<p>My daughter will be studying at the University of Oregon in the fall and her degree requires a second language proficiency. You can meet the requirement with 2 full years of a new language if you do not wish to continue with a language learned in high school. She has decided that she really did not love French and has a weak base so she would rather start from scratch with a new language.
We were quite pleased with the choices and she is trying to decide, so if anyone has any experiences or input we’d love to hear it. Silly anecdotes welcome as well. : )
She can take Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swahili, Arabic, ASL, Greek, Finnish, Danish, Portugese…I’m not even sure what else, but I think it is a cool choice to have to make.</p>
<p>Is she looking for something that might be practical, or just fun? </p>
<p>I gather from a friend of mine that the military minds have determined there is a big shortage of Russian speakers; her kid, at one of the service academies, is getting a large monthly stipend for studying Russian.</p>
<p>My kid is also studying Russian–but alas, not getting paid for it–and I should mention that it requires more than two years of a standard college sequence to really get proficient.</p>
<p>She’s not sure…if she goes with practical she’ll probably choose Spanish. But it could be fun to have a basic understanding of some more obscure language as well…Hard to decide. She will not be fluent, but the college considers 2 full years as meeting the requirement. If she loves it she may continue, you never know.
My BIL was a Russian major and lived in Russia for 6 years after college. He did some pretty neat stuff with a non-profit group setting up free press. It’s a cool language to learn!</p>
<p>The Federal government is encouraging students to take Arabic.</p>
<p>I have studied (in classes) French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and Russian. Italian was both the most fun and the easiest. It’s spelled as it sounds, which is nice, the rules are regularized, and it was a wonderful country to visit. Downside, of course, is that Italy’s a small country and Italian is not a particularly useful language. </p>
<p>If your daughter has any interest in teaching, I’d advise ASL.</p>
<p>ASL is a good choice. Otherwise, I’d choose a language that is spoken somewhere your daughter might want to live. Fluency is a plus when a corporate employer is seeking to promote from within for an opportunity to work in a corporate office abroad. My parents’ language skills netted them a corporate relocation for a few years, which is how I ended up attending junior high in Europe and developing fluency in three foreign languages.</p>
<p>She’ll do best if she likes the culture of the language she studies, it is easier to learn if one wants to know/has a reason. In other words, if she takes Swahili she should want to learn about Africa, Russian/Russia, etc. Her major may lend itself to some languages.</p>
<p>There is money for studying less commonly used languages and specializing in one. Languages of central Europe, the middle East, Africa, Korean. Found the info through links on the study abroad site at my Ds college.</p>
<p>I took French because that’s what my jr. high assigned me. I stuck with it and then spent a year in France. I do like French movies and French food and like visiting France very much. Not so keen on French lit. </p>
<p>I took German because my grandfather came from Germany. I had an instant affinity for the language I’d never ever had with French. I like German movies and a fair amount of German lit. And discovered that German food is much better than the lousy versions you get in this country. Oh and I like those German lieder. I ended up spending five years in Germany when dh got a post-doctoral fellowship there.</p>
<p>I took Italian because when we lived in Germany it was easy to get to. I love Italian architecture and art, not so crazy about the movies (just don’t like Fellini). Of course Italian food is great. After French Italian seems ridiculously easy. Too easy, I didn’t always learn things properly.</p>
<p>I tried to teach myself Spanish one summer because my boyfriend was always talking about the year he spent in Spain. Wish I’d learned more of it. I have a lot of Hispanic clients and a cleaning woman whose English is limited. </p>
<p>I took Chinese because of the same boyfriend. He got me interested in Chinese art. I took a Chinese history course. I applied for a grant. Sadly I’m tone deaf and I really didn’t take to the grammar either. It was just too hard for me. No cognates whatsoever. Well one. The word for jacket is similar to English.</p>
<p>I’d love to know Arabic, and I think it could be useful. I think despite the theoretical end of the cold war Russian is also probably still useful. But I’d say if you just love the history, the art, the food or the literature of a particular country, that might be as good a reason as any to study it.</p>
<p>Does she really WANT to learn another language or does she simply needs two years of good grades in it to graduate? A big difference. I know that Swahili is the language of choice for the UW football team, because the class is really easy, and everyone gets stellar grades. Grades aside, Spanish or ASL would make the most practical choices, IMHO.</p>
<p>If she has any aspirations to study abroad, she could investigate the program offerings at her school and choose the language of the country where she would like to study.</p>
<p>Good info everyone.
