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My daughter's public middle school offered Japanese as a foreign language option. She took it all three years and has now been placed in Japanese 2 for her freshman year at high school. The school offers it all through high school. She loves this class and has received all As. The high school counselor we met with suggested that she switch to a more "practical" language as she "could pick Japanese back up later if she wants to".
We are happy that she has embraced this language and culture and don't feel the need to make her switch at this point, but I don't want to be shortchanging her. She has dyslexia and I have always heard that foreign languages can be very troublesome for students with dyslexia but for whatever reason she has taken to Japanese with ease.
So...stick with Japanese or follow the counselor's advice and switch now to something "usable"?
My daughter's public middle school offered Japanese as a foreign language option. She took it all three years and has now been placed in Japanese 2 for her freshman year at high school. The school offers it all through high school. She loves this class and has received all As. The high school counselor we met with suggested that she switch to a more "practical" language as she "could pick Japanese back up later if she wants to".
We are happy that she has embraced this language and culture and don't feel the need to make her switch at this point, but I don't want to be shortchanging her. She has dyslexia and I have always heard that foreign languages can be very troublesome for students with dyslexia but for whatever reason she has taken to Japanese with ease.
So...stick with Japanese or follow the counselor's advice and switch now to something "usable"?
Japanese is usable, don't forget Japan is the second or third largest economy in the world. And we all have heard of all the highly regarded Japanese companies like Sony, Toyota. She must have spent a lot of time and effort in learning Japanese, considering how different it is from English. It'd be a waste for her to give up now, and believe me, if she wants to pick it up later, she probably has to start from scratch. And considering the number of characters shared by Japanese and Chinese, if she wants to learn Chinese in the future, her prior knowledge of Japanese might actually help. Given the meteoric rise of Asian economy, who can say the combination of Japanese and Chinese, languages of the two most important Asian countries, is not useful?
Let me be honest. The guidance counselor is a complete nimrod. I have no idea what your daughter wants to accomplish with language but she will have far more opportunities in whatever she's doing by becoming fluent in Japanese as opposed to French, German, and Spanish. The reason these languages are practical is because nearly every child in this country has attempted one of them, and there are many, many who are fluent. I firmly believe in separating yourself from the pack and I think the fact that your daughter is learning a language that makes her knowledge unique makes her more valuable in both the business and political world. Tell her congratulations, by the way.
As a quick note: My friend Nick has Greek heritage and he's fluent in Greek -- he's also fluent in Spanish. He has a masters in political science and theory. Anyway, he recently had an interview with the State Dept and when asked about language, they were far, far, far more interested in Greek than in his fluency in Spanish. The fact is that simply too many available people speak it.
As for me, I barely speak my ancestry's french language but am fluent in Arabic. My point is you might have to be different to gain opportunities and I love that she's learning something unique. I think as long as she's learning new things and it's still challenging (rather, the program continues to progress), that she should definitely continue Japanese. Sorry for the lengthy response.
Stick with Japanese. It makes a great minor or second major, especially if she goes into international studies or a business degree. Added advantage is that she couldl probably clep out to Japanese II and save some tuition.
My daughter took 4 years of Japanese in HS and loved it. Several of her classmated participated in exchange programs. One of those is now teaching English in Japan and another is teaching Japanese at our local middle school.
The only language I think would be more "practical" might be Spanish. My DD tried taking Japanese and Spanish together and found it confusing. DS took them simultaneously for a year and decided Spanish was boring, and dropped it.
If you want to explore the possibility of switching to another language could your daughter take some weekend or summer classes at your community college, just to get a feel for whether or not she would enjoy it?
If she loves it, keep her on it! Frankly, most guidance counselors don't know what the heck they're talking about. There are some gems out there, but man oh man are the bad ones horrific. The head guidance counselor told me my junior year of high school that I had already taken up to Spanish 3- why did I need any more? And he was completely baffled that I wanted to take French on top of Spanish. Luckily a foreign language teacher was floating around the office, overheard, and stepped in to my defense.
I was nearly fluent in Spanish by the end of high school (though granted, my high school made it possible for me to study it every day for an hour and a half for 2 years). I would never trade that dedication for anything in the world. Sure it's "practical", but even if it wasn't- I still would have studied it! I love the language and it's gives me a pleasure that other "practical" languages like Chinese and Russian can't even touch.
Problem with language is if you learn it at a later age it may be difficult to have it stick. So she may not be able to pick it up later unless she is totally fluent. When you are older it's also difficult to grasp a language if you have no interest in it. So she may also have difficult learning spanish if she doesn't want to learn it.
Spanish speakers are a dime a dozen these days. If you want to stand out in the job market having Japanese or Chinese on your resume will be more helpful. DS16 also takes Japanese and LOVES it.
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