Wow I’m shocked, it sounds like AP French has been super watered down from when I took it. We had to read Le Rouge et le Noir, a bunch of 19th and early 20th century poetry and other serious stuff. I learned the passe simple in 3rd year French in high school.
How many people who study Spanish actually need it routinely to communicate with those in the US who “only speak Spanish?” How often do they run into these folks and have longer or complex conversations? I see that as less justification than countries you hope to visit or study. Or, much later, the scholarly materials you need to access.
But if particular languages are needed for PhD studies, well, a 9th grader has plenty of time to get there. As the interests are defined and refined in college, they can pick up what’s needed next.
Once you have the basics of one Romance language, yes, the next is easier. So with Span now, he could easily pick up French later, if needed. Or vice versa. Or Italian.
So I agree, which doesn’t matter to adcoms, in this case. And pick what’s more likely to have classes through sr year of hs.
Indeed. As per one of my prior posts, a reason why OP’s student should choose whichever he prefers the most without considering future factors. If he needs to learn other foreign languages later on for jobs/grad school, he’ll be in a much better position to assess how he should be able to tackle it when he’s much closer to that point.
Yup. I couldn’t have predicted my grad studies would need German or Russian, the languages with the most scholarly work done and not translated. Similar for DH, who had Latin and some German, then needed to go much deeper into both, and add French and Italian. Plus, once you get the hang of learning langs, it’s not the same steep climb as the first can be.
Look at the teachers close up before making that final decision. A poor teacher will absolutely kill the class for you.
Realize that both French and Spanish have dialects. French from France is not the same as Canadian French.
Spanish from South America is not Spanish from Spain. Both son and D ran into horrible Spanish teachers (requiring a total reboot), one “okay” French teacher and one terrific French teacher.
I had a “so-so” teacher my first year of French class. Didn’t realize I hadn’t learned anything until the next year with a new teacher (she spoke 9 languages). We started reading novels that second year and writing poems and stories and even performing short plays in French. Oral reports every Friday. It sounds hard but she was totally forgiving and would just smile and calmly correct mistakes we made. Passed out good grades dependent on effort.
She never spoke English to us even outside of class–it was a total immersion type class. I only had three years of French and still remember so much of it–I can read and understand most of what I hear still today.
I think French has many pros. I took Spanish for one year and then switched over to French when I changed schools and I can say that I think French is better by far. Here’s my top three from the perspective of a senior who took four years of French (and one year of introductory Spanish haha):
- It is ranked as some one of the most spoken languages in the world, just depends on where you are looking (This French article says it's third most spoken language in the business world: http://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/actu-des-mots/2016/12/25/37002-20161225ARTFIG00001-le-francais-se-hisserait-au-3e-rang-des-langues-les-plus-parlees-au-monde.php)
-French has helped me in English as well because of the many similarities between the two languages, due to the shared latin roots. (Seriously, I learned so much English grammar and vocabulary from French)
-In my personal experience, French has provided me with countless opportunities that I think pushed my application over the edge for some schools. It has provided me with clubs, leadership, volunteering, ranking in French contests, etc, all of which is good for college applications. (My twin sister and I have the exact same GPA and she has even higher testing scores, but I have been admitted to more schools all with major scholarships thanks to additional French portfolios and experience I think - schools my “smarter” sister didn’t get anything for and regular acceptance)
Bonus, it honestly was a big part in me developing a passion to love learning, especially languages. I think loving to learn and loving the language are integral to the success of your son in taking French.