Greek.

Rose2014

She currently knows 3 languages in 3 different families groups. The fourth language would be yet another group.

I'm actually be pragmatic with the question as thinking what will serve her best in the long run. I'm not so concerned with the here and now, but thinking about long term implications from others who speak multiple languages.

Periwinkle, I like the idea of Latin and/or Greek. This wasn't something that we were actively discussing but it fits nicely into her background.

She may run out of options or the schools may do independent study for her if she runs out of classroom options.

I like the idea of refining the third language, but I also understand the benefit of learning the fourth language.

As Dodgersmom said, we will wait to see where she is accepted and then make better decisions.

Periwinkle

Visit; apply; make choices from the schools which accept her. At that point, her choices will be more obvious.

After speaking with her advisor, you'll know which path she wants to take at the school she'll attend next year. She might decide to free up lots of time in her schedule by getting language requirements (which vary by school) out of the way early in her high school career. Such a decision should only be made after speaking with an advisor and, at best, an experienced college placement officer at her school.

Right now, though, you should be putting together a viable list of schools to visit (safety/match/reach).