Which foreign language at GCSE?

[AnnaG]

Would love to hear your thoughts on foreign languages.

DC has to choose his GCSE options soon and has been asking which second language he should pursue. He is currently doing French. The options are: Spanish, German, Latin, Russian and Mandarin.

I've told him to go for either Spanish or Mandarin, but have my reservations about him doing Mandarin (he's already voiced out that the teacher has a reputation for being not so nice).

Which language would you say would be the most useful for the future in business, travelling, etc.

DD took mandarin for a term in year 7 and 8 as it was compulsory, Dd said it was a super hard subject and learning/drawing all the different characters was hard, most of DD's year group found it incredibly boring too, so unless your DS is certain he would enjoy it I would avoid.

DD took both French and German in year 9&10 for her options (I'm abroad so different system) and said both are a lot easier than Mandarin, she has decided to take German into year 11 for her school exams as she found it a lot easier and understood it more but that is probably due to teachers, both French and German are very similar.

Have no clue on Spanish, sorry.

Thanks opalfire for your response.

DS would be learning the second modern language for 3 years, as they stay in year 9.

Mandarin is actually an easy language to learn to speak and understand. It has very little grammar, and the tones are no big deal.

the problem is having to learn to read and write, as of course it has no alphabet, so you have to learn to write each character (word or part of a word) individually.

I did Mandarin and French at Uni. Hadn't done Mandarin before and struggled with it from an accent point of view. Twenty years on and I can barely speak more than basic sentences. Used to go to China back in the day but haven't been in years.

I think it depends it depends on what your goal is and that's hard to say mid teens. Not sure a couple of years Mandarin at Gsce will really be all that beneficial if that is all you so. Yes, it makes you stand out a little but I think Spanish might be my second language choice now for the reasons people mention above.

Sorry for typos - on the move.

I would definitely vote for Spanish, one reason being that once you know the rules the spelling is easy, unlike French, and many of the words have an obvious overlap with French. The grammar is easier than German and actually a bit easier in some ways than French. Another reason is that it's a lovely language to speak!
With Mandarin, I think it would be better to leave that for university unless you have Chinese-speaking friends who would be able to help outside school. As someone said, the highest grades will go to children who already have learned it at home.

Just noticed Latin on the list! It has no business/economic potential but if your child is very good at English or history and likely to do those at A level, it is a good subject to take. However, so is an MFL. But Latin has the advantage of no speaking tests!

How good is he at languages? I did French from age 9 then started German at senior school for 3 years. I found German much harder than French, managed an A in French and a C in German. I had discussed language options with my MFL teacher , she said she thought I would struggle with German and she was correct. With the options he has I would pick Spanish.

I think it's very hard to tell which language will be most useful. I did French and German at school, enjoyed them both, but have been disappointed to practically never find any use for German since. I use French, on and off, and have learned Spanish which is my favourite and I use quite a lot, (I find it the easiest, plus it has a whole continent speaking it, it opens a whole new world...).
But I think if you go into certain businesses (banking? etc?) then German is supposed to be useful, it just happens to be not much for me.

And if you end up studying linguistics at university then Basque and Welsh are excellent. Most of our linguistics lectures focused on these languages.

And work-wise, Norwegian and Portuguese would have been useful for me. How could I have guessed that?

So go with what he finds easiest/most interesting/best taught.

I would pick the language he is best at to be honest. A GCSE is a low language qualification and unlikely to bring someone up to a level which is good enough to use in the real world. One of the youngsters at the company I used to work for had a GCSE in Japanse (A*) unfortunately non of the Japanese staff were able to understand him.

I did German, I hated it. I've never used it...

I've always wished I did Spanish. There have been times when it would have been useful.

I'd go for whichever one he thinks he may be the best at or the country(ies) he's most interested in.

I studied German and love Germany so that would be my choice.

Spanish is widely spoken.

But I regret not doing Latin GCSE when I had the chance. It gives you a great head start if you want to pick up other languages later, like Spanish or Italian, even German.

So any of the above three, really.

