Doubling up on foreign language in HS.

Apollo6
Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:27:22 +0000

MY 2012 daughter studied French in 8-10th then took a gap year last year as a Rotary exchange student in S. America in part because she was very young for her grade. She has probably given up French but is now fluent in Spanish and tested into a 3rd year Spanish course at a University nearby. As an 11th grader she’s taking an introductory Spanish literature course with college Spanish majors while beginning Mandarin at her high school. My opinion would be for your daughter to study Mandarin at school if the teacher is good and the class moves quickly enough for her and pursue the easier languages at home or during the summer at Concordia Language Villages or on youth exchange. My younger son studied Spanish for two years in middle school then tested into AP Spanish with juniors and seniors after a month in the high school credit program at CLV. He’s the only 9th grader in his class but one of the top students. French is more difficult than Spanish but any language with a different alphabet/ written system is exponentially more difficult. I would concentrate on that one for more intensive study.