quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
Our district has immersion classes, but they are all day, IIRC. The immersion classes themselves are limited in capacity. In the past our district has indicated their disdain for home schooling students. They act as if we are hurting them in some way. Perhaps in terms of numbers, but we pay full school taxes and get nothing back for our kids. They won't even let us borrow textbooks. It's not a tremendous loss, given their State academic ratings were generally in the "C" range before the State removed letter grades from schools this year.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Duolingo is useful. I also suggest getting tutors who were teachers in the languages, if possible.

(IOW, get someone who can teach Spanish/German/etc, formally. More than just immersion, they can go through a normal youth education in that language, and learn subjects/predicates/etc.)

Now, at the risk of sounding rather politically incorrect...

Spanish is useful, if you're planning a life of dealing with laborers. Otherwise, frankly, every educated person in a Spanish-speaking country, by the time they grow up, will speak very fluent English.

Even in Europe, for the most part, English is becoming the contract and business language, as its simpler than getting a contract in German and French to mean the same thing.

HOWEVER, if the kids look Germanic, and have a Germanic last name, there will be an element in Germanic countries which will expect them to speak German - same in Italy, and probably France.

I think, once they grow up, there will be a lot of opportunity in Russia, and it's a language which is very complicated, and must be spoken perfectly, to be comprehensible.

China will either have imploded, or be doing exceptionally well - but there is a strong chance of implosion, IMO.

Japan will be all but died out*. Either they will pull off their attempt at automating everything, to try to keep their economy going, or they will be floundering.

*The US and Europe will be in similarly bad shape. No idea what the US will be like once it's no longer a WASP nation...

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
All of the above; immersion is the key. Living in the countries seemed to work wonderfully well. In Spain we had a couple of nuns who actually volunteered to come to our house and tutor us (in exchange for English lessons!), which was tremendously helpful with the local dialect, of which there are many, and we became close friends; they came every week, and we had lessons and then dinner together. We were actually invited to a magnificent dinner in the convent when the Mother Superior paid a visit (more her honor than ours I expect), and I was told later I was the first male to be invited since the 12th century (a closed Order, and we're not Catholic). We never found out who they had to ask. We made a couple of guided pilgrimages to Lourdes with a really hilarious little Spanish priest who spoke at least ten languages fluently, and became a closer part of the community. I hope your children get a chance to travel and use their gift as my daughter did. Yo soy Zaragozano.