<p>Basically, everyone in my family is good with languages except him. I speak Japanese, am probably the best one in the school who isn't native, and am learning Czech; my mom speaks Arabic, French, Spanish, and Turkish; my dad speaks a little Italian, French, and German from back in the day. My brother, though, doesn't care about languages - though he seemed excited when I taught him a few phrases in Japanese - and he has trouble concentrating. He's quite intelligent, though, and he might have potential.</p>
<p>He told me once he'd rather take something with the Roman alphabet than not, but I think he actually likes the idea of knowing a different alphabet but just isn't motivated. He also said once that he didn't really want to take Spanish because of all the "ghetto kids." My mom seems to think that he would absolutely fail any language but Spanish, but my dad thinks he could do well in anything if he tried.</p>
<p>These are the languages his high school offers:
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Latin
Mandarin Chinese
Japanese</p>
<p>What do you think would be the best option for him? If you don't feel you know him well enough yet to judge, what factors should I be considering?</p>
<p>I highly recommend Latin. First of all, it’s not really a spoken language so there is no grading on pronunciation, per se, other than a few basic rules (v’s are pronounced as w’s etc.). Second, at least as it’s taught in my district, it is mixed heavily with history. So, here, a sixth grader taking Latin I will also learn about mythology, Greek and Roman history, Troy, etc. This coincides with a major portion of the social studies curriculum for that year. Third, the vocabulary that is learned is very useful for the SAT and other purposes. Word roots and derivations help with analyzing words in other contexts. My children have excellent vocabularies and I attribute that in part to their study of Latin. Fourth, Latin is the basis of all other Romance languages, so if he is successful in Latin, he might have more confidence in taking Spanish or French. Fifth, the alphabet is the same as in English.</p>
<p>I studied Hebrew, Yiddish, German and Russian in school and my first brush with a Romance language was when my oldest son took Latin. I enjoyed studying with him and am now on my 4th child taking Latin. Again, I highly recommend Latin. I refused to allow any of my kids to take Spanish, although I have now encouraged my daughter to learn it because she is studying to be a special ed teacher.</p>
<p>Some people don’t have a knack for languages. My husband is dyslexic and barely passed Spanish. One of my sons is very dyslexic and is language exempt. However, my youngest is only mildly dyslexic and is a B student in Latin and was a gold medalist in the National Mythology exam in 7th grade.</p>
<p>^Wow, haha, you pretty much know him already. Not so much about the cars (and <em>I</em> don’t really think he has style), but you’ve pretty much captured his personality.</p>
<p>and…the Romance languages would probably be good for him regardless. {Spanish, French Italian, Etc.} Unless he’s the lazy type, the languages would make sense to him. And why should it matter who’s in his class. He needs to find a subject that he’ll be able to focus in even if it’s with kids he doesn’t like (for whatever reason :/)</p>
<p>if he’s “lazy” with languages, I definitely wouldn’t recommend Chinese, and I wouldn’t recommend Latin either. it’s harder than learning the modern Romance languages</p>
<p>For Spanish I wouldn’t use “ghetto kids” but more like “the kids who don’t care about school and want to take the easiest classes they can get.”</p>
<p>Mhmm, and if he’s not motivated to take a language anyway, I’m not sure why he’s ruling out the (probably) best class for him. Spanish is only one period, I doubt everyone in that class is “ghetto” or lazy or whatever. And he can make friends in his other 5+ classes. </p>
<p>Cause if he’s taking a hard language that he kinda-likes but still isn’t focused, the grades not going to be well.</p>
<p>But if he’ taking a language that he thinks is enjoyable, and just doesn’t like the people, he’ll at least be focusing on the studies and not who he’s sitting with.</p>
<p>I don’t think he’s referring simply to any and all black kids. There are a lot of hard-working and intelligent black kids at the school, some of whom are from wealthy families. He’s talking mainly about anyone who doesn’t really care enough about school to take a harder language and/or is disruptive or acts wildly - CSIHSIS’s interpretation is pretty much correct. There are plenty of people of other races who fulfill that description, not just at his high school but almost anywhere, miami4rmjax and TheAtlantic.</p>
<p>I don’t want this to turn into one of <em>those</em> discussions, so I’ll just leave this with the fact that he phrased it that way, not me.</p>
<p>That said, he does care about the (perceived or otherwise) ghetto-ness of the people who he thinks are likely to take Spanish, so is the consensus here that French, Italian, German, and possibly Latin are comparable enough to Spanish in difficulty that one of those would be his best options?</p>
<p>I would advise him to take Italian. It seems pretty close to Spanish and I don’t see many “ghetto kids”(CSIHSIS’s definition) taking that language.</p>
<p>I guess it isn’t too useful for business (do they actually work in Italy? jkjk) but reading some literature in it’s original Italian could be fun.</p>
jkjk) but reading some literature in it’s original Italian could be fun.</p>