<p>Both of my kids had the experience of being placed in high school classes for languages other than the ones they signed up for, and be initially dismayed – but then later realizing to their delight that they had teachers who were significantly better than the teachers of the more common (and more popular) languages that they had signed up for. So there was an initial week in school while my kids griped about how they were “stuck” with what they perceived to be the more difficult language – and after that smooth sailing when the started comparing notes with kids in the other classes. </p>
<p>That does add an another wrinkle: in high school, often the language you sign up for is not the language you get. So sometimes you really don’t have all that much of a choice in the end.</p>
<p>I’ve taken a number of languages and have gone through a number of teachers. Quality MATTERS to a student’s success with a FL. I thought German would be a killer when I started intensive German a few months back but I couldn’t believe how easy it was… because my instructors (one of them is native German) had excellent system to keep everything organized.</p>
<p>Does your D have friends in HS whom she can talk to which language has better teachers?</p>
<p>Thinking about where she’d like to study abroad or visit for an extended period of time also helped with motivation level.</p>
<p>I do a lot of international travel for work, and have a lot of French and German colleagues. I think it would be much more useful to know French, since all of the Germans I run into in the course of my work speak EXCELLENT English, while many French do not. </p>
<p>My S had expressed some interest in possible learning some German, and I mentioned it to a German colleague, and he was really surprised, and would wonder why my S would bother to learn German, unless perhaps he were interested in German literature.</p>
<p>Definitely another vote for the great teacher. French can be added later if the student wishes. 40 minutes a day for 180 days a year for 4 years = a LOT of time spent with a program. Great teacher makes all the difference. </p>
<p>In my personal experiences, an effort in German was welcomed and an effort in French was scorned. Times may have changed . . .</p>
<p>I agree with the advice to take the best teacher. After that, I’d go with whim. I took 7 years or so of French, and ended up living in Germany for a year. So you can’t predict where life will take you, but a good grounding in any foreign language puts you in good stead to take on another one.</p>
I agree with the person above…French is an official language at the UN, German is not.</p>
<p>That being said, I took a semester of German in junior high and loved it, but I took Spanish in high school because it made more sense for me. My husband took French and doesn’t use it all, he’s not a business person.</p>
<p>My impression is that for a career in International Relations, it is better to be multilingual – in other words, with that career goal, the student would want to learn both French & German. Beyond that, I have to note that very few students gain real fluency in any language with high school study. There are exceptions, but for the most part in a high school program the student is not going to get to the level where their training is going to be much help in a career – really they are just laying the foundation for continued study later on.</p>
<p>Both of my kids took German in high school. German is more useful for business and is spoken in several European countries (Switzerland, parts of Italy, Austria) I also vote for the good teacher. It makes such a difference.</p>
<p>The fact that French is spoken at the UN and the Olympics shouldn’t be a deciding factor–because English is also spoken at the UN and the Olympics, and your child already knows English.</p>
<p>The fact that many Germans and Swiss speak excellent English is somewhat relevant–but if your child might someday live, work or travel in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, it would still be very helpful to know German. All official documents in Germany, Austria and part of Switzerland are in German.</p>
<p>I took a little French in college and two years of German (with a personal tutor) as an adult. This also shouldn’t be a deciding factor, but…I found it a lot easier to correlate listening and spelling in German than in French because words are pronounced as they are spelled in German (and not in French.)</p>
<p>Just an update, in case anyone else runs into this dilemma: my D took German and loves it. The advice I received was to go with the better teacher (French teacher less well-regarded). I’m so glad we followed that advice. The teacher has enriched her life beyond the German instruction. An unexpected bonus has been that my D has learned a lot about English grammar from taking German.</p>
<p>Excellent news! Having just read the thread, I wanted to point out that German might also be preferred for those who wish to study philosophy in the long term…</p>