Every now and then I see a thread on a homeschool forum about choosing which foreign language to study. It seems to be a difficult choice for many moms. I don’t think the decision is as hard as many make it. Here are some ways to choose.
1. Choose a language that is spoken where you live.
I admit that the foreign language choice was made for us by our circumstances. Sprite grew up in China where she was surrounded by a second language and had a perfect opportunity to learn Mandarin naturally.
Why choose a language that is spoken where you live?
- You have more exposure and chance to practice.
- It’s practical, and you’ll use it.
- It will be easier to find a native language tutor.
2. Choose a language that is profitable for business.
Although English is still the international language of business, other languages are growing in business use: Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, and Arabic. Laying a foundation for a business language may be helpful for future careers. (But see my bottom line below.)
3. Choose a language that you have curriculum for.
This is a purely utilitarian choice, but money is a factor in real life. If you have an excellent French curriculum sitting on the shelf, I think your children should study French. That decision is made easily by the resources you have.
4. Choose a language that your child shows interest in.
If your child has been enamored by Spanish from preschool days of watching Dora the Explorer, let him study Spanish. If she has been dreaming of the Great Wall and pandas for years, let her study Mandarin.
Learning a foreign language is not easy. Capitalize on natural interests to motivate when it gets tough.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what language you choose. Just choose one and give your child the richest possible experience with it.
You don’t know what the future will hold. Will your child go into business or the arts? Will your child live abroad or in small town USA? There is no way to know, so you can’t base your choice of foreign language solely on those types of considerations.
Stop agonizing over the decision. Don’t think that you are going to make the “wrong” foreign language decision. You really can’t because learning any foreign language teaches skills that carry over into the learning of any other foreign language. This has been proven by educational research. Have you ever been wowed by someone who knows three, four, or maybe even five different languages? Those people have a great capacity for language because each new language adds to their ability to quickly analyze and appropriate new language forms.
I studied French in high school and college. It seemingly was no help to me in “real life,” especially as I struggled to learn Mandarin in China. But wait. Learning French did help me. It taught me grammatical concepts that I could transfer to Chinese. It taught me to accept the answer “that’s just the way it is in this language” when rules seemed strange. (It also taught me to appreciate the “easy” parts of Chinese grammar — Chinese verbs don’t conjugate and the nouns have no gender.)
No learning is ever wasted. It merely adds to your repertoire of knowledge and makes future learning a bit easier. So don’t stress about the choice of foreign language for your child. Whatever you choose will be the right choice.
Great tips! I need to get off my butt and decide on a language and what program for my kids soon.
I completely agree that even though a prior language proficiency doesn’t immediately seem complementary to a new foreign language acquisition the rudiments or process involved in acquiring it can be the same. I took Spanish and French in HS/College which have the same root and later started learning Chinese. As you say, the prior language learning helped me focus on the right parts and made a seemingly unmanageable language a little more accessible and compartmentalized so I could analyze better. Granted, that may not be the best way to learn a language but as a 20 year old with less of the sponge-like brain of a toddler it was working well for me.
Great advice! Two of my boys want to learn SEVERAL languages, and after starting Latin last year (which for me is more about grammar and vocab for English), we’re jumping into French — because that’s the foreign language Mommy’s most familiar with! While it would be much more practical to learn Spanish (we’re in California), I don’t know Spanish. But I do have a good friend whose a native French speaker! Plus, my hubby’s determined to have one of our boys enter the wine-making business, which would certainly make French useful. 😉 Also, I think of future missions opportunities, and I think modern Europe is the next missionary frontier…!
Do you have some suggestions on beginning Mandarin language lessons that you have liked? Moving to China in the future is a fair probability for our family. Thanks!
i.e. a language curriculum
This is why we love you, Jimmie… you keep it simple and state the most positive outlook. Thanks for the tips. 😉
My ds and I just had the conversation this summer regarding a foreign language. He has a long list of languages he’d like to learn. LOL He’s decided to begin with Latin. His reasoning is; it’s the base of other languages, including English, and it will make learning other languages easier; Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian. The Latin will also assist with SAT vocab. I was surprised he chose this and put so much thought into it. I’m hoping to glean some foreign words and phrases in the process. =)
Jimmie,
I’m one of those who is constantly asking this question of my family because we haven’t started our foreign language study yet (hope to in January 2012) and I don’t want to “make a mistake.” With a few family members who have traveled and worked abroad, I figured they would be able to give me the best suggestions. I like your points, especially since none of us know what the future holds and you’re right – “no learning is ever wasted.”
