What foreign languages do they teach in your local high schools? (Russia, requirement)

[dullnboring]

I got into a conversation at a wedding the other day here in New Jersey about foreign language acquisition and at one point, the topic turned to what courses were offered in local high schools. All of those at the table who were all raised in different parts of New Jersey, told me that their schools offered Spanish, French and Italian. Those three languages were the constant, and then one went to a high school where German was offered, another where Portuguese was offered, and one went to a school where Japanese and Hebrew were offereed, but Spanish, French and Italian were the constants which was interesting to me because where I grew up in Northern Virginia, the constants were Spanish (oftentimes a separate class for native speakers and non-native speakers), French and German. My high school in addition to this offered American Sign Language and Latin, and I believe there was some loose-knit group of Japanese-learners that met after school as well, but not an actual class (ditto for Arabic). Within my diverse school district however, there were some schools that offered Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic as foreign languages, which oftentimes reflected the demographics (both ethnically and financially) of that particular school. I'm curious as to what are the languages offered in different parts of the country. I know from a little research I just did that Japanese courses tend to be somewhat routinely offered on the West Coast, whereas from what I've seen on the East Coast, they tend to only be offered in very wealthy schools. The same seems to be occurring with Chinese which I've heard is increasing at the fastest rate, whereas Latin is quickly disappearing from high schools nationwide.

[ahava]

My local high school just added Chinese classes this year. They also offer French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Italian. I teach at a high school in a different part of the Chicago suburbs and they have French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Latin, and Chinese. Hebrew, Latin, and Chinese are relatively new; they were all introduced within the past seven years. Latin disappeared and then reappeared, I guess. But we only have one Latin teacher (in a high school of 4300 students) so I wouldn't say it's a strong comeback.

[teachbeach]

The high school that I work at offers French, Spanish, German and Latin. The previous high school (central Jersey) also offered Italian.

[jco]

My high school in Arizona offered Spanish, French, German, and Sign Language.

[Mike in TN]

I'm not sure about the schools where I live now, but at the high school I attended they offered foreign language courses in Spanish, German, French, and Latin.

[mimimomx3]

Our private high school offers Spanish, Latin and Chinese.

[kate angels]

In my high school we have english,french,latin,germany and russia.In my class I learn polish,english and french.

[gallowsCalibrator]

My high school offered: Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Polish, and Japanese


The last five were offered via distance learning ((about 4-5 schools linked up with cameras and microphones.. it was really cool))

Of those, I took 2 years of Latin, 4 years of Spanish, and 3 years of Japanese

[jak88]

Spanish, French, German, and Polish. I live in an area with high Spanish speaking population, and high Polish speaking population (Chicago) so naturally interest in those two is the highest. But a lot of kids take French and German as well.

[MrsMo]

Spanish only, of course I heard Missouri dropped the requirement of foreign language credits for graduation. Our Catholic high schools don't even offer Latin anymore.