How did you decide what foreign language to teach?

Can’t wait to here what others say.  Both of our girls are Chinese so Mandarin make so much sense as far as heritage goes, but living in the US Spanish would be very useful.  Our girls are 4.5 and 5.5 so I better start figuring out what and how we will do it pretty soon.  ~April

We picked German because my dh learned some when he lived in Germany, and there is some German community where we live.  But it was a hard choice.  I’m in Canada, so French is an official language.  There are many Spanish speaking people in our church… so that was considered (and is useful in the States…)

As I said, we picked German – partly because my husband said he would help.  But I’m really struggling with it.  If we had picked French, there would be so many more resources (there are a few French books in every library here – french on many of our movie DVD’s, etc…)

We are also doing ASL, which I think will be quite useful.

For us:

Modern Hebrew- both started at age 6- my children are Jewish, we’re a Messianic Jewish family and we use Hebrew at synagogue and the children will use it in their B’nei Mitzvah ceremonies. I expect both to travel to Israel in their young adult years with our synagogue, which is active there, so they need to be able to communicate.

Latin- both start age 11-for critical thinking; is the foundation of all other romance languages, so they can be more easily picked up if so desired later for practical purposes; improves English language skills; to be able to translate the classics (and all the other reasons Bookworm has given in past posts!).

Biblical Greek – son start at 9th gr.- for New Covenant studies so as not to rely on others; is easier to do after Latin, since Latin borrowed from Greek.

Biblical Hebrew- both, start in 9th; to read the Tanakh(OT) in the Hebrew. Is relatively easy after doing Modern Hebrew, since there are not many differences between the two.

So the reasons are based on religion and religious studies/faith deepening, a connection to a specific country other than the US and for the improvement of the mind.

HTH,

Rachel

We might have several good choices with good resources – but I feel like we aren’t getting anywhere with German.  We started 3 years ago… and I hardly know any and same with my kids…  they can count to 10, kinow their colours, have a few phrases….   and about the same with me.  My husband had said he would help teach them, but hasn’t really.

French I could have done a little better with, as I took it for 6 years in school.  I don’t like it much, but it would sure be easier for me.

I have never done that well with languages… I have always been interested in them – but just don’t seem to learn them well.  

ASL I did as a night school course for a couple of years and so I know some of it… surely not fluent.

I had originally hoped to start German in Grade 1 (and before with exposure), possibly French in Grade 4, Latin in Grade 7, and possibly (if interested) another language in Grade 10….    

But – German just isn’t getting anywhere, and I think adding in French would just mess it up…..  although I’ve wondered if we should just switch to French.

@suzukimom- my vote is you switch to French. If my husband says he’s going to help with something in schooling and that’s really the main reason why I’m doing it, otherwise I wouldn’t be and he doesn’t come through within a reasonable amount of time (determined by me, since I’m the main teacher) then that subject gets changed to what works for my schedule.

With ya’ll living there in Canada, it makes so much sense to have French, then Latin.

We are doing French because we are living in France right now and preparing to move to French speaking West Africa.

My suggestion is (assuming you really want your children to be able to speak the language, and not simply understand it), is to choose something either that you speak (even if only a bit) or you know someone locally who speaks it who is willing to help you. We are finding that conversational practice is absolutely essential to the language learning process. Without you may learn to read and understand, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into speaking. French was a really obvious choice for our family (I also had French in HS so we may have done it anyway even if we hadn’t been moving to a French speaking country), but if I was in a position of having to choose between several languages of interest, I would choose the one that I thought we’d be able to get regular conversation practice in. I also think that learning ANY foreign language now will make it easier to try and learn another one down the road if your kids find they have interest or need to do so later in life.

We will probably do Latin eventually too – probably in the middle grade years (starting around 5th or so). That’s a long way off for us though – my oldest is only in 1st right now.

Blessings,

Jen