Battles over second foreign language

[NoNoNoToEspanol]

Sorry, just a rant. DS in Year 7 needs to pick a second foreign language to start studying next year by Friday and the war between him and DH over it is driving me up the wall. (He's already studying German and is enjoying it.)

He gets to choose from Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese or Japanese and has no preference except he's against Spanish (for reasons he can't or won't explain).

Of course, DH is dead set that he should learn Spanish, as he thinks it's the most useful option. (I'm from the states, so sometimes we visit there, and it's spoken quite a bit, though not by anyone in my family.)

I feel like it doesn't matter. DH took French in school and can't speak it anymore. I took Spanish and can't speak it anymore either, so "usefulness" seems potentially irrelevant, since none of the options are ones we know DS will actually use.

I know the advice is to choose a language you love, or at least have some interest in learning, but other than not wanting Spanish, DS has shown no preference.

I can't decide which misery I'm looking forward to less... DS moaning over the next several years if DH gets his way or DH moaning if he doesn't.

This. I speak 5 languages and would agree.

I have a friend who was a Russian teacher and he keeps saying Russian is hard to learn for English speakers due to its complex grammar and noun declinations. Unless your son wants to make a foray into the foreign office I‘d discourage him from Russian and Chinese.

I found Japanese way easier than Chinese (one of my languages is German so the pronunciation of Japanese and Spanish suits me).

I absolutely love Italian: classical and beautiful, quick hop to Spanish and Latin all the same. (I picked Spanish and it’s worked out very well for me in business - think South America).