What second languages do native english speakers have to learn in school?

[Plan Austral]

That, and:

Do native english speakers find it useful/necessary to learn a second language or not?
Do you think that it should be mandatory (to learn a second language) or not?


What second language would you find useful according to your geographical situation?
For example : I suppose americans would find spanish quite useful, and britons would find german or french useful.



Discuss.

[Asher]

I was forced to take French as a wee lad when I lived in Canada, and I took 2 years of Spanish when I lived in California.

It's no longer mandatory to learn French in Alberta, though (thank God ).

No second language is useful where I live. Only like 0.5% of the population is natively French. By far the next most popular languages other than English are some Chinese dialects...

I'm of the opinion that it's useless for me to learn a second language. I didn't find it challenging, but they started teaching me French at a very young age...

[Shi Huangdi]

I had to choose between Latin, French, Spanish, and Chinese. I chose Latin, because the Latin teacher didn't make us do any work and gave us all As.

[Timexwatch]

I had to choose between Spanish and French. I took French and at one point was proficient enough to pick up women in Spain

In the U.S., I suppose that Spanish would be the most useful, followed by French and whatever is predominant where you live. In D.C., it would probably be good to speak some form of Somali or Etheopian on top of Spanish...

[Apocalypse]

I had a choice between Latin, Spanish, and French. I choose Latin because it might help with some vocabulary, but mainly because I liked Roman history. A second language really isn't that useful. The Spanish taught in my school isn't the same spanish that many people in my area speak.

[RedFred]

A second language is manditory in BC, but it doesn't have to be French. Nevertheless, French remains the most popular optional language. Total French immersion schools have a pretty good following.

French is not a total waste of time. It gives you more options for employment, particularly with the Federal Gov't. Also there have been a few times when I found it handy to have some basic communication skills especially when I am travelling.

[Asher]

I have major problems working for the federal government in general, so that's cool by me.

[RedFred]

Asher, I came close once. Did some interviews and it looked like they wanted me. Luckily a private industry job came by just in time.

[Boris Godunov]

I was required to take either French or Spanish throughout middle school and high school. I chose French, and got decent at it. In college I chose to just take a proficiency test and then only had to do 1 semester of intermediate French (as opposed to the normal 3-semester language requirement) and get it done with. However, I now wish I had instead taken 3 semesters of German, as it would have helped me tremendously with singing lieder.

I think having a second language is cool.

[Zopperoni]

Re: What second languages do native english speakers have to learn in school?

Originally posted by Plan Austral
Do native english speakers find it useful/necessary to learn a second language or not?

I'm not a native English speaker, but generally I've found that I improved my Dutch through other languages.

On the mandatory/optional-issue, at my middle school, Dutch was compulsory for six years, English for four years, French for four years, German for three years, Latin for four years, and Ancient Greek for three years.
Of the last five, you had to do at least two languages (one classic and one modern language) for an additional two years (I picked Latin and English).

[Plan Austral]

Originally posted by RedFred
A second language is manditory in BC, but it doesn't have to be French. Nevertheless, French remains the most popular optional language. Total French immersion schools have a pretty good following.

French is not a total waste of time. It gives you more options for employment, particularly with the Federal Gov't. Also there have been a few times when I found it handy to have some basic communication skills especially when I am travelling.

What is a total french immersion school?
Is it bilingual with english and french, or only french?


I suppose it must be something particularly canadian.

[Asher]

French immersion is surprisingly common even where I live in Calgary. Lots of parents believe being fluently bilingual is a vital skill for their children and helps them learn better in general.

In the French Immersion schools here, all courses except English are taught in French.

[Inverse Icarus]

Spanish / German

[loinburger]

I had to choose between French, Spanish, and German. At first I took French because the Spanish teacher was a moron. I didn't like French, so after a year I took German. I hated German (why the hell do you need three genders for nouns???), so after a semester I went back to French and finished up another year as a sophomore in high school. My university required two years of foreign language to graduate (damned liberal arts colleges), so after going four or five years without taking any foreign language I suddenly had to pass a semester of French in order to graduate. I made it through on charm alone.

I'd like to be able to speak Spanish, but I'm not enough of a glutton for punishment to actually try to learn. Not that I have much occasion to speak Spanish, but it would be nice to know in case I ever decided to go south of the border for whatever reason.

Mandatory? Nah, I hate that word. My first reaction to everything "mandatory" is to try to figure out how to avoid it.

[DanS]

Like many here, the choices in high school (nothing even offered before 9th grade!!), was Spanish, French and Latin. We only had 2 years mandatory. I took 2 years French, 1 Latin.

Realistically speaking, it is not that important to have a second language--in the US at least. That said, you could use Spanish and Arabic in DC. Also, knowing Spanish might help you get a good job with a multinational. Online, it would be great to know any number of different languages.