language choices - chinese or latin?

[mimsum]

ds has to choose two languages when he goes into Y7 in September - he definitely wants to do Spanish as his first choice but says he wants to do Mandarin Chinese as his second language. I'm not convinced that this is the right decision and I'm trying to persuade him to do Latin instead. He says Latin isn't useful - I think he has visions of himself chatting fluently in Mandarin by his mid-teens

any persuasive arguments one way or the other? we have to make decision by monday

Mandarin might be far more useful, but I would be interested in your situation to find out where they get their teachers from.
Do we already have a PGCE in the UK turning out fluent Mandarin speakers? Sagitta's comments strike a chord with me.
I think your ds has been lucky so far but I wonder whether there are enough good experienced teachers to go round as so many schools want to offer it
I am doing an after-school club in Primary Latin (Minimus) at my dc's school, so I know which way I'd steer him but it's a shame he has to choose between two such fascinating, divergent paths.

Chinese! Loads of business opportunities in the near future for those who speak the language.

Even if it werent, go with the language your kid wants to learn.

Besides, he doesn't need Latin to learn another European language, especially after Spanish.

I would choose latin tbh

I studied french and german at gcse - no use to me as an adult whatsoever.

I would however have appreciated latin -scientific names in nature/medicine etc are all latin based arent they?

Chinese is fun, actually! Learning all the characters is a bit like learning a secret code.

And it's a living language too.

I just remember Latiin being more difficult having to learn all the different cases - grammar in Chinese is a lot more straightforward.

But I would also check out who is going to be teaching the Chinese, based on what's been said before. I think I'm very lucky to have the teacher I have.

The teacher situation is a very valid point - the vast majority of MGL PGCE courses don't offer Chinese as an option - we've never managed to get a UK-qualified teacher to work with our students.

Mind you, I teach in south Wales, and although there's a thriving Chinese community, it's not exactly huge.

If he were interested in taking Arabic on the other hand ...

p.s. Hiya califrau!

I'd let him do what he wants to do. There are arguments in favour of both, but Chinese would be interesting not just for the business opportunities but for the insight into a fascinating culture (and in fact all the cultures of that region) that it offers. And if he is really interested it would also be helpful if he decides to learn Japanese or Korean in future.

Latin is a good discipline and useful for understanding the nuts and bolts of language learning. It helps not only with other languages imo, but also with English. But if he's interested and motivated by Chinese, I think I'd let him have his way.

why is everyone learning chinese? afaik most of them speak english really well anyway.

I would opt for latin - I know a bit and I find it very useful . However I know nothing of mandarin so I'm biased.

SEA, that's a shocking attitude to have .

sorry, i have a friend from taiwan and she speaks english really well. i'm just wondering if learning it is going to be so advantageous. latin sounds more fun.

If he's doing Spanish and really really needs Latin later he can do it from a book/course really really fast.

He's going to do less well picking up Mandarin on his own and besides he wants to learn it.

BTW,as a slight aside, in the mounds of crap telly I watched whilst pregnant there was a doc about the London Underground. On it, a chap (English) who was wheeled in to talk to lost chinese tourists. He could speak both Mandarin and Cantonese functionally, which he'd learnt from Kung Fu movies, or so he claimed. Nothing is impossible to a kid who wants to learn.

I do know what you mean, I've travelled in Korea and China for work a couple of times and managed fine (I find learning the word for 'thank you' is very helpful in most situations), but I would probably have found it much more interesting and enjoyable if I'd been able to have a bash.

Did Latin a bit at school and a bit more at Univ. I don't get how it's useful for English, tbh - the grammatical structures are very different, and loan words specific to certain areas only. Nothing against ancient languages, mind, but think Chinese might be more fun and more useful. SEA - I think, as well as its being polite to speak the language of the country you (say) live or trade in, it's helpful to get the subtext from the native language (and understand whispered conversations).

If your son is keen to study humanities ( or law school) then I'd say, latin obviously.

EJT made a very valid point. Chinese for beginners will be available at university.

We live in Asia and my son will start mandarin in reception for the following reason:

Southeasastra, most educated chinese may speak a better english than our chinese will ever be, but making the effort is considered a great sign of respect.
If you do any sort of business in china/with chinese communities in Asia, it is the ultimate ice breaker in a culture where social protocol is extremely codified.

Back home, it will be a definite plus on a resume in years to come.

A friend in HK is learning Mandarin but he says it a difficult language to learn. It is the language of business but additionally Cantonese is spoken at home. He says he trots out a sentence, they all smile at him & switch to English but they appreciate the effort. He says you have to have a good ear for precise pronunciation as, for instance the sound 'ma' has 8 different meanings dependent on intonation.

Latin is useful for European languages and understanding our own (medical terms/science/spelling eg prefixes etc). My father did Latin and Ancient Greek and subsequently has found European languages easier to pick up later in life.

habbibu, I know the structures are different, but because of the way it works grammatically, you have to really understand what the different parts of speech do, and that is useful for an understanding of English, imo. Learning how language works, rather than a language iyswim. Also, loan words aside, it's useful for an understanding of things like prefixes and in generally working out the meaning of words.

See, now I don't agree that Latin is particularly useful for that - it's a bit of a hobbyhorse for me as I did my first degree and PhD in Eng Lang, and found that understanding cognate languages was more useful than Latin for understanding the grammar and syntax of English. The "metalanguage" of grammar could be applied to any language, so I don't get why people think Latin has such a special status in this case.

not sure that came across right, midnight - sorry. Had lots of stupid arguments with my Gran "English comes from Latin" when I was doing my first degree and masters and so probably have issues...

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Glasgow, pruners.

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I believe that's the standard form. You have claret, I have Irn Bru.

Didn't know many of the Edinburgh staff - knew Meg Laing a bit, and some of the Linguistic Atlas people. I think there was a big rift between the two depts in the 80s, or something.

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