Hellobee Boards

French. I married a Frenchman and currently work as a translator. All of my previous jobs have been for French or Swiss companies that required French to be spoken, and it was even the working language for one of them, so yes, it was exceedingly helpful. I don't think studying language is ever a waste. Even if you don't use it, it will open you up to another culture and give you some understanding of other people.

@Corduroy: I took muchos anos of espanol and I couldn't understand an authentic accent to save my life or get into a respectable level of college placement. Pretty much anyone can teach it in middle school. @mrbee: I would love for LO to learn Japanese. I need a translator for future trips.

I learned Cantonese at home and took French up to a highschool level. I can order in a Chinese restaurant but that's about it. Most people here speak mandarin so I can't communicate with them. I've been using a bit of French with my husband if we are trying to be secretive about something we don't want the kids to know about. I think Spanish would have been much more useful in America and I'll encourage my LOs to study Spanish in school.

Spanish, 4 years in HS, and I speak it every single day working at a children's hospital in California! My mom is a Spanish teacher but she didn't teach it to us:(

I studied to learn a couple of languages, both in school and on my own, but I never really got fluent enough to say I know them.

Filipino: I took classes in Jr. high school. It was really beneficial because although I am Filipino and my parents spoke to me in Tagalog, I had no other practice outside the home. It really gave me confidence and I felt like it connected me to my roots.

Spanish: I took classes in high school and college. I grew up in SoCal, so it's an essential! But honestly, I've gotten no practice and have since lost my knowledge almost entirely.

Korean: I lived there as a teacher for a year and continued teaching online (for the same district) for 6 years after. I never took any formal classes, but I can read without actually knowing what the words mean. My knowledge is limited to a few basic phrases and songs. I like K-drama, so I find it's beneficial.

Swedish: I took some classes and I'm supposedly at an elementary level. But I highly doubt it. It's what my tests show, but written Swedish is very different from spoken Swedish and I'm finding it very difficult to learn. I live here, so it's beneficial. But outside of Sweden, it's not so useful. But now that DD speaks, it's given me more incentive to learn.

French - I took it through university. It's been useful for travel, plus I work for the federal government and sometimes our meetings are in French.

I took French; totally useless haha. I wish I took Spanish!

Latin, Spanish, French, Portuguese (and Xhosa, too). I have used Spanish a lot while traveling and living in a place with a large Spanish-speaking population, it's always nice to know it. I'm pretty decent for an non-native speaker. French I understand more than I speak, and I've actually used some Portuguese. I enjoy learning and speaking different languages.

@looch: I think your husband's case is different, since there is an obvious use for it. I found her comment refreshing because it seems like everyone I know with kids is always talking about how they want their kids to learn this language or that one, but with no real reason why ("because it might be useful one day" is the main one I hear). As someone who went through an actual immersion program and found it sort of useless, I have always wondered if I should have tried harder to use it or something. I don't have a single family member who speaks French though, so the fact that my family chose to put me in French immersion is perplexing.

@looch: You are probably right about this (for many things, not just languages!).

I studied Latin from 6th-11th grade, which was incredibly useful both for improving my understanding of English grammar concepts and for making it easier for me to learn Romance languages. From 12th grade on, I've taken between 2 years and 1 semester of a BUNCH of other Romance languages--Italian, Portuguese, French, and Spanish, in that order. I can muddle my way through those enough to get myself around in places where those are spoken, and am much better able to read than speak (which is more useful for me professionally...) but I wish I'd stuck with one longer rather than swithcing around. I started w Italian in high school/college, and took Portuguese because I studied abroad in Brazil, but I wish I had just focused on French because it would be much more useful for my profession, or Spanish becuase I think it's much more prevalent in the US. I really wish I spoke any of them enough to expose lo to them (aside from counting) since it is SO much easier to learn a language in the early years. I regret not being able to speak any other language to her

I took Spanish in grades 1-8, Latin from 9-12 and 2 years of Spanish in college. I did a study abroad in Costa Rica, so the Spanish definitely helped then. I could carry out basic conversations, thought my grammar was horrendous. But I could get around and say what I needed to say.

Since then it sometimes helps when traveling and random times throughout the year. I can generally read things pretty well in Spanish, which is sometimes helpful at work, but I still need a translator to speak to people.

Latin helped with spelling, vocab and medical terms but I think I could have gotten most of that in the first year, so I wish I'd gone back to Spanish or learned another language the other 3 years in high school. It wasn't an option, but Arabic would have been super useful.