There is an old thread on this topic which was closed 7 years ago, when some schools were still completing their transition to Chinese. I think the discussion needs updating: the transition to Chinese has occurred, and the vast majority of boarding schools now offer Chinese (the language du jour — pardon my French), French (the language of “old Europe,” pardon my English), Spanish (because, well, this is America), and Latin (as classical homage).
Whether it is wise for the modern language offerings of most boarding schools to now be so uniform and limited in breadth is a topic for another thread — obviously, I am skeptical — but I am looking for a current list of boarding schools that now offer German. To be sure, I don’t think German is going anywhere at these schools: far more American public high schools are offering German than 20 years ago; economic studies have shown that German knowledge has more bang for the business buck than French or Spanish (partly because less people learn it); German is the most spoken native language in western Europe; and, after English, German is Europe’s business language.
Here’s the list of boarding schools I have. It is surprisingly small; I am hopefully missing some lesser known schools, at the very least. If anyone could add to the list, that would be great — particularly given that 5 of the 8 schools on my list are “acronym” schools (and the other 3 are no slouches either).
Exeter
Andover
St. Paul’s
Hotchkiss
Concord Academy
St. Mark’s
Governor’s
Mercersburg
Any others? Any insider knowledge on any existing ones’ enrollment expanding or declining? It would be a shame if someone who wants to go to boarding school and study German there has to be accepted to as high-quality a school as up-and-coming Mercersburg — with the “worst” acceptance rate on my list, at 33%.
Our sons took German at PEA and had a great experience ( for kids who struggled learning a foreign language) It is a a pretty popular language program there. Our younger daughter loved learning Russian while there.
My little brother took German in high school and this thread brings back the memory that he was a bit intolerable with correcting us in every day life. For instance, he insisted that we all call Gouda (cheese) “howda” because that was the “real pronunciation.” And Gummy bears — gosh he would freak out because they are “really” pronounced “goomie” bears. My sister and I had so much fun rolling our eyes at his snotty insistence.
Good times.
Without reviving the thread of pronouncing foreign words in English, I’d point out that Gouda is Dutch, not German. But the Dutch pronunciation is closer to “howda” although with the guttural Dutch “g.”
I’d still say you are correct. I speak it as well and have spent time in Germany and unless your German is flawless they will immediately flip into English which just about about every German under the age of 50 speaks fluently. And unlike the French, they don’t seem mind using English at all. Though I do wonder if that may be changing now between Brexit and the current US politics maybe English will fall out of fashion there?
On another note, I don’t think Chinese/Mandarin is ‘language de jour’ at all, rather a reflection of the fact that third of the boarding school population is from that part of the world, either directly or culturally. That said I think it is a hard language to learn if you are just learning it at school with no family reinforcement.
Really interesting re: du jour nature of Chinese. I had always assumed it was the trendy replacement for Japanese/Russian in the 80s and 90s. (The rhetoric about needing to learn them back then was overblown; but their disappearance now is equally unjustified.) In fact, I had thought the recent influx of Chinese students in boarding schools (and schools’ attempt, openly or behind closed doors, to limit their admission) made all of this a delicious irony, and was itself a demonstration that the switch to Chinese at the expense of other languages was misguided.
I can say, outside of the boarding school community, that Chinese is decidedly the language du jour in American education: public, private, and parochial high schools have switched to it en masse. Obviously, that has nothing to do with the proportion of Chinese students in boarding schools, so there is something more going on here.
By the way, I am not saying German is the essential language to learn, economically or otherwise; but it does sometimes lend some added value for Americans working within or without the United States — and in that respect, can be convincingly argued to be a more “valuable” language to learn than French or Spanish. (This is what the studies I was referring to were doing.)
As for the prevalence of German speakers who speak English, yes, that is true (though less well than many assume), but all I can say is, good God, have you seen their writing in English? Let’s just say there is no substitute for native English speakers in that regard.
@vegas1 PEA has such great language offerings! In fact, it is the only school I know of that teaches both German and Arabic. The downside is that Arabic is a one-year course for seniors. And, well, that whole admissions thing.
A school offering both Arabic and German at an advanced level would be the Holy Grail in terms of my son’s potential language schooling. (I know they are strange bedfellows, but Arabic and French are decidedly not — and he speaks near-fluent French already). Conversely, I know Deerfield and Choate are great for Arabic but, alas, no German…
SMS has a great program for German, including immersion opportunities. A good friend of my DS’s used his Lion Term (look at the school website for a complete description of this Spring schoolwide requirement) to work with a film production company in Germany. He’s now graduated and attending Penn.
My daughter is enjoying her fourth year of German at SPS. As noted by @doschicos this brilliant teacher is the kind of person her students will remember fondly for the rest of their lives. My daughter switched from Latin because of her reputation. She plans to have a double concentration of IR and German in college.
@GoodtoKnow This is very important, the more I think of it: most of these schools appear to have only one teacher, whereas French (in which my son is also advanced) usually has at least 2-3 and, Spanish, an inordinate amount.
German aside, would it be so difficult if but one of these half dozen (or way more) Spanish teachers at many of these schools be replaced with, say, Portuguese (more important than German, I think, and a nice supplement for those already advanced in Spanish; Brazil isn’t going anywhere). Given the amazing resources at some of these schools — and how easy it would be to staff some of these languages — I guess I am surprised that there isn’t much variation beyond the usual Spanish, French, Chinese, and Latin/Greek suspects.
@pincite, I totally get what you are saying. I think what’s at the heart of this is that schools need to have a certain number of students taking classes to justify the cost. And while a part time instructor could be the answer, it is often difficult with the expectations of the school for availability for consultations, etc.
It’s often easier for someone who can teach robotics to pick up a section of math or physics than for a native Arabic speaker to teach a section of something else. And someone who teaches calculus can generally teach the students with more advanced needs whereas the Spanish teacher probably can’t teach even introductory Italian. I suspect that hiring FL teachers is a special challenge for most schools.
It doesn’t help that even the largest BS are quite small and that many are also somewhat remote. The former limits the number of possible students for a class while the latter makes the part-time option -if it was workable on all other fronts – one that requires a real stroke of luck.
I know our school has a handful of kids who study German (usually because of a native-speaking parent) at a German school nearby, but not for school credit. A few have gone to university in Germany.
FWIW, this can even be an issue at the university level. We know a kid who quickly found herself beyond what her highly selective college could offer in her language and who chose to transfer as a result. (She know has a PhD in that language!)
But it is some maddening if there’s been a thoughtful investment in a language pre-BS. Glad you have some good options.
I agree with these points. And do know many BS’s try to hire native speakers not just any FL teacher. Our public school is much more open to who they will hire, usually Americans born with second language fluency.
