Which language

(26 Posts)
Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:12:15

Dd has to choose which language to study in years 7&8. The letter says they recognise that the various primary school all offer different languages to varying degrees so they will assume no knowledge

Dd started simple frenchbin nursery(la Jolie ronde) and reception. I always thought she enjoyed it and when we visited Disney Paris she kept trying to ask for things in French.

However a couple of years the school changed the system and they began to alternate French, German & Spanish one term of each

I asked dd which she wanted to do. She says def NOT French as she finds that the hardest. She enjoys Spanush the most but thinks she's better at German.

Dh says she should do German as its the main business language. Dd is more swayed by the fact there are quite a few jobs for dancers in Germany!

They can choose to take an extra language in year 9 if they want to but what she chooses now will probably end up being what she does her gcse in!

ZZZenAgain Sat 16-Mar-13 23:17:26

I think Spanish is the easiest of the 3 but if your dd enjoys German and your dh is also keen for her to do it, why not go for German? I'd take the one which has the best teacher if there is any way of finding that out.

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:21:27

Not sure how I'd find that out. The Spanish teacher runs a Spanish dance club. I think she's been to dd's junior school for some kind of session

When I was at school we had to do French. I wa going to advise her to do French but that's probably because its all I know. But I think it should be her choice.

ZZZenAgain Sat 16-Mar-13 23:26:04

I do think French is the most difficult of those 3. Do you feel you can help her with the French?

BackforGood Sat 16-Mar-13 23:27:02

My dd does French and German. She MUCH prefers German, as she says "it's logical" - follows the rules I guess.

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:27:31

Not really. I did gcse but that was a long time ago. Dh did a bit if Italian at music college.

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:28:28

Dd says she gets confused by the masculine. & feminine in French but that's also present in German too? Does dismiss has m & f?

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:28:48

Does Spanish have m&f

ZZZenAgain Sat 16-Mar-13 23:29:39

yes, it does but both Spanish and German have the advantage that they are quite phonetic, everything is pronounced.

ZZZenAgain Sat 16-Mar-13 23:31:23

la casa
il mundo

der Mann
die Frau
das Kind (neuter)

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:31:32

I think French has definitely been discounted.

Letter actually asks us as her parents to choose but I feel she should have some say in it.

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:31:58

I know French is quite difficult to sing in.

ZZZenAgain Sat 16-Mar-13 23:35:21

not easy to choose, is it? It is good that she has spent some time on each language I suppose so she does have an idea of each one. I wonder if the reason why she doesn't like French atm is also because she learnt it a while back. So she started with French and then had Spanish and German but hasn't had any French for a while?

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:49:54

I think she did a term of French last year in year 5. I lose track a bit especially as the same teacher teaches them all. It's good they have a language specialist I guess.

Picturesinthefirelight Sat 16-Mar-13 23:50:50

I do think that British children should learn a language. We are do behind the rest of Europe in that aspect.

Rowlers Sat 16-Mar-13 23:55:06

I teach languages at secondary. My advice is go with your gut feeling - you are more likely to do well if you are enjoying what you are learning AND (no offence) if you have chosen it, not been pushed in by parents.
German does get harder as you get higher up school, though as word order rules can be hard to get your head around. If DD has logical / mathematical brain, sure she'd be fine.
Please don't choose based on teacher - they may leave / may not teach her class next academic year ayway. School timetables will certainly not even have been started yet, so they won't know, my guess.

Picturesinthefirelight Sun 17-Mar-13 00:06:02

Just looked up the gcse results in the prospectus. French is the most popular language and German the least at the moment (small class size maybe?)

KatAndKit Mon 18-Mar-13 10:12:40

ignore what is useful for business or what people perceive as more difficult to learn (all three have their easy bits and hard bits). Let her choose entirely based on what she likes best. Motivation is really really important in learning a language. If she does well in one language she will have picked up crucial language learning skills that will help her to learn another foreign language later on if she wants to or needs to for work reasons. I am a language teacher and speak all three of those languages to varying degrees. French is only really the most popular still because most teachers are French specialists as that was mostly all we were offered when we were at school.

Moominmammacat Mon 18-Mar-13 12:00:54

My DSs have all done three languages ... combination of Fr, Germ, It, Spn and Latin ... and Spanish has universally been the least popular. Does she have a preference for one of the cultures? I am fairly pro German in that it is rare, smaller classes, lower offers for good unis etc. The grammar does take some organising but it is v. logical.

LadybirdsEverywhere Mon 25-Mar-13 13:52:31

I teach French but tell pupils to do the language they enjoy the most. It really doesn't matter which if the main three MFL a pupil picks. If they're academic, I tell them to do two languages. Dual linguists are rate these days.

MTSgroupie Mon 25-Mar-13 14:17:46

A GCSE in any language is pretty much useless in the real world so your DD should pick the language that interest her.which hopefully is also the language that she is good at.

I have O Level French and it just about equipped me to ask for toilets, ticket office and to order a meal smile The Germans, French and Spanish by comparison are able to discuss technical issues in fluent English.

Having a GCSE in the country that you want to work in will impress the employer.but it isn't essential.

Idratherbemuckingout Mon 25-Mar-13 15:58:23

Whatever language she learns at school will not equip her to work in that language unless she continues it to university and works abroad in immersion for some time. Do not expect her to be able to use it for much at all apart from asking for a loaf of bread or a drink in a bar.
I was absolutely horrified to look at the IGCSE paper for french that my son had to practise on as it represented the culmination of five years of work - supposedly. All I can say is what do they spend five years doing?
I am sure the old O level was a lot harder but then, memory dimmed by age!

SWandStressed Mon 25-Mar-13 16:05:10


For usefulness internationally, Spanish.

cocolocopoco Mon 25-Mar-13 16:05:43

I'd probably pick the one she has the most experience in already- give her a bit of a head start.

FWIW, I think French is more embedded in our language, somehow. And it's very similar to Spanish, which gives her a head start if she wants to learn that, and vice versa.

aliasPrickleandJones Mon 25-Mar-13 18:38:46

Do you go on holiday to any of those countries? It's a great motivator for dc to hear language spoken fluently and to have the opportunity to speak it a little (even if it's to ask for a bottle of Coke!).

I think Spanish is the most widely spoken of the three - not just Spain but also a large part of South America. It's also US's second language.

Join the discussion

Join the discussion


Register now