<p>I know that some schools like to see four years of a language. I have taken Spanish since the sixth grade, but get high school credit for 8th, 9th and 10th. If I seld-studied and took the AP Spanish test in 11th grade but not the Spanish class, would that count as a year or would I consider myself to have only three years?</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering if anyone knows what would be more appealing to college- 2 credits of either: Latin, Chinese or French? I know I should take whatever one I want to more, and it doesn't matter about what looks better, but I honestly have no preference. I heard that Latin helps with the SAT test because of vocabulary and it may help if you want to go into medicine which I do, but is Chinese less common and may make me stand out a bit?</p>
<p>French helps just as much with the SAT test (30% or so of English comes from it), plus it’s still applicable in the modern world, unlike Latin.</p>
<p>Chinese has been deemed a “critical” language in the country, but I doubt you’ll learn enough to be useful in such a short amount of time–it’s an arduous language for Westerners.</p>
<p>I can’t answer your first question with confidence, but we’re in the same boat. I’ve taken Spanish for ten years (from kindergarten), but I only get credit for 9th grade and up. I’m not allowed to skip to AP 5 until next year, ■■■. Most likely, they will not count that as a class because you did not take Spanish with the school. With regards to the test, it would probably be one of those things that make people say “oh, that’s nice, good for you” and move on. Not really something with much impact. You’d probably be better off taking the class, just to be safe.</p>
<p>Take Chinese!! It’s interesting. Believe me, I’m taking it. Since most schools don’t offer Chinese, it will definitely make you stand out.</p>
<p>I definitely see reason behind French considering the US is between Canada and Mexico. I know a good amount of Spanish to deal with Mexico, and there are many French speakers in Canada, so that may be useful. I also have heard Chinese is difficult for someone who speaks mainly English, and I would only be taking Chinese 1 and Chinese 2. I had a feeling that it would make me stand out more than French though, and it probably is interesting.</p>
<p>I can say that French has helped me with my English so much more than Latin ever did. French actually makes up more of the English language than Latin does and the grammar lessons are very similar. On top of that, French will go well with your Spanish and if you later decide to take Italian, it’ll go well with that as well.</p>
<p>I’ve taken French, Spanish, and Latin. French is my favorite and my major is going to French, so maybe I’m biased. lol</p>
<p>But yeah. After four years of Latin and six of French, I’d say take French!</p>
<p>I agree that French is more useful than Latin. Also, plenty of Latin roots show up in common French and Spanish words already, even if some of them are hidden. (You can learn sound change rules to see, for example, how Latin os/ossis turned into Spanish hueso.)</p>
<p>I would also recommend Mandarin Chinese, though. I’ve taken two years and think the grammar is very simple, much more than French or Spanish grammar. There are no verb conjugations or irregular grammatical forms*, and generally a lot more stuff is optional than in European languages or is just indicated with extra words or phrases (plural, tense, mood, etc.) The main problem, besides the truly scary writing system, is that most of the vocabulary is completely foreign and you would have to discard many of your expectations about syntax that you would need for an European language. A first-year Mandarin class might de-emphasize the writing system or just use pinyin instead.</p>
<p>Of course, if you take two years of French you would actually have practical knowledge, assuming the class doesn’t suck. After two years of Chinese in high school, there is still no chance of being able to read most stuff or participate in regular conversations.</p>
<p>*Actually there is just one, if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>Take German, because (1) it’s awesome, (2) it’s not too difficult, and (3) a lot of English words and German words that are used in English (obviously) come from German.</p>
<p>Old English split off directly from the German language, so English is actually derived from German more so than any other modern language.</p>
<p>Thank you for your opinions! I am going to push my research on the Latin class to the side and look more into the French option, and possibly the Mandarin and German.</p>
<p>Well I know that Old English spawned directly from a Germanic language (I’ve looked at Beowulf and recognized a few words as somewhat similar to modern German words, which is significant considering the time difference), so it is definitely derived from German first.</p>
<p>Latin was the mother of all western European languages, so that doesn’t count. =P </p>
<p>Now, maybe I’m wrong about it being more from German than any other language; maybe French has more influence. But if so it came into play later on. haha</p>
<p>I just know that I’ve studied French and German, and German had far more similarities to the English language than French did. Maybe I didn’t get far enough into French, though. Who knows.</p>