suze

Have a friend who is doing a study year abroad in Spain. He's totally fluent, will ace AP and SATII. Took Spanish since elementary school. He'd like to start a new language when he returns for senior year although his school does offer a very advanced Spanish class for kids like him. What's best?

cnp55

My son is doing a year in France next year. He'll come back as a junior; his school expects him to enter AP French as a junior and offers "sixth year" French for the year abroad alumni as seniors. The other option they offer is an introductory year to Arabic or Russian. I think it's possible to do *both*.

As far as *best* goes, I think that varies by what the student plans to study in college. If you want to major in your year-abroad language ... then continue it. If you want a broader scope -- try something new.

Marian

A girl at my daughter's high school who was very advanced in French wanted to try another language. She chose Spanish. After some discussion with the teachers, she was given some Spanish I materials to work with over the summer and placed in Spanish II for the school year. It is working out well.

My point is that if your son chooses another romance language (Spanish or Italian), his knowledge of how romange languages work may be so extensive that he would be bored out of his mind in a Level I class in the new language.

christalena2

Im thinking latin would be good.

lspf72

There was a similar thread to this recently-- if you hunt back a bit on the parents forum -- there were a lot of good suggestions.
Our S. says once he finishes AP Spanish he wants to start something new. Most interested in Arabic and Chinese, though they sound quite challenging.

mathmom

If the AP score results are available to colleges when he's applying, I don't see any down side to starting another language.

JHS

I spent a year in Spain when I was a sophmore in high school. When I came back, I went into a French 4 class that consisted mostly of my friends. (I also had two years of Latin -- all my school offered -- and I had taken a semester of Catalan in Spain.) I spent time with a French grammar and vocabulary book over the summer, and for the first half of the year I really barely knew what was going on, but by the end of the year I was caught up with the rest of the class, and I went on to take AP French Literature the next year.

This turned out to be a great way to do things for me. I was never bored at all with French, although my accent is still not really up to par at all.

huskem55

all through high school i took french, spanish, and latin (i started latin freshman year, and french sophomore year). knowing one definitely helps with the other, and i loved it. french or latin (or italian if offered) could be very neat for him!

jrpar

My son's high school offers a year of Greek for those who finish up their language sequence junior year. I agree with posters above that your friend will find an introductory year of Spanish/Italian/Latin very easy. Greek might be more challenging/interesting.

Garrity

Portugeuse or Italian are the two easiest options for one fluent in Spanish. As a Romance language any other Romance lang., such as French, is easy. Most important lang. is the Mandarin dialect of Chineese.

Garrity

Oddly, in the business world, it is difficult to find job candidates who are fluent in both Spanish and Portugeuse, which is desirable for Latin American work due to Brazil. Of course, the Iberian peninsula also uses both lang.

katliamom

What's "best"? Best is whatever he's interested in. My child, currently learning Spanish, wants to do Norwegian next. For him, that's "best" and I say, go for it.

For 'practical' reasons, OP's S could consider French, besides the obvious Asian languages/Arabic. It would be much easier than Chinese/Arabic, and it IS an official language of the EU, should he consider going into International business.