My daughter has had a fascination with New Zealand for years now and she found a study abroad program there so she won’t need a language for that. </p>
<p>I think she would like to learn a language for the inherent value of having a second language, however she struggled with French 3 and got discouraged. I think that her French 1 and 2 classes weren’t great bases even though she got A’s and B’s, so she got kind of turned off of language. </p>
<p>I wonder if there is a difference in the way different languages are taught that would make one superior to the other for her? I am not sure that the way most high schools approach it is the best way. I am always amazed that traveling executives are able to develop language skills using some of the courses provided by corporations and I wonder if their methodology would be better suited to my daughter.</p>
<p>I learned almost as much in one year of college German as I did in four years of high school French. That said, I still didn’t really learn the vocabulary useful for traveling. I’ve found adult school classes tend to give you a more useful vocabulary. If she’s had French, she might well find Spanish fairly easy. She’ll start at the beginning, but she’ll find many of the patterns of masc/fem, irregular verbs etc. will be the same. The trick to learning languages IMO, is to be extremely consistent about going to class, doing the homework and working in the language lab.</p>
<p>Italian, for sure…the language of music and art and Italian restaurants!</p>
<p>Plus, you get to wave your hands all around and talk emphatically.</p>
<p>Sometimes, if you learn Russian or Arabic or any other language that doesn’t use latin script, you (can) learn only to speak, with no reading and writing done in cyrillic, etc. Some people find that easier and prefer it, and others find it a waste of time. If that option is available at your D’s school, she might consider which side she falls on, if either.</p>
<p>If I were here, I’d take Arabic, Spanish, or Chinese (if they offer it)-it can only help her to know these languages (for employment, etc.) in the future.</p>
<p>Latin is taught in a way that vastly differs from any modern language teaching. The reason? It’s taught for reading, not for speaking (though you learn that too).</p>
<p>If she’s really handy with rote memorization, Latin might be a good choice. The most difficult thing to learn there is the mass of vocabulary. The language also has the benefit of providing a deeper look into the linguistic origins of some English words, and it’s quite useful for the science fields that have Latin words in their jargon. If she is interested in any European study (history, art, literature, religion – whatever) that occurs prior to 1750, knowledge of Latin is almost required.</p>
<p>I enjoyed Italian and took it in college mostly so I could approach The Divine Comedy in its original language. I got through 3rd semester, but I had such a poor base I decided not to continue it. I might revisit it later, but it’s not practical for me in the least. Too bad – I love Italy and enjoy a lot of Italian literature in translation!</p>
<p>If she’s a humanities major looking to possibly attend grad school, I HIGHLY recommend figuring out what modern languages professionals in the field use and write in. Grad school admissions will find it a big plus if you’re fluent in those prior to admission so that you can use your coursework to pursue your field rather than peripheral requirements. For English, for example, French and German are the languages of choice, and most schools require that one of your two (or three) required languages be one or the other of these.</p>
<p>If she enjoyed French but was just turned off by the experience in high school, perhaps she could opt to take it in college, but start from the beginning?</p>
<p>Here’s info on programs to boost critical languages skills in the US: [National</a> Security Language Initiative (NSLI) Brochure](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/nsli/nslibrochure.html]National”>http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/nsli/nslibrochure.html)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m confused. The last time I checked Chinese had no grammar… well… no tenses anyway :)</p>
<p>If any of the places where these languages are spoken sound interesting to her, that language might be a good choice.
For usefulness, it really depends on her area of interest.
IR/military/politics: Arabic
philosophy/literature/music: French, German, Italian
human services/teaching: ASL, Spanish
etc.</p>
<p>It also depends what kind of learner she is. If she’s the type who likes to bury her nose in a book and memorize everything for the exam, ASL will kill her. If not…I highly recommend it. It’s extremely useful, not to mention gorgeous. </p>
<p>When in doubt, though, she should go with her gut. If Finnish just sounds really cool, then take Finnish. Ultimately nothing else is as important has her enjoying the class–because she’ll do better in it if she’s enjoying it.</p>