What foreign language would you like your child to learn?

[annasmami]

Hello,
I would love to hear your thoughts regarding foreign language teaching in the UK.
It appears to me that most schools (and even most, if not all, nursery schools in London) have a strong preference for French.
I have learned French myself in school, enjoy going to France on holidays and find that it helps to learn/understand other (mainly latin)languages.
However, I wonder how useful French really is considering the (relatively) small population that speak French (even including parts of Switzerland and Quebec). In my opinion, Spanish (spoken not only in Spain but also South America), German (spoken in Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland and Italy) or even Chinese would be more useful.
My own experience from working in the finance industry also supporst the view that in addition to English, Spanish and German were far more useful than French.
What are your thoughts? I would really like to understand the UK 'love affair' with the French language??

Interesting you should mention this. One of the main reasons I'm considering sending my children to private school at secondary level is that they offer more languages like Latin and Chinese. The nearest state schools only offer German and French.

My dd aged 9 has done a year of German at state primary school and loves it.

I agree Spanish (it is easier than French or German), German and French in that order.

(I did French, a bit of German, Latin and Greek at school, have since done more German and a bit of Spanish - but wish I was fluent in something other than English.)

for business future, Chinese. German is useful because there is so much work in Germany.

French is more widely spoken than you say - it is understood across north Africa, and in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and french guyana in south America. It's spoken in Luxembourg, Belge and (small) part of western Germany as well as France & Switzerland. Also, I believe it is still widely understood by educated Russians - the ones Ive met anyway.
Also, it is significant because France is our nearest neighbour where the majority speak a different language.
If you want to learn French prpperly, it's a good idea to start young, as it's hard to get a really good grasp later.