Yr 9 additional language option - which should we choose?

[sufferingicecakes]

Ds is currently yr 8 and needs to pick up an additional language in yr 9. He has a very high VR CAT score and consequently does very well in languages and arts subjects at his academically selective school. He needs to pick up another language, the choice being: German, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. He is not sure which to take and DH is pushing German (as he took it to A level) and I would prefer Spanish as I took Italian and feel it would complement the French and Latin that he is currently studying.

The school does exceptionally well in league tables and there is quite a lot of academic pressure and lots of homework. As he will ultimately take a large number of GCSE's I am keen that he takes a subject that will not be overly onerous for him and will keep the workload as low as possible. For this reason I favour Spanish as I feel it would be more intuitive for him. I feel German will be more difficult to learn at this stage and as ds struggles with handwriting feel that Mandarin Chinese may present additional challenges. Am I right about this? Which would be the better language to study? I am not expecting it to influence career choices, at this stage.

Ds really does not know which to choose.

Views gratefully received!

I’d be going for Spanish. I spent 6 years at school studying German - it’s fine but it doesn’t come intuitively, there is a lot of “memorising” and its grammar is difficult. With the view that your ds will be taking various exams, I’d go for Spanish as the “easiest” and possibly most pleasant of the three options.

As he has to take another MFL then he should choose one he would enjoy learning the most. Perhaps sign up to Duolingo (it's free) for some taster lessons to see which he enjoys or finds easier. If doing French and Latin then Spanish would be the closest language in terms of some similar words as German and Chinese v different.

I'm a polyglot and given the choices listed, I would have him do Spanish as it is another Romance language. At this stage of his schooling,I personally wouldn't advocate learninf a case system (German) and a non Roman alphabet language (Chinese)

I would pick Spanish, I did German and didn't find it difficult but very rarely use. Spanish would have been more useful.

Having said that German makes it easier to work out some other languages. I would say Spanish is the least work but German isn't much more, Mandarin on a whole different level.

Whichever he fancies. I think it is important at this age for young people to feel that they have some control over their own choices, within reasonable boundaries. There is no clear "right" choice here, there will be no dire consequences. Encourage him to choose whichever language/culture appeals most. Or failing that, the best teacher, or the easiest - or even whichever his friends are choosing. But let him own the decision.

Yr9 Languages teacher here with experience of these languages. Definitely let him choose. Some taster lessons online is a great idea.

• If he is already learning Latin, the grammar of German will not be a problem because the structure is similar.
• More people worldwide speak Spanish and Chinese so one of these might be more useful in later life. These languages are in the top 5 most spoken languages, along with Arabic, Hindi and English.
• In terms of total overlap, Spanish might require less learning from scratch.

I actually think that Latin and German complement each other just as well as Spanish and Latin - they are both quite logical and precise. And Latin has a case system, so it won't be new.

If DS is good at music, I might go for Chinese. Sometimes doing something completely different can be really fun. Especially if he is good at languages anyway.

If you really can't decide, I would think about which one he would be most likely to use. Can he ever imagine himself going to China? Or South America? Any books, music, history, geography, other cultural aspects of any of the three that he is drawn to?

I would consider things like what the teachers of each subject are like, whether one choice will be a lot more/less popular (smaller class sizes?) I might have a quick look at the syllabus - and the course books if they have any available. A "harder" language taught in a more engaging way might ultimately seem like less workload than one that's easier but sometimes a bit boring.

Thank you all for such thoughtful and thought provoking replies. Totally agree that it must be his choice and have encouraged him to study what his friends are choosing but he has friends opting for each of these. The teachers have been excellent at his school, but he has surprised everyone with his achievements where he has had inspirational teachers for certain subjects - it is difficult to predict which teachers he will get at which points. It is also difficult to know what materials or course they will follow and we do not tend to get much time with individual teachers to ask these sorts of questions. I will enquire though.
Ds does love history and geography but I am not sure that points us in any particular direction. I know he would love to visit China but I cannot see that happening for a while and he has yet to visit Germany, Spain or S America.

He uses Duolingo so I think I will get him to play around, so he can see how the languages 'feel'. I agree doing something 'new' and 'different' can be fun but I worry the breadth of subjects he is studying, as well as extra curricula music and drama will mean something will have to be sacrificed soon.

My DS took Chinese and my DD took German as their extra language (in addition to French).

I would say my DD learnt a bit more of the language and can count and say a few phrases in German. Can recognise a few sentences if someone is speaking German.

My DS got good grades in Chinese but didn't learn much and wasn't able to say or understand anything really (at Year 8 level it seemed very basic)

So based on our experience I would say German gave us more value than Chinese. our school also offered German (French & Spanish) exchange trips, but not Chinese (obviously)

Both my DV dropped these languages and continued on with French to GCSE.