<p>DD entered HS advanced in Spanish and took 3 years of advanced honors classes. She went to Spain for a term. Has 800 on SATII, 5s on AP and AP Spanish lit.</p>
<p>There is a class she can take senior year but she knows it will be easy and she won't learn much new. She would like to switch languages. Good idea? Her ED application may well be to a program with a language focus.</p>
<p>One important thing to keep in mind is that her Spanish will become weaker if she does not keep using it. Even if the Spanish class she would take is extremely easy, at least she would maintain her current level of fluency instead of allowing it to decline. Moreover, 1 year of a new language in high school really won't get her very far (it's probably only the equivalent of a single term of a language in college). On the other hand, the more languages the better, IMO.</p>
<p>If she's spent a semester in Spain and has two APs in Spanish I see no need to take another year. She might forget a little, but it will come back very quickly. In this case I think starting a new language makes lots of sense. My only quibble would be that one year of language in a high school generally only covers about a semester's worth of the same language in a college.</p>
<p>Let's assume the HS has a strong, college level first year of a tough second language.</p>
<p>Also that her summer job has her speaking, reading and writing Spanish extensively.</p>
<p>Why not? She clearly has a level of mastery of Spanish. I always tell kids not to drop a language before they get to the good part, but she's done that. Going on from there to learn other languages is what strong language students do. </p>
<p>One issue she will encounter if she starts a new language is that she would likely be bored stiff in a first year class in any Romance languge, since she will know most of the structure already. After a year in Spain as a sophomore, I handled this by going into a French 4 class that included a bunch of my friends my junior year. I didn't have a clue what was going on for the first semester (is was shortly before Christmas when I made the connection between the word "maintenant" and the thing my teacher kept saying that sounded like "machnaw"), but I was pretty much caught up by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Other alternatives: She could see if she can take a college Spanish course. I did that, too, my junior year in high school (Edad de Oro Poetry). It was the last Spanish course I ever took, although I have continued to use Spanish all my life. Or she could perhaps put together an independent study in commercial Spanish, which it's doubtful she knows well, or at all.</p>
<p>Does she feel she needs to take another language class or could she take another class that might interest her?</p>
<p>With this record of proficiency, she can do whatever she wants. She can take more advanced literature classes at a local U, switch to a different language, or drop foreign language all together -- whatever works best for her.</p>
<p>One of Latin would be productive. Not sure if taking one year of any conversational language will get you anywhere.</p>
<p>Definitely go with a second language. If she wants a super easy course make it a romance language, first year Latin would be fine, as would any of the other languages. Whatever interests her really IMO. (My experience is that once you know one language fluently other languages automatically are easier even if not closely related. At least that was my experience with spending a year in France followed by taking up German.)</p>
<p>She could set up an independent study in Spanish and really push herself further.</p>
<p>She has the equivalent of 4 years of the same language. When colleges say they recommend "3 years" or "4 years", they're generally talking about the level of the course, not the actual time it took to master the subject. No college expects more than the AP level.</p>
<p>I her case, she should take whatever she wants - she can pick up another language, she can take art or music or another history or math or (if her school allows) a study hall. None of these will detract from her application.</p>
<p>Good idea! Go for the new language, since this is what she wants.</p>
<p>She will learn something! Whether or not a year of high school equals a year of college, she will learn something. In particular, she will learn first-hand whether or not she wants to pursue the new language in college, and she will learn first-hand about the idea of learning multiple languages. </p>
<p>I wouldn't assume that she is just going to take the new language next year and then stop. That's possible, but it is also possible that she may love it and decide to become fluent (over time) in her third language, and even consider starting a fourth in college! :)</p>
<p>My first boyfriend in college (Chemistry major and pre-med) fulfilled most of his distribution and elective requirements taking language classes. As I recall he took Spanish, German, Hebrew, Greek and Russian.</p>
<p>This is so helpful!</p>
<p>Some more background:</p>
<p>*DD had 2 years of Latin in middle school
*She has taken classes in/self studied French and Italian
*The languages that interest her for school next year
are Japanese or Chinese which she would continue in college along with Spanish.</p>
<p>Chinese and Arabic are the two languages recommended by the Georgetown SFS as the languages of the 21st century. (She should look at SFS btw)</p>
<p>If she is going to do Mandarin, I highly recommend the immersive programs such as CET. She can get a year's worth of college credit in 8 weeks. They take rising freshman too.</p>
<p>If she is interested in business, Chinese over Arabic...</p>
<p>Given her personal and career interests, I would absolutely encourage and support her desire to take Chinese (or Japanese).</p>
<p>1) If she isn't actually fluent she's not done, IMO. I wouldn't stop until I was really, actually fluent/proficient. Why go 7/8 up the mountain and then stop there? An avalanche (of disuse) could wash her further down the slope. Making it that much less likely that she'll ever get to the top.</p>
<p>2) Chinese is really really hard. Too hard, actually. The speaking is ok but to read & write you have to memorize all these different characters for each word. My daughter's quite gifted with languages and is struggling with Chinese, at the advanced levels.</p>
<p>I've been told that Japanese is much easier.</p>
<p>She's fluent, we live in Socal:)!</p>
<p>Her college counselor thought more Spanish, but I agree she should move on.</p>
<p>Also from Socal and thought that Socal was bi-lingual...UNTIL WE MOVED TO MIAMI! Now that is really bi-lingual!</p>