Which language to choose

oops, hadn't seen the choice had been made...good for him. I'd have chosen the greek, but i'm a geek...

it's not your choice, it's DS's

Good choice!

I love German :o want to study it at uni!

Sorry I posted that before I saw yr DS favours the Greek.

I would still say German is better; I was lucky enough to be able to get O-levels in Latin, French, German, Spanish and Ancient Greek, but the latter two I did as "extras" ; German is much more mainstream IMO.

deffo not ancient Greek.

(And I speak as a linguist who did Ancient Greek for A-level. Boy was it tough. ROFL @ mummytime, no not fairly easy, not unless it has got easier in last 20 years! which seems unlikely on the whole... new alphabet the least of yr worries. I didn't go to a posh or even crummy public school btw.)

Spanish is useful - holidays etc, German good for business/engineering etc. Mandarin said to be the one we all should learn but personally have no knowledge of it.

I would say German but then I would, that's what I did my degree in!

As a languages teacher I'd caution hugely against choosing based on who is teaching the course, as you never know what will happen in the future. Every year our pupils ask who will be teaching the different language courses as they know who they want and don't want. But, people leave, people retire and people go on maternity leave. Also most teachers teach more than one language and if you have a situation like this with free choice, then the numbers of teachers needed for each language each year can vary drastically. Unless there is only one teacher of a particular language then you shouldn't make your decision this way.

Also, I really don't understand why people say that Spanish is the language of the future. They are not a large economy and don't look like this is going to change any time soon. Spain is not a major player in European politics and although there is a large number of Spanish speakers in the world most of them are in South America - will this feature heavily in his life? Spanish is also getting more nad more popular in the UK so your DS won't have anything different to anyone else. I'd go for German or Mandarin.

please don't choose Greek under the assumption that it is an easy subject.

Spanish and German are both comparatively easy languages for an English speaker to pick up if the need for them arises. I would have a go at either ancient Greek or Mandarin in this school situation, unless ds has a particular leaning towards either the German speaking or the Spanish speaking world. Both Spanish and German are also easier to learn to speak than French IMO.

Good points about the teachers/quality of teaching. Anyone you can ask?

Greek is not easy! At least it's not universally easy- of course some might naturally incline towards it. I'm supposed to have an "aptitude" for languages (I think that's rubbish- it has to do with memory/sponge brain more than anything), but I went on a Greek G&T thing and I can't remember a word now (apart from etsy-ketsy :o) and I found it much harder to pick things up. Anyway, how easy something is isn't always the most commendable consideration to rely on when picking school subjects.

If he gains a qualification in ancient Greek it will mark him out as having been to a posh public school- so it depends on how you feel about this.

Apparently it is easier to get into Oxbridge to study Classics than any other subject so if you're looking to that then Greek would be the best option.

I would say either German or Spanish. I did German at GCSE and A Level and it's been really useful.

"I think Ancient Greek is supposed to be fairly easy"

It isn't easy. I'm a classicist. O level Greek wasn't a walk in the park and neither is GCSE Greek - my daughter did it a few years ago.

It's your son's decision, I'd say. If he wants to do Greek, he should. It's his life and none of those options is a soft one.

Does he get another opportunity to start a new language in year 10? My son did French and Latin from year 7 and had the opportunity to start another language in place of Latin in year 9. However, as he knew he could also start German in year 10 he went on with Latin and started German in addition for GCSE.

I agree with everyone who says that the more languages you learn the easier it gets. He also started Italian in year 11 to replace French (taken early). Over 30 took Italian GCSE after one school year (so just over 2 terms by the time you take into account study leave in the summer term). These were all boys who already had an A in French or Spanish and most were doing another one or two languages to GCSE. All had at least some Latin. All but one of them got an A and the other one got an A.

Good point about the teacher of course. But hard to tell if it's a new school he's moving to in September. The other advantage of Greek may well be small classes for GCSE (since it's usually a pretty minority option) - worth checking the size of the German and Mandarin classes too perhaps? Even more so with a spoken language, a small class size makes a huge difference.

One other point about GCSE is that in the classical languages students actually get to read some literature in Latin and Greek for GCSE which they don't for the modern languages where you have to wait for AS for that (the time is taken up with spoken/aural element I suppose). If he's interested in literature as well as language that may attract him.

I would choose whichever one has the teacher with the best reputation. Otherwise you're wasting your time no matter what the actual language is. A bad teacher makes learning uphill all the way, and your DS is already expressing some doubts about French, whereas his Latin experience is enhanced greatly by a good teacher. If you know anything about the reputation of the teachers of the various languages, try to choose among teachers instead of subjects. I learned more German in two years than French for seven.

