<p>How many years of Spanish should I take in order to get into good colleges like Boston, Yale, or Princeton?</p>
<p>I've taken 4 years of Spanish in middle school and high school (Level 1A and 1B in middle school and 2 and 3 in high school). Although I don't think colleges don't care about middle school years.</p>
<p>Two electives are the limit in my school. I want to take Music Theory and Band, but I'd have to give up Spanish. Is 2 years good enough?</p>
<p>Two high school years mandatory. Three to four preferable. </p>
<p>If you’re into music, you should drop Spanish. As long as you can show that you have an interest in music, then you can show that your action was justifiable, and colleges won’t count it against you.</p>
<p>I went up to level Honors Spanish 4 (Junior year). Because AP Spanish wasn’t offered at my school, I decided to take French 1. I love it. :)</p>
<p>I took 3 and got into Yale and Stanford…Don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Harvard “recomends” four years. I’m sure several have less than that…
I’d say take at least three years with four preferable. Unless you are planning on being a music major I’d not do AP Music Theory, I’d just take piano lessons or hire a piano/guitar teacher who can teach theory if you’re just interested in applying the theory to playing (like me) so you can have your four years.</p>
<p>imo, if you dont take upp to 4+ years of foreign language, you fail at life.
how hard could it be?
it’s a lot more useful than ANY other elective you could choose because it show that you 1.are commited, 2. have an intrest in other cultures than just your own, 3. want to be a “life long learner” and 4. have the brain capacity of a parrot!</p>
<p>Besides that, it gives you the ability to travel to pretty much ALL of Central and South America (yes, even Brazil; Spanish and Portuguese have a ~70%+ mutual intelligibility!) and to a lot of Carribean countries. And lets not for get Spain, Portugal (they speak portuguese there!) and Italy (same thing as with portuguese)!</p>
<p>And if you have a strong background in one foreign language, it will help you to be able to learn other foreign languages which could in turn help you get a better pay check if you speak more than one language.</p>
<p>Moreover, it could help you learn a lot of words in English like it did for me because a lot of words come from Latin (castigate (eng)= castigar (sp; more common than its English equivalent)).</p>
<p>So, how many years should you take? As many as possible. It’s only to help you later on in life.</p>
<p>I’ve taken 3 straight semesters of spanish and its rotting my brain. The teachers think that we actually CARE about that class, but in essence all i’m doing in there is hw for my APs or something. The projects require too much time that I can’t bother putting to spanish, and I know enough of it to ask where the bathroom is and understand bits of the spanish channel.</p>
<p>I’m done ;)</p>
<p>I really think colleges should NOT make world language a prerequisite. It certainly takes away freedom of student’s elective choices, especially me whose school limits elective classes down to two and there’s always a schedule problem.</p>
<p>for those who dont understand:
foreign language>4yrs= EPIK FAIL!</p>
<p>ok,how bout this?my situation is this,i can either take AP US History or level four french (meaning 1 year from junior high and two years at the high school).do i already have enough years of french to get into a good college or should i stay in level four french?</p>
<p>im pretty sure knowing your countries history is A LOT MORE IMPORTANT than learning French. Although im very anal about ppl learning foreign languages, but us history is a lot more important, especially if you live in the wonderful state of california</p>
<p>I took three years of Spanish and am able to have a decent conversation in the language. Taking a fourth year would be a waste. It’s not an “EPIK FAIL OLOLOL”</p>
<p>I’m a junior and in my third year of French, but it’s AP French, so would that be considered 4 years since a lot of the people that take it are seniors?</p>
<p>^It’s 3 years.</p>
<p>tsumbomi, it would be 3 years but it’s fine. That will fulfill the language requirement. </p>
<p>I am so sick of people b*tching about learning a foreign language. In most countries, they learn 2 or 3 languages a year MANDATORY from kindergarten and you guys can’t even suck it up for 4? Just get over it and take the language. Trust me, colleges want to see that you can stick with something and that you are interested in learning about another culture which is VERY important in today’s globalized world.</p>
<p>Languages are fun!</p>
<p>Here’s my foreign language experience.</p>
<p>Kindergarten: Spanish once a week
First Grade: Spanish twice a week
Second Grade: None (I changed schools. =()
Third Grade: Spanish Thrice a week
Fourth Grade: Spanish Thrice a week
Fifth Grade: Spanish everyday
Sixth Grade: French four times a week (new school)
Seventh Grade: Spanish every other day for a semester (Stupid principal’s scheduling)
Seventh Grade: Latin IA every day
Eighth Grade: French I every day
Eighth Grade: Latin IB every day
Ninth Grade: French II every day
Ninth Grade: Latin II every day
Tenth Grade: French III every day
Tenth Grade: Latin III every day
Eleventh Grade: French IV every day</p>
<p>So… in all… I have:
Six years of Spanish
Five years of French
Four years of Latin</p>
<p>And people complain about having to take foreign languages to get into college? Psh.</p>
<p>EDIT: As for mandatory language: My school requires Chinese in grades k4-4 (used to be Spanish, but the teacher quit so they started chinese.) Spanish 5-7. Latin 7-8. And to graduate you have to have two years… but the guidance counselor normally forces you to have three years.</p>
<p>And you don’t get credit for Latin I unless you take Latin II in ninth grade.</p>
<p>So basically, if you’re a lifer (k4-12), then you have had a mandatory 11 years minimum of foreign language instruction.</p>
<p>…And that’s not even that much.</p>
<p>I wish my school taught Chinese… it certainly makes more sense than Italian or German. :x</p>
<p>Italian is useful because it connects with Latin, French, and Spanish so well.</p>
<p>They’re supposed to introduce Chinese I next year, because the current 7th graders are the oldest students in the school with Chinese language experience.</p>
<p>They actually had to start a Spanish Club in the lower school (k4-4) and a Chinese Club in the middle school (5-8) because of their introduction of Chinese.</p>
<p>My school used to teach Italian and German… but those were slowly phased out. =/ Now we just have Spanish, French, and Latin.</p>
<p>FUDGE. Double post.</p>
<p>Stupid computer.</p>
<p>im taking three consecutive years of spanish.
took spanish 1/2 in 7/8th grade
spanish 3/4 freshman year
5/6 honors sophomore year
AP Spanish this (junior) year.</p>
<p>AP is the highest offered, so i think (hope) im fine…</p>