<p>mathmom -- I wasn't talking about preferring one national culture over another. Of course you can do that. I was talking about "not liking" Spanish before a student has even gotten access to any Hispanic culture through it. And, yes, I acknowledged that some languages are much harder than others for people like me or you to learn, and one can rationally dislike that. (But there's no way that could apply to Spanish, which has practically no sounds not used in English, no true diphthongs, no inflections, fairly regular grammar and syntax that's about as close to English as any other language, relatively few irregular verbs, etc., etc. Plus, it's practical, and as close to a national second language as we have. If you "don't like" learning Spanish, maybe you don't like learning languages, period.)</p>
<p>That isn't to say that bad teachers and bad courses couldn't turn a kid off a language. That happens all the time; it happened to my daughter with French. (Have I said that I hate hate HATE the way languages are taught?)</p>
<p>Many many good points!
JHS - has he given Spanish enough of a chance? My intial reaction was not really, esp since three of the four years have been with the same teacher -- a nice person, but he does not like the class. I do think people can have affinities for certain languages, though. My daughter loved French from the time they introduced it in middle school, yet had a lot of trouble with spanish (same teacher), so she chose the former and is enjoying it. </p>
<p>I also am leery of choosing a language just because one "should," for a particular major. For students interested in IR, popular choices now seem to be Arabic and Mandarin. At the same time, he IS very interested in what's going on in the world right now, and Arabic seems a logical choice. What sounds like a real need for immersion training is something we hadn't really considered, though.</p>
<p>With graduation looming, I think it's natural to look forward to having certain subjects finally "over with." At this point we are considering only the class he'll take at the local CC this summer. Admittedly, I was hoping he'd stick with spanish. He's familiar with it, and has done very well in the class (and the ability to speak it would be nice). I will have to double check college policies for outside credit (minimum grade requirement?). Jumping into somthing very difficult might be risky, but we will let him choose. Once he heads off to college in the fall, he'll have all sorts of options ahead of him, and hopefully good advisors to help him with his choices.
Thanks again, everyone.</p>
<p>Why are people stuck on the idea that Spanish (or Germanic and Romance Languages in general) are so much easier than other languages? I've formally studied Japanese, Italian, and Arabic, and I couldn't just say one is "easier" than the others. In Japanese, for example, you don't conjugate by person, but you do have particles (and kanji). In Arabic, you conjugate differently by gender (male you, female you, he, she), but your conjugations have to all match. In Italian, the conjugation is harder than the other two, but you have cognates and the same alphabet. In fact, the only language I've studied that I would say was amazing difficult would be American Sign Language because the "grammar" employs concepts you can't even began to express with other languages.</p>
<p>To the OP: I suggest your son try more than one language in college (or even before, if he can take community ed or cc classes), and see what he likes.</p>
<p>"In fact, the only language I've studied that I would say was amazing difficult would be American Sign Language because the "grammar" employs concepts you can't even began to express with other languages."</p>
<p>This made me smile. Though, as with French, I was exposed to ASL before the crucial 13-year point and therefore can "feel" the grammar somewhat intuitively...it is true that there are aspects of ASL grammar which are pretty mind-blowing. Useful to have examples to bring up when people claim it's not a "real" language!</p>
<p>I think different languages can appeal to different kinds of people. I'm really a visual learner and I like languages in general but ASL is especially compelling. Why? Maybe it has something to do with the more visual aspect of ASL, just as someone with a great ear for tones might find Mandarin easier. </p>
<p>I'd say that there is no such thing as not "liking" a language--but one can reach a point when a bad class experience with the language can taint one's perception of it to the extent of not being able to muster a positive attitude for further study of that language.</p>
<p>The whole "easier" discussion reminds me of a definition someone once gave me for the word "intuitive" - it's what you're used to. What's easiest is the thing I've already mastered.</p>