Going just on languages of the future though, I would choose Mandarin; though Germany is a major economy it's not too hard to pick up if you need it later and Latin is a language that covers just about every grammatical twist and turn known to mankind so ideal as a base for learning others. Forget Spanish, it's Portuguese you need (Brazil is becoming a major world economic player) if you're thinking South America. Spain is not a major economic player, never was and will not be for the foreseeable future. Ancient Greek is an option that might make an admissions officer prick up his or her ears no matter what he was applying for. No practical application, but I would say your DS's choice would be between Mandarin and Ancient Greek.

I did German A level and had the older 3 children do German (along with Fernch and Latin) but I now wish we'd encoureaged Spanish instead as it's more useful (and I bought somewhere in a country where Spanish is spoken) so I think I might encourage the younger two to do Spanish.

Mandarin ... Of more interest to potential employers in the future. Chances are whatever language he learns he will only remember the basics ... Can I have a beer please!!

I would go for a modern european language.
would make moving for work easier.
german is tough but a good basis for other languages grammar wise.

Chinese is trendy these days. However, two teachers I know from 2 different schools (where they offer Chinese) once told me it was often badly taught by actual Chinese teachers flown from China with zero experience of teaching in Britain. So if you are going down the Chinese route it's worth checking out if the course is delivered by a teacher (Chinese or not) who has experience in this country.
Chinese might be the language of the future but considering how difficult it is, it will be quite some years before your DS has a level that can be useful (unless he has regular exposure).
If you DS does French and Latin, he can pretty much teach himself Spanish as they are all very similar.
If he already does Latin, I would not bother with Greek unless he's mad for "dead" (hate this word) languages.
So as a result, I'd say German.

My dad thinks that Chinese will be the language of the future, something worth considering.

German is great for good decoders- all those compound nouns.
Personally I love German, I'm so glad I was in the year I was in at school when both German and French were compulsory- the next year had to choose either/or, even at GCSE. Any school which zones in on teaching multiple languages (3 or 4, even) is fab in that respect.

I am a classicist! But actually I would suggest either the Greek or the German, assuming that he will have to continue with the French. (If not, I would say that he should maintain at least one modern language, either French or German, alongside the Latin; and if classics is really his thing he can pick up the Greek later.) Assuming that he will keep the French anyway, I'd say that both Greek and German are likely to appeal to him as if he is very good at Latin he probably has an aptitude for complex grammar; Ancient Greek is quite different from but about as difficult as Latin, although having studied a grammatically complex language (like Latin) already will help. I would say that German is a little easier (because quite a bit of the vocab is fairly close to English) but has similar challenges to the classical languages in terms of grammar and word order. Of course the spoken element may also be an attraction/challenge for him. If he is a literary type, or may become so later on, both French and German will open up a huge amount of literature and related culture (as do the classical languages of course).

I would leave the Spanish for now simply because with good French and Latin it is not difficult to pick up to a conversational level.

As for Mandarin, I think this would be fantastic in theory, but it is a completely different sort of language (very little grammar of the Latin sort, for instance) and unless he continued it for years and/or had good home/background support or related interests I think you're right to think that he probably won't get that far with it.

I think that there will be plenty of opportunity to learn modern euro language later - lots of (correspondence) courses available. However, ancient Greek and Mandarin are much less accessible so requires you to be taught properly by an experienced teacher. So I would go for one of those two :)

I think you should point out to your son that modern languages will be more useful when he is an adult and looking for a job (unless he already has some very specific career ambition for which ancient languages will be useful!) I think you should also strongly make the point to him that he is not useless at modern languages, so he shouldn't avoid modern languages just because he thinks he won't be any good at them. However, if he still wants to do ancient Greek I think you should be supportive of that decision because your son is more likely to do better at subjects he feels a personal sense of commitment towards. NB The fact that your son is particularly good at Latin suggests to me that he has a strong aptitude for grammar, which makes me think that he would probably take to German like a duck to water!

You pick a language because:

a) It helps you with other subjects (i.e. Latin with Classics/History)
b) You really enjoy it
c) It's another skill to put on your CV/to use in a job
d) You have family ties to it (i.e. you could once speak a language fluently, now you don't and you want to relearn it in a structured way)
e) If you learn two structurally dissimilar languages, you cover more of a "terrain", so to speak
f) You're very good at it and it's an easy grade A

It seems like Greek would fall into a), b) and d). But these could all be outweighed by c) and e)- i.e. French, Mandarin, Spanish and German.

Since he's already doing Latin, that would get him onto a Classics course at uni no problem, if that's what he wants to do (you can even do a four year course and start from scratch).

I think Ancient Greek is supposed to be fairly easy, and with Latin he should be able to pick up modern languages easily. If that is what he wants to do then let him. However you could get him some New Testament Greek stuff to see if he really is interested. He does realise its a whole new alphabet.

I'd tend to go with what he wants. I do presume his senior school is high achieving and full of good teachers.

BTW my DD has chosen French and Spanish, her choice, she has to do the studying after all.