@mommdc yes, all the kids in the program need them. If you’re under 18, parents need to sign the form giving permission to check. Over 18 they can sign their own form. Not online. Grr.
@carolinamom2boys she leaves so early-Aug. 2, that I’m not sure who would take her own, though every store in the mall seems to be hiring. She hadn’t looked because this internship was supposedly a given. We have an active neighborhood email list and many of the members have young children. D is going to offer babysitting and tutoring on it. It won’t be steady work, but money is money, and she’d get way too bored having nothing to do. But she’ll email the powers that be tomorrow and see if anything at all can be done with the situation and if she can maybe start doing something at the internship even before the clearance.
She’s good a projects and perhaps she could pitch doing a project for a local NFP or small business owner, even for just a stipend. Maybe someone in her/your network has a back-burner short-term project that needs doing.
@carolinamom2boys My D will be studying Chinese next year. She is planning to get a minor in it if it works out. It should help with employment after college. And this isn’t what you asked, but I actually studied Russian in high school. Russian wasn’t that hard to learn and you get used to the alphabet pretty quickly.
Thanks @me29034 . That’s very helpful. DS16 wants to potentially work in Cybersecurity . His godfather works for the FBI and recommended Araebic , Russian or Chinese. He has only taken Spanish in the past . He was emailed by a Russian professor at CofC about a program collaboration between Russian Studies and CS with an emphasis on Cybersecurity . I’ve only had Spanish and Latin, so I didn’t know which direction to point him in.
@carolinamom2boys I have 2 friends who are taking Arabic next year. One is a Linguistics major and cognitive science minor who has to study 2 languages(the other one is Spanish which she currently studies) and another is a International Politics major and Islamic Studies minor.
My DS18 started Chinese in 9th grade and just returned from an exchange program in Taiwan/China with his high school class. He’ll be taking pre-AP Chinese next year and AP Chinese in 12th grade. He also plans to minor in Chinese in college. He had a great time but doesn’t share too much. So far I know he learned the Chinese word for Sprite, some Taiwanese slang that he’d rather not share with me, that his host family was even more overscheduled than ours, but their son was able explain some advanced math concepts to him in Chinese better than his older sister could in English and he really needs to work on his haggling skills! Oh, and there’s a version of Chinese Chess (not checkers) with a slightly different board and rules.
My D16 did 4 years of Chinese in high school and plans to continue in college with a double major in Chinese and Computer Science. There are tons of good government jobs for people with strong language skills in critical languages.
So sorry @sseamom about the internship. Fingers crossed something can be worked out. Now, it is wrong that I want a detailed account of everything your husband BBQed?? I also wouldn’t mind what sounds like an excellent mac-n-cheese recipe. Yummo!
@carolinamom2boys I had an internship in China in college. Learned a little of the language (fist: “very tall” since I’m just shy of 6’ and most important, specially when trying lots of new food: “where’s the bathroom?”). I loved the people and the country’s history. Maybe researching which counties/culture spark the most interest in him as a way of deciding which language?
Our dorm mountain lives entirely in cyberspace (my Amazon shopping cart specifically). College to-do list: first thing on my list, stop lamenting about it and start checking something off!
@carolinamom2boys : Your S16’s course of study in college sounds wonderful!
I would recommend Arabic for him, as those fluent in Arabic language and culture are an absolute desired demographic for the government, with easily understood application and implementation of their skills in the world of encryption, decryption and all manner of decoding.
Arabic is said to be the toughest language to learn, and what one learns in the classroom will, of course, not reflect the morphing nature of language with its ever-new idioms and expressions, but that is to be expected.
Chinese (Mandarin) is accessible to the American ear and tongue, and its structure and intonations one which an American student can indeed grow to love and master.
How completely exciting! Estonia!
My youngest son has really taken to digging deeper into the Eastern European culture it seems (through DNA testing) that we could claim stake in, and while it is not Estonia, he marvels at the features of Estonia and how it is decidedly different than other nations once subsumed under USSR rule, and the Estonian People’s insistence at retaining their language and practices.
@palm715 H made a 13 pound brisket that he injected with beef broth and some spices, rubbed with salt, pepper and some more spices, and smoked for about 12 hours. It was served with a variety of BBQ sauce, though he did not make his own this time. He also made 2 pork butts for pulled pork sandwhiches, and these were rubbed with brown sugar and some spices-I don’t know what his custom blend (he grinds his own) involves. He also grilled 10 pounds of chicken thighs with an Asian rub on them-5-spice is involved. The mac and cheese was home-made, but it is not my recipe. Beecher’s Cheese, based here in Seattle, has posted their mac and cheese recipe online for anyone to use. The only things I change is that I use a mix of cheddar cheese from the local grocery store instead of going downtown to Beecher’s for their own cheese.
@carolinamom2boys D’s HS offers only Chinese and Japanese as the language options. D took Japanese, but has many friends who took Chinese. They took a summer trip to China last year and seemed to have a great time-some of the kids are quite fluent. I don’t know that any plan to continue with it in college though. D will be switching to Spanish in college because she feels it would be more useful in her teaching career. Your son’s options sound amazing!
@readingclaygirl -the finish line is in sight! Early congratulations!
