If the number of people in the world who speak only their native tongue was the determinative factor in deciding what foreign language to study, there would be a whole heck of a lot fewer languages taught. If people think French is useless, then why Italian? or German? or Greek? or Portuguese? I think really the better question is, why not?
@soxmom I think my question is more, why is French taught at almost every school? German and Italian are both hard to find, and for business in central and Eastern Europe, German is quite important. Why not more, what the govt calls “critical” languages important to our nations security? I realize why at public schools the offerings may be slim, but I’m surprised at the narrow offerings in boarding schools, except for a few, the language offerings are not that impressive. My local magnet school at least includes russian, Arabic, Japanese, German, and sign language! My parents are from abroad so I speak Norwegian and Russian and have been studying German. I Figure I could pick up Spanish easily if I wanted to, and it’s obvious why that is so popular.
Mine offers a boatload, but has eliminated Arabic and Italian over the years. But to answer your question, like anything, it comes down to money. Several boarding schools have offered Russian, Japanese, and Arabic in the past, but have discontinued them as enrollment declined. The 400 student schools just never warranted adding additional languages. It’s hard to justify a teacher’s salary when there are few students to teach. I am told that Russian and Japanese were “hot” in the 80’s and then drastically cooled with the fall of the Soviet Union and the Asian economic crisis. Arabic, hot for a while, will befall the same fate.
French and German, IMO, are carryovers from the days when prep school students did their Grand Tour of Europe. Additionally, for doctoral students, it was, and may still be, a requirement to have reading knowledge of one or more of these languages in order to read scholastic materials; now most of the key works are published in English. My dad days that in his prep school days, the vast majority of students studied French or German. Unfortunately, enrollment in these languages is also diminishing, and some schools have eliminated one or both of these languages.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese are not the easiest languages for an English-speaker to learn, and high school teaches at a much slower pace than college. So after 4 years, a student really won’t have that much to show for his/her efforts.
Once again, in these countries, English is quite important. The desire to do business in Czech Rep., Slovakia, Hungary, etc., does not require a knowledge of German. I have yet to be in a central/eastern European country where the inhabitants preferred to communicate in German over English, although there may be generational differences at play.
Portuguese is another language that has been mentioned here. Yes, there are a lot of speakers of Portuguese - almost as many as German, French, and Italian combined. However, they are all concentrated in one country, with little opportunity to practice in the US. I hardly think a 14 y/o has career plans honed so sharply that s/he knows that s/he wants to do a start-up in Brazil. If a student really wants to learn Portuguese, s/he is better off taking Spanish first, which will provide a solid foundation for Portuguese.
For the pure pleasure of learning, if your child wants to learn Latin, why not? But basically Latin is a ‘dead’ language and your child will never use it after college unless she pursues classics degree. Spanish will be of great help if she gets a job and needs to communicate better with people with Latino background. Chinese will be also helpful in that sense while it may be very difficult to learn.
Both my kids had a very reasonable foundation in Spanish but chose to drop it in ninth grade. Both also had two years of Latin entering ninth. My daughter has really enjoyed focusing on the Latin and expects to do some of the advanced coursework in Vergil next year as a V Former. “Pure pleasure” is good enough for me, especially as I consider the offshoots. Given her interest in the biological sciences, I’m thinking that Latin could serve her well in college, and possibly in her career. Then again, I’ve heard the “archaeology” word a lot more this spring. She watched too much of Josh Bernstein’s “Digging for the Truth” in middle school!
German was dropped from our high school’s language offerings a couple of years ago due to lack of participation. Spanish and French are still the most “popular”. Chinese is offered beginning in middle school, but the class size dwindles pretty rapidly in high school. I think the difficulty in learning the language has a lot to do with that. I believe that it will continue to be offered since it is the “hot” language now:
http://www.cctv-america.com/2015/03/03/chinese-as-a-second-language-growing-in-popularity
Because it’s spoken in northern Africa. Because France is an awesome place for a vacation. Because people prefer not to look ridiculous ordering wine in an overpriced restaurant.
*gusmom2000
Great choice!, If your child gets Dr. Lake, it will be a blast… The Hill School has an amazing Classics Dept.
