What languages are offered by your school district?

[jcraig10]

Spanish, French & German. only offered in HS 9-12. 2 years required unless in vo-tech program

[robertpolyglot]

From what I can see, Italian is an East Coast offering. Maybe, only maybe, it is an offering at an upscale, monied district around LA or SF, but I'm not sure.

At any rate, as I said earlier, I took French and loved it. I got into a fight with my Dad because he wanted me to take Latin. All the geeks took Latin. Regardless, the only thing I've been able to do with foreign languages is travel, so at least I took one I really enjoyed and got 3 years of straight As.

[Lucario]

In my kids' district, all kids get Spanish starting in second grade. By fourth, Mandarin is offered. In middle school, kids can take Mandarin, German, French, Latin or Spanish, and that is how it is through high school. There is a debate raging now about adding Hindi to the mix.

[Ceece]

Spanish, German, French, Japanese and American Sign Language. Except for the ASL, which only offers a 2 year program, you can take 4 years worth of all the languages up to AP/Honors.

I believe the district played around with Latin several years ago but there wasn't enough interest. One of our elementary schools hosts a dual immersion program in Spanish and English.

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by robertpolyglot

From what I can see, Italian is an East Coast offering. Maybe, only maybe, it is an offering at an upscale, monied district around LA or SF, but I'm not sure.

I graduated high school in '08 and we had Spanish, Italian, French and Latin. The Youngstown, OHio, area is overwhelmingly Italian in heritage.

Looks like my district was unique in offering Italian and not German.

[tvdxer]

The problem with Italian is that Spanish and Italian are so similar. Although foreign language classes encompass much more than vocabulary and grammar (e.g. the culture associated with the language), courses and student interest are limited, so Spanish and a mutually unintelligible or not closely related language, such as French or German, usually wins out.

Even the rationale behind the replacement of my district's French program with a German program (many years ago) was that they were closely related (though mutually unintelligible).