which language to take?

<p>so next year i am going to choate and i will be taking spanish. i also take russian now but have to drop it since choate doesnt have russian anymore. i want to take up another language in its place. should i do chinese or latin? any advantages/disadvantages of each? thanks!</p>

<p>The obvious advantage of Chinese is that it's the most spoken modern language, and the language of what will soon be the most powerful country in the world. It will also, however, be extremely difficult to learn, and to the Chinese you'll always be a foreigner (unless you look Asian, I guess), and as for job opportunities you'll always be competing with the kid who grew up in Chinatown and speaks perfect English and Chinese. Latin is a useful base for learning all the romance languages, so if you choose to study that you'll have a lot more ease with French, Spanish, Italian, etc., and you'll get to read great Latin texts. But it's also a dead language, and it might be more useful to learn a language that is still spoken today. So I guess it's up to you. Good luck!</p>

<p>Does anyone know about German or Japanese, specifically at SPS?</p>

<p>thnanks! thats some good points.</p>

<p>I'd go with Latin. I know several businessman who picked up enough Chinese as adults to get by in their careers. Latin can help you right away on both SAT's and the sciences.</p>

<p>Latin will aid you the entire Liberal Arts spectrum.</p>

<p>Are you sure you can take 2 languages at Choate? If yes, take a year or 2 of Latin. Chinese is intense, and you may find it too difficult if you are carrying a heavy load of academics. It requires new learning at every level, and westerners don't have a frame of reference for most of it. Parts of Latin will be intuitive because of your Spanish. Many people advocate Latin for vocabulary. However, much of your Spanish will already contain these same roots. I think the advantage of Latin (for someone advanced in Spanish) is that you will discover the underlying structure of romance grammar, something that isn't really taught anymore. You will also have the opportunity to read Roman literature and poetry which will give you glimpses into their ancient world. </p>

<p>If you were only taking one language, I would advocate for Chinese over Latin.</p>

<p>as a chinese, I would say, chinese at first would be difficult for americans, since we do not see any "grammar" or "rule" in the language!</p>

<p>yo learning chinese is hard but its interesting and much more useful than learning latin cus u wont speak latin and isure it will help u with SAT words but how long will u study/take the SAT? 2 years?</p>

<p>but if u study chinese, you immeditaely have an advantage by being conversational/fluent in the world's 2 most spoken languages, englihs AND chinese. how great is that? and u cud use this for ur lifetime, not just two years</p>

<p>I'm reading this thread with interest because my son was trying to decide between Chinese and Latin. His solution: take Latin every school year and take Chinese every summer for the next four years. We'll see how it goes.</p>

<p>I think Latin might also work well as a self-taught course. A friend of mine who homeschools had all (7!) of her children use the Ecce Romani series. I have been encouraging my own son to do this, but he has no interest. He will be studying Arabic this summer.</p>

<p>If one's primary goal for Chinese is fluency only, I highly recommend the Rosetta Stone program as an independent study tool. It's expensive, but very effective. You can go to their website and try a demo to see what it's like. I have used the French version with my children, with plenty of outside work on grammar, with great effect. Many larger library systems offer an online version for their patrons as well.</p>

<p>Soccerlife1229, my S is also going to Choate next year, and I recently posted a very similar question on the college admission forum, because he was having difficulty deciding between Spanish, Chinese and Latin just like you. My question was more geared for what would be recommended for college, 4 years in a single language, or a couple of years in a few languages. It seems responses were that its better to reach a 4 year proficiency in one language; so if you're taking a few of them, you may want to plan on reaching a certain level of mastery in one. Maybe you'll be in Spanish with my S!!</p>

<p>Chinese would be better, people really dont use latin anymore and unless ur gonna be working with ancient stuff u really wouldnt need it</p>

<p>My son did Spanish in 4-6 grade and change to Latin in 7th till now 9th and he loves it! He loves history and this is one of the reason he want to study Latin. Also, his guidance told him, Latin is very useful if you want to study medical or law (although he is not showing any interest about study medical or law). Latin also helps a lot when you do SAT verbal test.<br>
Yes, Latin is a 'deadmen language', Chinese is getting pupolar and useful. Chinese is much more difficult, but I think it depends on how they teach it.</p>

<p>thanks for all of the responses! you can take 2 languages at choate. you can have an optional 6th course so this would be it. i would plan on taking it all four years.</p>

<p>For some students, Latin becomes boring after a few years. This is because your time is spent reading and translating. In living languages, there are so many opportunities to speak, read, travel, etc. Choate has a great travel abroad program that is included in the tuition, but I doubt that this program includes Latin students. Something to consider...</p>

<p>Would your art requirements become 7th courses? This kind of academic load may work for you your first 2 years, but you may find it difficult to carry later, especially if you are on varsity sports and taking all honors and APs.</p>

<p>Latin by far.
It is the basis for all European languages. It will give you a BIG advantage on the SATs (and that really is the name of the game).</p>

<p>If you want to learn Chinese, wait until College (once you get in which Latin will help).</p>

<p>If you are interested in medicine, latin is still almost required (almost = not required, but definately helps)</p>

<p>But Chinese will also help you get in. It'll really impress admissions officers, I mean, how many non-Chinese people speak Chinese? It'll give you a strong edge, and not only for college but for future jobs as well. Latin might help you do well on one portion of the SATs, but how many people will already do really well on that same part? I think Chinese would be better (but I might be biased because that's what I'm going to be taking next year at Andover).</p>

<p>my arts would be in my original 5 classes for the term where i dont take history.</p>