Thank you so much for all the great feedback. My son’s reason is just ‘not wanting’ to do Mandarin anymore… and I agree…being non-Chinese parent, I can’t help him with the language and it is sure very complex to learn (I have witnessed him working on all possible combinations of strokes, however he did very well and maintained A) and don’t want to force him into something complex with other advance level subjects he is planning to take. I am kind of leaning to Spanish (because of it’s usability in professional world)… but he wants to take Latin saying it will help with English and if decides to go to medical field later… choices are French, Spanish, Mandarin and Latin only.
Spanish is most useful. In some parts of the US, more Spanish is heard than English. For medical field, Spanish will be a big plus.
I just bought my linguistically-gifted daughter Rosetta Stone in Brazilian Portuguese. We have a family background, however I was not raised speaking it (assimilation was key in the 1970’s!). It bewilders me that seemingly no prep schools have Portuguese in their curriculum. But some offer Italian…in thinking about the population of Brazil vs. Italy, this is rather puzzling (and yes, I agree that Italian is a fabulously beautiful language). For school, she is sticking with Spanish, since we have many friends in MX DF and is (currently!) thinking of pursuing a career in the foreign service. My son, who shows little aptitude in foreign language, purposely picked Latin since it serves his interest in ancient history and English grammar. Per the above posts, it appears we may save a little money with him given the lack of foreign exchange programs for students taking Latin 
Excellent plan. Keep the Spanish strong and the Portuguese will come quickly after that. Most colleges offer Intensive Portuguese for those who are fluent/near fluent in Spanish. There are exchange programs out there for Portugal and Brazil. I studied Intensive Portuguese (Brazilian) and then spent two months in Portugal doing more language study. Ended up with enough fluency to interview for jobs. Good luck to your daughter!
The best answer of all is “pure pleasure” for high school language choices. First, because it’s one of the few subjects in which students have the luxury of choice, and second, because you’ll do better learning a language you enjoy. I would regard any language learned in high school to be the first language learned in a lifetime, not the only foreign language learned. By the way, if you know your school already, there’s no harm in contacting current parents or students to ask about the relative strengths of the different departments.
It pays to be realistic about your child’s chances to do very well in languages, especially when it’s a language with many heritage speakers. http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/STUDENT-SCORE-DISTRIBUTIONS-2014.pdf
More than 10,000 students took the AP Chinese exam last year. More than 7,000 earned a 5. Of those who were not heritage speakers, though (“standard group”), only 455 earned a 5.
In Latin, there are no heritage speakers. Only 866 earned a 5. That was 866/6,542 = 13.2%.
Academic boarding schools teach the classics very well. If your child manages to take Latin and Greek, he or she can earn a Classics diploma at certain schools.
While I agree with @Periwinkle that the choice should be based upon what the student wants, I would not get too caught up in the statistical analysis of AP results. Only 4% of the total AP tests are in a foreign language (of which ¾ are in Spanish), so I’m not sure that there are enough data points from which to draw reasonable conclusions.
Well, I saw a piece about the resignation of Deutsche Bank executives in the Wall Street Journal today, and thought of this thread.
Here’s one take on it: http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/6-reasons-anshu-jain-quit-deutsche-bank-115060900665_1.html
Even if English is the international language of business, if you end up leading a foreign company, you will be expected to master that language.
@catinthehat579 – This was a debate last year and there is some merit.
Here is one titled: “Let’s stop pretending that French is an important language”
I side with the author of this opinion piece:
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-we-still-need-french-2014-2
I took Latin in HS and college due to the false belief that it would distinguish me as an intellectual.
I took Latin in high school at my tiny, rural, public school following my mother’s advice: “go where the best teacher is.” Years later, I don’t regret the choice at all. I have since taught myself enough French and German to travel pretty easily in much of Europe. Next move: Spanish!
I recommend learning Spanish if you plan to live and work in the US. It is very difficult to keep a language unless you are able to hear or use it occasionally. Also, very few people can master a language to the extent they can use it in a business context.
Regarding French people not answering in English, that has not been true when I traveled there several times.
I am glad I can contribute on one thing. You will not be expected to speak a word in Korean if you end up working at a Korean company, whether the company is in Korea or in the U.S., and whether you are a staff or an executive.
But you will be expected to be fluent in English.