Which language option to go with French/Latin?

[elevendollarbills]

Interested in any parents' experiences or teacher views. DS is currently doing French and Latin in Y7, needs to add another language for Y8 out of German, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin, and he can't decide which to choose. He's an able linguist, though more interested in the academic side of language learning than the communication side. I doubt whether languages will ultimately be his 'thing', but he really enjoys them at the moment, particularly Latin. Any views on what would be the best fit, any considerations to bear in mind?

My DS is a good linguist and loved Latin and had done French from yr 2, he had a similar choice and did German. He was told the rigour required with Latin vocab. would make German easy thus a good choice. He found German to be very easy. He was also advised that German is easier than say French in the beginning. He did all three at IGCSE and did very well.
Lots will say do Mandarin but I’m not sure how much “useful” mandarin he’ll learn.

If he enjoys Latin and the academic side of language learning, possibly Spanish as he may enjoy starting to understand more about the Romance family of languages, their roots and how they connect together (though he may need to be making some of those connections himself rather than being explicitly taught).
On the other hand, there is significant academic challenge in Mandarin and Russian!

I did a Russian degree, having studied it at GCSE and A level. I loved it! Not only the language (which has Latin roots, so although it has a different alphabet, it’s not as far removed from English as it might seem - I also did 12 weeks of Mandarin at one point and found it really hard!) but also the history, the culture and the literature. Good luck with the choice

If he is an able linguist in Latin, then German would be the easiest but different enough from French, Russian more of an interesting challenge and Mandarin would be a lot of rote learning and drawing of characters but little structural grammar.
If there is one country of region of the world that particularly fascinates him then that should trump the choice as he would be capable of doing any of them to GCSE level. Along those lines ask him if and where he would be tempted to do a year abroad at university.

My daughter found Spanish ,French and Latin too confusing - too much overlap. So I wouldn’t do Spanish.

DD (Yr11) did Latin and French in Yr7 then picked up Spanish and Classical Greek -as extra curricular-in Yr8.
Latin helped with the Spanish.
She dropped Spanish in Yr10 to concentrate on the others for GCSE.

Out of curiosity, where/what are these schools that have such a huge choice and such a supply of MFL teachers!?

Thank you all, brilliant food for thought. School is independent, I'm afraid - we are v lucky to have all these options (though DS's friend at state grammar has a similar choice).

Spanish is so useful. It'd have to be Spanish for me. Although mandarin would be a big draw for certain employers I guess.

Depends on career choice.
Brexit notwithstanding, German is usually more use in a later career in business. (We do more business with them than any other European nation)

Ds2 did Russian and Spanish from y7. He dropped Spanish after AS level and is now at uni doing Russian. His Gf is taking joint Russian and French. They are both really enjoying it, they did their year abroad in Russia last year.

Unless there is a particular interest in Russian or Mandarin I would go with German, too. Really useful language and will come in handy if your ds ends up in science or economics.

I liked GErman. But never quite got holds of Der, die , das. But I still got a C not bad considering I didn,t take the higher papers.

My school just offered the standard languages but German had the smallest class sizes and I got good grades so I'd probably have gone with that if I'd had the choice. French was my first language and a lot bigger though I did like languages so did well in both.

No Latin or Mandarin options I'm afraid!

At a similar stage half a lifetime ago (O levels) I picked German and loved it - am still using it and enjoying the literature. I also did Russian on the side as a club, but haven’t got as much depth and use out of that over the years.

Mandarin is fashionable in schools but I am not convinced that a GCSE in it gets it to a usable level. And Spanish is very accessible in later life to anyone with a grounding in French and Latin.

So, another vote for German.

As a German I would say German is a good choice as Latin gives a good base regarding grammar and it is different enough to French to not cause problems. Spanish can be too similar.

Russian, according to a Russian colleague, means learning not only a language but also the totally different alphabet and can be quite daunting. I would assume Mandarin also means a lot more groundwork than any language using our alphabet.

If he is interest in languages Russian or Mandarin maybe a good challenge but it obviously means less progress short term. What are his options in the next years? Doing Russian/Mandarin for just 1-2 years is pointless, than German will give him a lot more.

The UN has certain key languages and employs translators who speak them : One is definitely Russian.

I would do Spanish as they all help each other and Spanish literature is so lovely.

I did a Russian with French degree, and French, Spanish and Latin at GCSE.... German would have been more useful than Russian as I really haven't used it (I did for about a year after graduating) but I worked a lot in Europe and French, Spanish, English and German would have been of more use. That said, I Ioved the Russian history and literature elements of my degree.

As a former French teacher I would suggest Latin: it’s the basis for Italian, Portuguese and Spanish so it’s much easier to pick them up...3 languages for the price of one. Additionally, it gives a really basis for good grammar in all languages.

Thanks again all, so many responses! Gangan he's already doing Latin, so it's about an additional language. I think he can do any of them through to sixth form, so that's not a problem. He likes the idea of ancient Greek too, but that not an option until a bit later. So much useful food for thought on here!

Another who did French, Latin (both mandatory for us) and opted for Spanish. There are overlaps, some find that useful, other would prefer a distinct different, in which case I would go for German.
Also depends on if they have future plans yet. I would think German would be more useful in mainland Europe, but Spanish more useful in South America?

eleven If he enjoys Latin he will like Classical Greek.
DD finds it trickier than Latin but equally as enjoyable.

@Piggywaspushed I lived in Brussels for 10 years (and started French at age 4) so I had thought of doing translation work for the EU, but when I went to speak to some, I was advised that almost all of them were bilingual children - so to get to translation standard (certainly simultaneous translation standard) at the UN or EU would be extremely difficult without the advantage of a bilingual childhood.

(I ended up becoming a chartered surveyor so my Russian was really useful )

Probably true, sadly. But they do recruit spies from Russian degrees!!