This is really helpful and practical. Our German skills are so slow, slow, slow in developing. I remind myself often of something you wrote awhile back about it being a humbling experience to learn a language. I sound like a babbling toddler so far. It is very humbling!
My husband requested that we learn Spanish in the long term. But I know the German won’t be wasted, as you said. Being overseas really opened all our eyes to why it’s useful to know another language.
I am so glad that you are looking for opportunities for Sprite to continue speaking Mandarin. Will it be difficult in TN? I know that learning Korean and finding tutors is more readily available on the West Coast than in Texas where Spanish prevails.
Great post, Jimmie. Definitely worth pinning!
I definitely agree with these. Learning a foreign language is hard so a motivation to learn a certain language is a big plus. Also, it’s pretty hard (I won’t say impossible) to really learn a language unless you use it. I studied French too for like 8 years and got all As, but I’m not sure I could ever really speak it. Real language conversation is not the same as book exercises.
So, maybe the point of that is to have realistic expectations when learning a language. You can learn to read and write but don’t expect to show up in another country and talk like anyone there. And if your goal is to be able to converse, then you NEED someone to talk to. Choose a language where you’ll have someone to talk with.
But it’s true that any language learning helps further language learning. I’m on my 6th language. No, I’m not a language whiz. I don’t speak any really fluently. But languages intertwine and borrow. They all have similar elements.
Oh! May I advertise here and say my husband teaches French and German classes online at Currclick.com! 🙂 He also has a FREE monthly language club if you want to try out different languages. The next one is this coming Tuesday (July 12th). I think they will be doing Urdu and hopefully at the meeting will be a 13? year old boy from Pakistan.
You gave some good advice, but I would also like to point out something. You said “There is no way to know…” That would be true. However, you should point out that when you are a Christian, you have the ready guidance of One who does know the path ahead and if we will pray, spend time with Him and trust His leading, He will show us the right path/curriculum/language to study. My 16 yr old daughter just made the comment the other about how it must be hard for people to make these big decisions if they aren’t Christians-and I agree-very stressful.
Ok — here goes. I have two sitting on the shelf… Spanish and Latin. What do you think? 😉
My strongest motivation would be your first point – unless you use the language you loose it. Hearing it, using it (not matter how poorly) and practicing it is authentic for young children. Your other points are so relevant and practical!
I agree–which language you choose is less important than making sure your child is enthusiastic about it. I speak French, but my kids haven’t shown much interest in French yet. On the other hand, they have friends who speak German, so they feel motivated to learn German, and learning it seems relevant to them. I hope they’ll learn French or another language in the future, but I’m happy to let them choose the one that they like best!
Great tips! We chose Spanish since it seems to be the fastest growing language in the United States. I hope we can try a few more too. I got a CD for the computer that has 101 languages. That could keep us busy. lol!!
~Lynn
i am a new follower of your site. thanks so much for this post! i love it. it is like an answer to my prayer because this is the question on my mind lately. actually, i am a chinese by blood, and studied mandarin when i was in elementary to high school. though i am sturggling with teaching my kids mandarin now since i dont have any curriculum at hand and dont know how i should proceed teaching… do you have any curriculum you can recommend for mandarin learning?
hope to hear from you. 🙂
We used Chinese Made Easier. It’s a great curriculum.
Thanks for another great post! I love everything you write! 🙂 We are now working on our third country/language/culture and I agree with you that learning one foreign language helps with other foreign languages. And yes, sometimes languages are weird (especially English) and there are things you just “have to know”!
I absolutely agree. We currently live in Germany and it’s so much easier to teach a language we hear on a daily basis. Indy has picked up a lot (especially colloquialisms) by just being out and about. We’re studying Latin too, which he loves. He gets a weird sort of joy out of find words in English and German that are either Latin or have obvious Latin roots.
I added you to my hs blog blogroll today!
I love this post. Great points to consider and a good reminder to relax about some aspects of the decision. My son is starting to almost teach himself Spanish and sign language due to his interests in them. 🙂 I just have to keep up in terms of supplying resources!
Yes! I totally agree. Great thoughts.