<p>My sons are math savvy and highly visual but tone deaf. They find the characters and the structure quite easy to follow but have more difficulty with the tones. The Chinese are a bit like the French when it comes to poorly pronounced tones--according to my son.</p>
<p>Having had the immersive French and Mandarin, my older son is keen to do an immersive Arabic program as well.</p>
<p>Choosing a language for an international career is more critical than choosing what you 'like'. The (reported) Chinese economy is growing at, what, 12% a year? In the coming decades, every 50 cent increase in the Chinese minimum wage will cause major upheaval in the supply chain across the world. It may be hard for US yuppies to imagine, but our children's lives will likely be dominated by the Chinese econmy--if the Chinese nation stays stitched together.</p>
<p>My 20 year old son has already been approached by our friends who own manufacturing companies. They want him to get a job with a US manufacturer in China--and then come to them to help them open up a factory in China. Many of the male language students in China are studying Chinese at the behest of their father's companies. It's quite a dynamic group.</p>
<p>Arabic, on the other hand, is a less business oriented and more policy oriented choice--though there are many policy avenues with Mandarin as well.</p>
<p>I've heard Dean Gallucci at Gtown SFS say that the need for Romance languages is past and Arabic and Mandarin are the two languages worth studying at this point in time.</p>
<p>Very interesting posts, but I must disagree with several who said that Chinese is a very difficult language. Actually it has very little grammar: no tense, no number (plural vs. singular), no gender, etc. From that perspective it is one of the simplest languages I have ever studied. The tones are tricky, but that is something that you will either 'get' or 'not get' in the first few weeks. Reading and writing are a whole different matter: extremely difficult, pure memory work, and whatever you learn, you can loose quite fast. However, speaking and listening are quite a joy and, from my experience, Chinese people are quite thrilled when they meet an American who has a passing familiarity with their language.</p>
<p>Wolfpiper, I suspect you have a facility for languages. I really don't though I did learn to speak both German and French fluently. I've taken classes in Italian (super easy after French) and Chinese (I was a dismal failure). I've tried teaching myself Latin (I was too lazy to get far), Swahili (My parents were stationed in Tanzania - I bogged down in the same place in the foreign service book every summer) and Spanish (easy, I wish I'd pursued it.) It doesn't help that I am not an auditory learner at all - if you tell me directions I get out paper and draw a map while you're talking - because I have to see things.</p>
<p>"I have steered her away from Arabic because I, her over-protective mother, do not want to encourage her (as a female) to end up in an Arabic-speaking country."</p>
<p>Well, yeah, over-protective would be one way to describe that...</p>
<p>Mandarin is not terribly difficult to learn for an English speaker. Cantonese is far, far harder and very unattractive as a whole.</p>
<p>To be good at a language you must spend plenty of time where it is a dominant language. You should study a language whose literature and culture appeal to you and that is spoken in countries you would like to visit. For jobs dealing with other Americans in many parts of our country, Spanish could be the most useful. Liking a language can be like choosing which musical instrument you want to learn to play--the one whose sound and repertoire appeals most strongly to you.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with Parentstwo - beginner level Mandarin is not that hard. I would be surprised if someone couldn't pick up subsistence level Chinese within a couple of weeks, at the most. What IS difficult is getting past that plateau, it really does require an immersive experience. Ditto with reading and writing actually - if you've got a decent memory, you can pick up 15-20 characters per day, no problem.</p>
<p>Upoh - I'm not sure what you meant by your comment, whether you are agreeing, or see that as an understatement or something else entirely. By way of explanation, my college roommate, a nurse (like me), signed up for two years in Yemen with a service organization. She lasted one. She said she wasn't allowed out of the compound without covering herself head to toe. Male coworkers would go out jogging in shorts and sneakers, but she couldn't jog in the required wardrobe. Her cross-cultural experience was limited because she didn't leave the compound often because she had to be dressed appropriately, chaperoned, wasn't allowed to speak to men, etc. The experience for men was quite different. That is why I said I didn't see immersion in Arabic as a desirable option for my daughter.</p>