what language did you take in school?

[yesclassic]

Originally Posted by kid creole

I took two years of latin in high school, and 4 years of spanish. Then I took 2 semesters of spanish in college. I can speak a fair amount of Spanish thanks to my time in CA. A romance language and latin is obviously complimentary, but there's no life value in French of Italian if you are an American, save for a vacation.

The language that would be the most valuable, but probably not well taught, would be Mandarin.

I doubt it is taught poorly considering that the lowest level class at New Trier is

a level 2 which is described as college prep
Level 3 is accelerated
level 4 is honors
we are rated among the top the top schools in the country by US news http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-...chool_winnetka

its a very very good school
sorry I just freaked out a little I just like my school LOL

[kid creole]

Originally Posted by yesclassic

I doubt it is taught poorly considering that the lowest level class at New Trier is

a level 2 which is described as college prep
Level 3 is accelerated
level 4 is honors
we are rated among the top the top schools in the country by US news http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-...chool_winnetka

its a very very good school
sorry I just freaked out a little I just like my school LOL

Here is my unsolicited advice to you: Do not think for one second that anyone anywhere will care about the quality of your high school, as ranked by US News. It is something you should be proud of, because you and your classmates are what make those numbers, but it will not be of any benefit to you. Only you and what you learn will be of any benefit. If you happen to have gone to a good high school, it's probably best to keep that tucked in your pocket. When you get to college, nobody will be impressed by your test scores if you've already done it in high school. I'm speaking from experience, take my advice as you will.

With that said, we in the US are very bad at teaching Mandarin. I still think you should take it, and that there is no option that competes with it. If the teacher(s) isn't Chinese, I might consider skipping it.

[ashappar]

Originally Posted by kid creole

but there's no life value in French..

maybe, but I'm with US based company that has a manufacturing plant in Quebec. Lots of french talkin there and it helps to know it. Knowing a couple extra languages is always beneficial.

[Ariel301]

My high school only offered 'Mexican' Spanish. It was an area where Hispanics were the majority (even though my high school was all white, there was a lot of racism in that school and anyone not white left after a semester or so!) and most didn't speak English as a first language, so I pretty much grew up with the language anyway. I have since found that I can hardly communicate with anyone from Spain because their Spanish is way different than that spoken in Mexico. Like British and American English, I guess. I'm not fluent, but I do ok. I also learned a little bit of Latin and Greek on my own.

I didn't take any foreign languages in college since I passed a Spanish test and got credit for that.

I am learning Hebrew right now on my own. I tried that Rosetta Stone program and it didn't work for me. I bought a bunch of used textbooks instead, and I'm getting there slowly.

[yikesjason]

I took 3 years of Spanish during high school and didn't learn a whole lot. I learned a lot more in 2 months at the MTC for anyone who knows that that is. I really didn't become fluent until I lived in Chile for 2 years.

I went to a small high school that only offered Spanish. But they did have a video conferencing class for about 2 students that were studying Japanese.

[mistergreen]

I took English, Manderin, Latin, and a wee German (not enough to get by though).

There are lots of reasons to take a language. It doesn't have to be useful in terms of business. You might run into a french girl one day and that french class you took in high school can be very useful. And it helps make you smarter by learning another language.

Take what you want. Lots of kids are into anime these days. Japanese could be cool.

[funkyfish]

I took English, Hebrew, Ukrainian. Then when I moved to Canada since my english taking didn't do me any good I was taking ESL I wanna learn German tho just for fun of it
My last school offered French and Spanish.

[JennaH]

i took 4 college semesters of spanish fairly recently (in the last couple years). it would be super handy since i live in arizona pero no recuerdo nada :P

[Ariel301]

Originally Posted by JennaH

i took 4 college semesters of spanish fairly recently (in the last couple years). it would be super handy since i live in arizona pero no recuerdo nada :P

Hahaha I use my Spanish less in Arizona than I did in Colorado. My dad had a lot of Spanish only speaking employees and I had to do some translating for him.

[Raul-7]

4 years of Arabic and 1 year of Spanish.

[ZooTycoonMaster]

I'm in my first year of French, and my high school offers German, French, and Spanish.

[lauraleellbp]

I took 4 years of Spanish and 1 year of French in high school. They've actually been useful, seeing as I live in South Florida. I probably would have taken Latin if it had been offered, it can be a great help if going into a technical field, such as medicine.

I also took a year of American Sign Language in college. They were fascinating classes.

Took a semester of Hebrew in grad school. I was abysmal and didn't take more after that. LOL

The US school system makes a huge mistake in that most schools don't start teaching 2nd languages soon enough. Children are incredibly more adept at picking up new languages than the vast majority of adults. My husband grew up in Austria and was fluent in 3 languages by the time he moved to the USA when he was 13.

[lhscouchmonster]

spanish.

havent used it since

[Riiz]

I had 3 years of spanish, was offered German, French and Spanish. But all the spanish I know, I learned from my wife, friends and her side of the family. Those 3 years of spanish were really just filling, towards a highschool diploma.

[RianS]

Lol to the earlier post about taking Mandarin. Come to Hawaii seems like all the teachers at the schools are really good at it (fluent and they look like their from). Anyways i took Japanese I a billion times and finally finished with Japanese III but do i know anything? No... -___-