Doubling up on foreign language in HS.

Kelowna
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:39:51 +0000

Looking for some guidance from parents whose kids doubled up on a foreign language in HS.
I know it is not going to be a lot of you, but if you yourself or your kids were ever in a situation like this please do share.

DD will be a HS freshman next year. She has this love and interest in foreign languages, although she does not think about building a career around it. At this point in her life she wants to become a vet
Since we are an immigrant family, my daughter is fluent in English and another language that we speak at home. An obscure language, spoken only in the country of my birth.
She will most likely enter an IB school, so she will need to take an exit exam in a foreign language.
She would like one day to be able to converse in Spanish, Mandarin, French and Russian. She has been learning Spanish both at school and privately for the last few years and at this point she is able to communicate in it. We are thinking about doubling up on her conversational Spanish this year (twice a week from once) and we are also hoping that she will be able to visit Spain next summer for about 6 weeks, 3 of which will be spend in school atmosphere and she will be living with Spanish speaking family.
I have an older son that is taking Spanish 4 right now and DD is way ahead of him.

DD has been taking some kind of a Mandarin instruction for the past 2 years. Some of it was 1:1. Still, I do not think she is very good in it, but she definitely does have the basics.
The HS she is thinking about attending does offer Spanish, French and Mandarin.

I am a little lost at this point as to what she should do.

Option 1 - start Spanish in Spanish 4 as a freshman and progress gradually (probably taking some Spanish for native speakers) till she writes an IB Spanish exam as a senior. At the same time start French (what level?) and continue French as a second foreign language.

Option 2 - start taking Spanish at the college (5 minutes from our house) her HS freshman year and take Mandarin and French at the HS. If we chose this option, I will get her some private lessons in French this year that will enable her to start French 3 as a freshman (I have been told by numerous people that the first two years of a foreign language are a joke), but will probably be slow on Mandarin. If we chose this option she will have to take an exit exam in French.

Option 3 - continue Spanish as her BEST foreign language, adding French (still I will probably buy her private lessons to enable her to start French 3 as a freshman) and keep Mandarin as private lesson.

Russian is still on hold, probably till College ;)

Any ideas would be really appreciated.