DD did French and Italian for a degree and is fluent in both, but obviously was not after a GCSE! The British employer is not remotely interested in people with languages! The British Council can write all the reports but employers virtually never ask for languages! They want economists, engineers and many other skills, but languages come a long way down. DD says German would be easier to learn than Spanish if he already does French. French and German are more Latin based she says! If he loves languages, doing two at GCSE is a good idea because both can be taken through to A level but don't expect the captains of industry and commerce to be knocking on the door with fantastic employment opportunities. DD is unlikely to use her languages again and most of her friends likewise!

Has your DD actually studied any German? I would wholeheartedly disagree with what she's saying about German being easier to mean than Spanish if French has already been studied. German and French have very little in common!

I do agree with you about the low employment opportunities for languages though. Fine if you want to teach the language or work abroad.

Even then a lot of companies would pay for you to do an intensive language course if they want you to work for any period in another country.

I'm a linguist, and have learned several languages for my job (and did French, German, Spanish and Latin at school). If languages come very easily to him, and he is interested in grammar, then I would look at Russian or German. If he has a good ear for music, then possibly Mandarin. If he is averagely good at French, I would pick Spanish, as it's by far the easiest to pick up (and the most similar to French). Slav languages are an absolute bitch when it comes to grammar, and if he is doing Russian, he'll have a new alphabet to learn too. I am not sure you would manage to achieve much of note or of use doing Mandarin at GCSE, and he can always do it at degree level later if he's interested.

Yes. She did a course in German whilst on her Erasmus year. It is just her opinion. She has not done Spanish though. I think people who are able linguists can pick up Spanish or German fairly readily. My DD chose the languages she enjoyed most at school and had the best teachers! This made a huge difference. Likewise options at university! Unfortunately British companies are all too happy to employ foreign people if they want language skills. That is why the earnings of language graduates are not particularly high.

I'd definitely let him go with the one he thinks he'd enjoy the most.
My DD is an able linguist and took German for GCSE the had to move school for A levels where she couldn't take her original choices. She was very keen to take another language along with her German and the new school told her that if she could get to the required level over the summer, she could take it.
She chose Spanish and did manage to take it for A level, which I guess must mean it's fairly easy to pick up for someone who can learn languages easily.
She's now at uni taking German and Russian. She's enjoying the challenge of learning Russian, but says it's very different from anything she's done before (she can also speak a bit of Japanese and Polish although has never formally learned them).

Firstly, I'd ask dc what language/s they prefer/enjoy most! Because if they enjoy the lessons and the language they'll do well.

Secondly, I'd consider what area they might want to work in. Whilst Spanish might handy for holidaying on the Costa Brava, the Spanish and South American economies aren't that important. Germany, on the other hand, has many very successful engineering/industrial/car/financial companies and does a lot more trade with the UK. The pay and quality of life are very attractive and speaking the language opens up doors to work abroad.

Personally I'm not so sure about the imminent usefulness of Mandarin, especially considering how difficult it is.

French and German are the most wanted languages by UK employers. Germs is the most widely spoken language in the EU.
On that basis, I would say German.

German, not Germs!

I am not a linguist bug did French, German and Latin o levels. I use my French most years on holiday bug have found very little use for German. I used to have to go to Germany every month for meetings with work, but my o level German wasn't much help and they all spoke English very well anyway.

I lived Latin though but more for the history/poetry than the language as such.

My DD had this choice last year and thankfully has gone with French and Spanish.

DS is doing Mandarin because he likes it, but...
www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4319306.ece?shareToken=240af5e477ca42fa7b2e46ba2fb98ddb

I agree with the people saying that GCSE is basically useless in real life - it's far too low level.

What's he interested in? DS is doing German because his cousins are Austrian and it would be nice to not be the monolingual idiot in the corner, but he knows he'll need to do a lot more than just GCSE. DD has taken up Russian at uni because she thinks different alphabets are fun (she did do a year of Mandarin aged 11, which she found utterly tedious and of which she remembers nothing). Her German GCSE puts her just about at buy the milk level.

I would recommend German. I personally studied it at GCSE level and found it very easy to pick up, as the sentence structures and general word orders are very easy to pick up. DD studies it at the moment and finds it simple to understand. As many words come from Latin roots, many German words are similar to those of the English language. Would also highly recommend as German is now one of the most largely required languages for jobs, and the requirement for German GCSE and A levels is ever increasing. AnnaG