Two foreign languages in high school?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello, I am going into my sophomore year in high school
I have completed Spanish 1 last year with a 96, since I’m pretty strong in languages (it was just full of memorizations, no hard concepts) and I really want to try French as well. It will pretty much go like this-

Sophomore year:
Spanish 2
French 1

Junior year:
Spanish 3
French 2

Senior year:
French 3 (likely) or H Spanish 4

Will this add any extra rigor to my schedule, and since I’ll be taking 4 APs junior/senior year, will it be too hard for me to handle?

Also, will colleges think any less of my schedule, as I probably won’t be able to achieve level 4 in any of them? (I’ll try to take at least level 3 for both languages)

2

Most colleges require or recommend 2+ years of language, with the most selective wanting 3+.
I think it would be interesting to have two languages, but you should try to see if senior year you could take both (so you aren’t dropping a class in senior year). I don’t know if that might be too rigorous though.

3

I have a friend who’s graduating at Level 2 or higher in 4 of the 5 languages my school offers. They get along just fine.

4

Freshman year I took Spanish III and Latin I, and I managed it just fine. Ultimately I chose to only continue with Latin to take other electives, but if this is what you want to do, you shouldn’t have any problems.

5

For purely college admission angle, I have heard that having H Spanish 4 (or AP Spanish) is better than having Spanish 3, whether you have another language or not.

6

No.

@Sculptordad is correct. Additionally, you’d be better served taking one language as far as you can than trying to a little bit of two.

@awesomepolyglot While I’m happy it worked out for your friend, I have to wonder what s/he was thinking? What can one possibly do with a level 2 on 4 languages? Ask where the bathroom in 4 languages?

7

@skieurope Thank you for your comment, but I’m worried about the fact that people are expected to use Spanish almost exclusively in Honors Spanish 4. I’ve heard that it was a very hard course, and I don’t want to bring my GPA down. Would it still be beneficial if I get a B or below in the class?

Also, I think it’ll be a waste of time if I only took two years of French…

8

Well I should hope so. :slight_smile: That’s the point of learning a foreign language.

You’re a rising sophomore. It’s way too early to stress out about what grade you may or may not get in a senior year class.