glad she had a change of heart!!
In theory, a parent who is paying can have control by threatening to stop paying.
But most posters here, including most parent posters, do not think it is a good idea for parents to choose their kid’s major or courses beyond seeking assurance that the kid will not go over budget by losing financial aid or scholarships, needing extra semesters due to not taking the courses needed to graduate on time, changing majors late, etc…
Does your mother know that she does not get to see your grades. That is a hard pill to swallow for some parents. Parents should not try to control their son’s or daughter’s schedules. I have to admit to thinking that French is particularly useless-but if my kids wanted to take it that would be their choice. My opinion is based on watching friends trying to speak French to native speakers and getting a very bad reaction from them. Seemed like they’d only speak back to those who speak without accents. But that was a very limited experience so maybe that attitude is not widespread. If it is widespread then learning French in college won’t help to communicate if you travel to France. Spanish seems a better choice. I’ve never seen the same thing happen with native Spanish speakers. They have always seemed delighted that someone is trying to communicate in Spanish. But again, I may have had a biased experience.
@lostaccount I actually wrote out a long, scathing reply to your post and decided to delete it and write a shorter, less offensive response.
I reread your post and see that you concede that you generalize the entire French population based off of your “limited” experience on what was probably a short vacation. And for that reason, you call the language useless.
btw, like everyone else in the world, I am well aware of the “rude French” stereotype. But I’ll say that for every person I hear calling France the “rudest/most arrogant/worst country ever”, I hear non-French speaking tourists/expats saying that they never experienced the infamous “french rudeness”. My dad had to go to Paris for a business trip and he said that they weren’t “so bad” (he knew a decent amount of French though, but he’s not fluent). I can say the same thing about every other country and their negative stereotypes.
Anyways, why did you bring up taking Spanish? No one brought up Spanish here. Yeah, maybe if I wanted to learn “any language” for the sole purpose of gaining a self esteem boost, then I’d take Spanish (which I actually took for 4 years in high school). But I never said that I want to learn French to boost my self-esteem >.>
Look, I’m not planning to study abroad or live in France. If I do, then I know what may (or may not) be coming. Regardless, bringing up that they are known for being rude was off topic.
Somewhat picky with my schedule because I’m a commuter. More days = more gas. Staying out too late (yeah, she likes cooking dinner for the family), having to get up too early, my mom actually cares about this stuff. I haven’t had too many problems with the scheduling though.
As a parent I want to make sure my kids are
- Taking the right number of classes
- Taking classes that fulfill their requirements (general and major)
- Are not taking too many/too hard classes at once
After that, they are on their own!
My parents usually just check-in to see what’s there/ if my classes make sense. Usually if they see a class that’s very much outside my major (like Greek history or Understanding the Arts) then they’ll question its presence. But my explanations are logical so they’re fine.