The first foreign language course in college

ingerp
Wed, 28 May 2008 14:11:59 +0000

This won’t quite be the answer you requested, but a few (maybe kinda random) comments. It’s difficult to argue against the relevance of learning some Spanish in today’s USA. It is easy to pick up and you already know more than you realize! I’ve heard it argued that French is no longer relevant, although have been assured by DoD officials that it is still highly sought after and supported (by DoD scholarships!). German is a very structured language (although I guess no languages have the maddening exceptions that English does) with a grammar that is not intuitive to native English speakers. Italian seemed very easy to pick up to me, although the vocabulary is close to Latin, and would be made easier by any prior Spanish studies. I know a woman (native Hungarian) who spoke eight foreign languages fluently and said Swedish was the easiest to learn. Very simple grammar (verb second position–that’s pretty much it). I doubt many colleges offer it, though!

In summary, I am a huge believer in Latin and I do think it’s easier for some kids who aren’t adept at foreign languages. After that, my best guess is Spanish/Italian might be easiest, followed by French (only the two genders for their nouns!), then maybe German. If a kid has a particular interest in a country/culture (has always wanted to visit, is planning a semester abroad, has family/history there, . . . ?), that’s something to consider too.