GF’s son is in 8th grade and will be starting high school next year.
He needs to choose a 2nd language to study in high school.

His choices are Japanese, Spanish and French.

He is Asian, an excellent student and has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA all through his schooling to date.

He is fluent in English, and speaks Chinese very well.

He enjoys math and science, and is looking forward to attending college in the future.

I don’t know where his life journey will lead him. If he continues his academic excellence, he could have a pretty bright future.
The medical field doesn’t interest him (at this time, anyway), but like a lot of kids, he likes computers.

A business position, management, computer sciences, who know.

I have a lot of respect for the members here, and I would really appreciate your opinions and insight.

What language would you recommend this young man to study in high school?

Again, the choices are Japanese, Spanish and French.

Thank you very much!

Well I had French, biggest waste of time I ever saw.

Personally, due to the local situation and my life experience I would do Spanish if I had a do over. But that might not apply to him.

Of those, I would choose Spanish. It's prevalence in this country will only grow, and, assuming he chooses a tech field, that, going forward, will likely be dominated by the two languages he already speaks


The only reason I would choose the other two over Spanish is if he wants to move to France or Japan

FYI, my oldest son is a freshman in high school and is taking Russian, which I also see returning to relevance in the future. He took Spanish in 8th grade and hope to take 2 years or mandarin before he finishes high school

Spanish. I wish I'd have taken it instead of Latin. We spend half of the year in Mexico and it's darn tuff to learn with all of this gray hair.
Mike

Does he also read Chinese? Almost the same characters for Japanese, and it would give him a huge advantage. He could probably ace the JLPT in a couple years (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Plus the tie-in with computer gaming, anime, manga. Almost a guaranteed career path.

Spanish seems the most practical. I wish I learned when I was younger and had the energy.

SPANISH. Here in South Florida you practically need to know it to get a job, but also in many southern places in the US you almost have to know it.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Does he also read Chinese? Almost the same characters for Japanese, and it would give him a huge advantage. He could probably ace the JLPT in a couple years (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Plus the tie-in with computer gaming, anime, manga. Almost a guaranteed career path.

He has had some formal training in Chinese, including reading and writing the language.

However, I'm not sure how competent he is with the reading and writing part. It seems like a difficult language to master.

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Does he also read Chinese? Almost the same characters for Japanese, and it would give him a huge advantage. He could probably ace the JLPT in a couple years (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Plus the tie-in with computer gaming, anime, manga. Almost a guaranteed career path.

He has had some formal training in Chinese, including reading and writing the language.

However, I'm not sure how competent he is with the reading and writing part. It seems like a difficult language to master.

I see. Well, then it's more a matter of how much backround he has with kanji writing. That's what most people (including myself) consider the biggest stumbling block to learning Japanese. In truth, some aspects are relatively easy; Japanese grammar is surprisingly straighforward, consistency and relatively few exceptions. Syntax (sentence structure) is also simple and consistent (just a different order than European systems). I'd be sailing if I had a better grasp of the writing.

Of those three, Spanish by a mile. He already speaks Chinese, learn Spanish, and then study global supply chain in a business school. With English, Chinese, and Spanish, he will be unstoppable.

I studied French. I clearly needed better guidance counselors.

I think it would depend on what class the cute girls are taking. Honestly, I feel he could learn Spanish anytime he wanted since he is already bilingual. I think he might enjoy french or Japanese more? Damn, Japanese in HS? sounds tempting.

Unless the Japanese and French dramatically ramp up their reproductive rates, Spanish will be the most useful.

Spanish will be most useful going forward. I studied French and then Italian because girls.

This is what I was hoping for, a lot of opinions based on experience.

Keep 'em coming and thank you very much!
I will let you know what the decision is.

Spanish seems to be leading the consensus thus far.

Spanish speaking Central and South America will be much more economically relevant in the near future than French speaking Africa.

Of the three: Spanish.

But for his career future, allow me to give you my unsolicited perspective.

Spanish is useful but since he can speak Chinese, I would recommend he pursue that separately. Compare the amount of business the US does between Mexico and China. While Mexico has some manufacturing, a whole lot more is in China.

Chinese is a difficult language to learn but shince he's already got a start then he's got a leg up. Imagine working for a company who does business in China and being able to say, "Yes, I am fluent in Chinese."

I'm sure there are other Latin American countries with manufacturing but, no offense to anyone, the social and political instability in Latin American countries are a huge risk.

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:
GF’s son is in 8th grade and will be starting high school next year.
He needs to choose a 2nd language to study in high school.

His choices are Japanese, Spanish and French.

Does he read and write Mandarin? Assuming he speaks Mandarin and not one of the other dialects.

China is and will be a major world player for a very long time. If he reads and writes Chinese, it would give him a lot more opportunities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong. Those countries have a lot of impact on the world.

Besides, the Chinese will run this country in 30-50 years. There are Chinese in every state and city across the U.S. and they are starting to enter into politics. High academic achievements couple that with wealth and you got a take over.

Leverage the Chinese language skills, Spanish doesn't seem like a business language.

I'd say Spanish. I took 5 years in middle and high school. Somewhere along the lines, I picked up a Spanish (as opposed to Latin American) accent. I had someone who's from Spain tell me a few weeks ago, "You have a perfect Castillan accent." (As in, I sounded like someone from Madrid rather than, say, Barcelona or the south of Spain.)

That said, I'm also trying to learn French, Italian (i know some phrases), and Russian.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Leverage the Chinese language skills, Spanish doesn't seem like a business language.

Business language, you say?

My choices in high school were Spanish and French. I chose French because "business language". Also, there was really nothing about the Spanish culture or language (either real Spanish or Mexican) that I found appealing.

Since Mrs.BurtonRW and I started going to Costa Rica on a regular basis, I've come to regret that decision. Good thing Spanish is relatively easy to pick up - especially in an immersion environment. It's the nouns that always trip me up translating between the two.

In GF's son's case, I would push Spanish. Spanish is obvious for dealing with the Spanish-speaking population here and he doesn't yet have a good base in the latin/romance languages.

-Rob