Do your children learn a second language in Primary School?

[SorryImKnew]

I'm Irish, so we obviously study Irish alongside English from Baby Infants (your Reception I think). It's an obligatory subject with some exemptions, much like English and Maths.
I'm just curious whether schools in England/Scotland/EU/US/Aus/NZ/Rest of world study a second core language and what it is? I think Welsh is probably a core subject in Wales?
Just idle curiosity!

[alphasox]

England, private school, been doing Spanish throughout from Reception.

[bruffin]

@SorryImKnew

Mistigri I think there is an argument that studying a second language at a young age develops a part of the brain required for learning languages or something (not how it was phrased obviously, but you get the drift). So on that point I would be all for endorsing at least some study of a second language from a young age. Yes, it might appear pointless, but at the same time, it might mean that they can pick up a language easier when they go at it seriously at a later age.

I part Greek cypriot and could speak Greek to my nan as a child who lived with us until I was 9.
I cant speak Greek now although recognise some words. But I do believe it has left me with word finding difficulties, like my brain doesn't know where to look for the word.
I am good at working out logic behind languages, but got a D in my German olevel.
My dcs did French in nursery and in parts of primery and dd did French and Italian ds French and German in secondary

[KatharinaRosalie]

Private school in France. They have 5 hours of English and 5 hours of German every week, starting from maternelle (3 year olds).

Other languages optional - school offers Spanish, Italian, Russian, Italian, Mandarin.

[Yankathebear]

French from reception age.

[Jigglypuffler]

My DS is in year 1 and they've started having French lessons. He loves it.

[Yankathebear]

Forgot to add. When mine got to secondary school only one continued with french. The others swapped to German.

[AriettyHomily]

Very very basic French from pre-school, there seems to be some but not much provision now in y5. They have learnt more from me on holiday.

I did French from primary through to IB and German from Y7-11.

[KatharinaRosalie]

I should add to my comment though that this is not usual in France, most kids start with just one foreign language and a lot later, and the level of teaching is not good. Many teenagers who have allegedly been learning English or German for several years cannot speak a single word.

[doradoo]

Another one from Germany here, my DC learnt English from day 1 in primary, it's compulsory for them at least to year 10. in secondary school they've had to pick up a second foreign language - so far Latin and French (yr7) and then the option of another language (yr9).

[KedsAndTubeSocks]

In England. French, Spanish & Latin.

[Happyrascalsmummy]

The school my kids go to teaches Mandarin from year 1. No sure if they're able to teach it currently with covid restrictions because the teacher came in once a week to teach all classes.

[lazylinguist]

I'd love to learn Mandarin (for fun), but I do question whether it's sensible to teach it in schools in England, for example. It's pretty hard to get most kids to a decent conversational level in a European language on a few lessons a week, never mind a language with a different alphabet and practically zero similarities to English. And what proportion of those kids will ever set foot in China (compared with, say, Spain or France)?

[RedCatBlueCat]

The thing with Manderin is it definitely needs someone with some ability in the language to teach it. There is no way I could attempt it - although it is the second language in this house, my pronunciation is pitterful, and i just cant hear some of the different tones.
I have suprised myself over lockdown with how much French and German i can drag up from the back of my mind tho.

[languagelover96]

@RedCatBlueCat

The thing with Manderin is it definitely needs someone with some ability in the language to teach it. There is no way I could attempt it - although it is the second language in this house, my pronunciation is pitterful, and i just cant hear some of the different tones.
I have suprised myself over lockdown with how much French and German i can drag up from the back of my mind tho.

same here

[gwenneh]

French from nursery, Spanish later.

[Bolognesedoc]

I'm in Italy and my children learnt English as a foreign language in primary school (not very well!) and they are now at middle school and have started French as well as continuing with English. (They had a choice of French, German or Spanish).

[Insert1x20p]

Live in HK

Local schools (usually Cantonese medium) teach English. Some teach mandarin, but not all.

International schools are either bilingual (most commonly English/ mandarin) or English medium and teach mandarin as an MFL.

Mandarin is very useful but extremely difficult as PP have said. There is a reason why the Chinese education system is as it is (based on rote learning) and the reason is that the character based language relies on it. You cant just make out words. You either know the character or you dont, plus the tones make pronunciation critical. The easiest way to learn mandarin is do a year in Beijing after school and get a Chinese SO.

[Insert1x20p]

I have tried and failed with mandarin. During lockdown I started learning Russian, which people say is hard due to the cases, but its very easy vs mandarin.

[Anycrispsleft]

In Germany, and they do English from age 8.

The weans regularly come in creasing themselves at something the poor teacher has said. It must be quite intimidating having two 9 year old smartarses sat at the back of the class rolling their eyes at each other.

[adaptiveness]

England. State school. 2.5 days a week in English, 2.5 days in Spanish (immersive approach, so maths, science, PE taught in both English and Spanish).

[ProudMaiasaura]

English medium schools in Wales have to include Welsh in their curriculum.

Our children attend a Welsh medium school where English is taught as a second language so no stupid phonic nonsense thankfully and thanks to there being a fluent French speaking teacher on the staff they offer a small amount of French lessons but this is not in the curriculum at all, just something extra the school can currently offer.

[ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast]

@Insert1x20p I'm surprised it's still aren't compulsory mandarin in HK. I grew up there and was taught in English with Chinese in Cantonese. Mandarin is only hard if your first language is English. It's surprisingly easy if you speak something like Cantonese. I have never learned Mandarin (as in took lessons). I picked up listening from songs and my university friends. I learned pinyin only recently when my DC took lessons from youtube videos. I can help with their homework too. It's not true you can't make out the words. They are formed from radicals and sounds. If you know a word with a similar sound 'part', it's likely the new one has the same pronunciation. There are a lot of homophones.

[ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast]

I mean I learned from youtube videos. DC is taking proper MFL chinese lessons.

[Geamhradh]

Italy
Primary- English (badly, just disconnected words really, colours, objects, numbers) It gets much better after primary though.

Middle School English and choice of Spanish, French, German (DD did Spanish and now has B2 level)

High- English is done for all of high school (any high school) and is part of at least the final oral exam) DD is at Linguistic so does English, Chinese and German. 4 hours a we of each, one of which is with a native speaker for conversation.

I'm an English teacher, show me an 18 year old who started English at 6 and one who started at 11. All other things being equal, I won't be able to tell the difference.