<p>okay so i'm a freshman and i'm in french II.<br>
sophmore year i'll be in AP prep french
and junior year i will be in AP french</p>
<p>my teacher wants me to start one or two more languages.
i have a 99/98 average in french and i absolutely love the subject.<br>
i like languages and i am the only freshman at my school in french II</p>
<p>i was wondering what other languages you would recommend?</p>
<p>i get to choose from italian, spanish, and german. i think i want to add at least one more to my schedule next year. but i'm really unsure which one.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman in Spanish I and French II. I'm probably going to start taking Chinese I next year. It's pretty easy taking Spanish after French because their so similar. If I were you, I would definitely add Spanish since it's so useful. After learning Spanish and French, you could probably learn Italian easily on your own.</p>
<p>How much of a challenge are you looking for? German may be the hardest of the three for you, because it's heavily inflected; learning it would involve picking up new grammatical concepts, like noun cases, that French doesn't have. However, a lot of the vocabulary is related to English. Italian and Spanish are more similar to French, in terms of grammar and vocabulary.</p>
<p>Well, learning Spanish or Italian would be easier if you already have some knowledge of French, German is a different ballpark entirely but my personal favorite. ;) I "took" all four, my French was the worst because of the bloody accent. </p>
<p>I can give you some pros and cons of each language and how it would relate to French, if that's what you're asking (... that's all I know about you, really, that you take French).</p>
<p>Spanish: As you probably know, Spanish and French (as well as Italian) come from the same root so a lot of words are the same, which makes it easier to learn. They sound different spoken, but either way Spanish is easier and more logical to pronounce than French if you're an American. I personally found it the easiest of the three, even though I felt there were more annoying conjugations (that're closest to Latin, that's compensation ;)). </p>
<p>Italian: I found Italian to be harder than Spanish. Spanish strikes me as really logical, whereas Italian grammar is a bit different and more closely resembles Latin (if you care at all) in vocab. The plus side is, if you're good in Italian you can understand a bit of Spanish and vice versa.</p>
<p>German: The people who chant how easy German should be because English is a Germanic language have probably never learned it. I found Spanish/French/even Italian to be closer to English than German, and at first I found German to be terrifying. Different grammar, different cases, three genders and so on, I mean. It's really hard to start, but it gets easier with time (mainly because you get used to it kicking your arse, haha).</p>
<p>In terms of pragmatism, I would go with Spanish because of the growing number of Spanish speakers in the US. But on that note, I would pick up German because it's easier mixing up Romance languages. It's also a challenge, plus it sounds good (don't think of those crazy Bavarians ;)) in my opinion. I liked Italian as well, but since this is on practicality I say nothing. ^^</p>
<p>This sounds really general, but feel free to ask if you have questions, I don't really know what you're looking for. I self-studied them for a few months (did very well on the AP's so don't worry, I know them pretty well. Or at least as much as a good AP student ;)) and found all of them to be quite enjoyable. :)</p>
<p>This essay by Mark Twain is absolutely hilarious, and right on the mark about German. It's such a crazy, convoluted language I don't know how the Germans haven't simplified it some (</p>
<p>
[quote]
This essay by Mark Twain is absolutely hilarious, and right on the mark about German. It's such a crazy, convoluted language I don't know how the Germans haven't simplified it some (</p>
<p>I think you should remember that the goal of language study is to actually become fluent in them. For people that are truly interested in learning them, fluency takes up to about 2 years for the average learner. High school language courses suck, move very slowly, and I can assure you that you won't achieve fluency from them. If you're truly serious about becoming fluent in the language, most of your learning will take place outside of the classroom. </p>
<p>I am fluent in several languages, and every one that I learned was done through audio language courses, online resources, extensove listening to radios, watching television, and an instructional book.</p>
<p>And don't get me wrong; being in AP language classes is nice, but I've never been able to have a conversation with a language learner at the AP level in Spanish except for the native speakers. It's easy to get up to the AP level without peviplous study if you are dedicated, which I think backs up quite well what I said about the speed of high school language courses.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And don't get me wrong; being in AP language classes is nice, but I've never been able to have a conversation with a language learner at the AP level in Spanish except for the native speakers.
[/quote]
True that. Why I never bothered with them to begin with. ;) </p>
<p>Mind you, I think fluency is being able to speak flawlessly. There's pretty much no way to get to that level going at high school pace.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Which is why I dislike high school language courses.
[/quote]
To be fair, they're not really aimed towards people who want to get fluent.. mostly people who need that credit out of the way. Did you take Spanish, **Co</p>
<p>But they only need 2 years. Lots continue to 3 and AP.</p>
<p>I actually did; the funny thing about us native Spanish speakers born in the USA is that we speak fluently, but are never educated in the language like we are in English. So as a result there is still tons of vocab we don't know, we've never written in it before, and reading in it is rare as well. I had an option between Spanish and French; I have 0 interest in French, dislike the country, and I thought I might learn a thing or two in Spanish.</p>
<p>I started in Spanish 1 for half the year and then I was finally switched to Spanish 3 for this half of the year. Still extremely easy, and still extremely irritating how the non natives spend years studying the language and still can't conjugate a verb for their lives, let alone the 0 effort they put into even pronouncing the simplest words correctly. These kids just continue for the sake of college, and it makes me wonder why colleges even value extra foreign language years when most don't learn jack. </p>
<p>I'm ranting now, but I think my disdain for the courses is shown.</p>
<p>But. But. Having language all 4 years is a plus for college and if you don't have them HYPS won't even look at you and then what would your life be without a prestigious university degree?</p>
<p>lol, we've gone off-topic. ;)</p>
<p>Alex</p>
<p>P.S. Yeah, I took Chinese (in theory also my mother tongue, never really educated though), so I know ye feel. X__X But usually the people in it are more dedicated to the language. After all, who in their bloody right mind would take Chinese over, say, Spanish if they didn't?</p>
<p>They got off topic, but Spanish would be easiest and most practical and German would be the challenge. If you want to take two more, take Italian and Spanish.</p>
<p>Personally, I say take German. I take 3 different languages (Spanish, Japanese, and American Sign) in HS, and I'm pretty sure it's more exciting than doing a 3 period-block of Romance languages. It's more fun to take on a new challenge.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got off topic but keep in mind what I said in my first post if you are really serious about learning languages, because you will absolutely not achieve it through a bunch of classes, especially high school. I also wouldn't recommend starting another language before you have learned the first. </p>
<p>Well I won't keep bothering you, just thought you might be interested because I have been there and have learnedna few languages since then.</p>