Two language GCSEs?

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Has anyone's dc studied two languages for GCSEs? If so how did they find it, in particular the workload?

Everyone in my year at school had to do French and German for at least gcse.
I don’t really use the German much now, but do use the French a lot still. Quite a few classmates went on to teach English abroad using their a levels and degrees and have travelled the world. I found it easy to differentiate french and German as they are so very different but I imagine some languages may be harder to mix due to their similarities

My dd did german and French GCSE last year. She did German as a full option and French one after school session a week and missed a PE lesson. She came out with 8 for German and 7 for French which is pretty good considering she did 11.5 GCSEs!
If your ds is good at languages and enjoys them, it's a good choice. Quite a few students dropped out of the extra French though when they realised it was quite fast paced to cover the syllabus with lots of homework!

DS1 did French and Spanish GCSE and they were his best results. He didn't get confused, and the workload was lower than many subjects! DS2 wishes now that he had done Spanish and French instead of Spanish and music.

I did French and German in sixth form and, again, managed fine. I found learning grammar for one subject helped the other. You got kind of immersed in it.

DD Y11 here is doing 3 languages - french, spanish and mandarin. Was made easier on options as school allowed one science to be dropped to study remainder as singles. Definitely finds work load easier than essay based subjects, and manages well.

If your DS finds them enjoyable, is naturally able and ok with the extra lessons before/after school, then perfect solution.

I think two languages are perfectly doable, especially for anyone with an aptitude for them. Years ago I did two (French and German) O levels and that was quite standard. I don't unfortunately have an aptitude for languages.

My older daughter did two (French and Latin) and wanted to continue with Spanish too, but didn't have room in her timetable to do all three and Spanish eventually lost out to another subject.

The younger one only did French and had struggled previously with French and Spanish as she did mix them up. She also struggled with Latin. Being dyslexic probably didn't help. In retrospect it would probably have been easier if the two MFL had been more different, but we didn't think of that at the time (we chose Spanish as we thought it would be more useful than German).

If languages come naturally embrace it!

As I said earlier I did French and German at A level, (then a French and business degree) It still comes in useful many years later. My French is still fluent having worked there, German is very rusty but still there deep down.

@SisterVanHelsing I don't think it's so much that 2 languages are too difficult, it's more that lack of MFL teachers these days meaning that schools can't offer more than one.

The enthusiastic linguists back in my comprehensive in the 80s managed 2 fine.

I did 3 languages and it was fine. Ds is doing 2 and it's fine. Once you get going on a language you don't tend to muddle it with another language in my experience.

One of mine did three languages and three sciences. Language AAA, sciences BBB. Was just fine. Did lots of practice for the orals. Continued with neither at A level but it gave a good spread of GCSEs.

God daughter did french, German and Latin. She only continued Latin to a level as she is going to do classics in September. Workload was fine but I think either french or German was compulsory. The only issue was when there were trips to the country - she could only choose one so she wasn’t missing lots of school time.
Her sister did Spanish, German and Latin and would have done french too if given the choice!

DD (Yr11) is doing 3 languages: French, Latin and Ancient Greek. The Greek is extra curricular and has been done in lunchtime and/or after school lessons.
She is sitting 10 GCSEs, which include triple science, and FM.

If your DS enjoys languages the extra curricular lessons won't be a problem.

I did both french and German and for A in both, despite not being naturally inclined towards languages (has to do both at school as I was considered top set so no choice). Was fine. I dropped Latin though.

I did it. Gujarati, Spanish, and French. All quite similar in terms of language and as I was good at languages anyway it wasn’t so much of an effort to get all As

DD1 did French and Spanish ab initio GCSEs under the old system.

It played to her strengths as she was good speaking and memorising (as needed for written and spoke CAs). Also it meant she only needed to learn 1 exam technique for 2 GCSEs, and the revision load was less for languages as they are more cumulative than say for History.

She did occasionally get confused and throw in the wrong language (not helped by having the same teacher for both subjects), but the benefits definitely outweighed the negatives for her.

She went on to attempt Spanish AS and is now working in a customer service job with a Spanish flag on it.

I did 3 languages, if you include Latin, both my dc are doing the same. If you like languages it's not a problem at all ...

I sat 4 la language exams. My first language Welsh, my second English fluent in both and then French and Spanish. I did fine and I'm sure your DC will too.

Wow so many replies, thank you all :)

I'm going to show ds later and hopefully it will reassure him that he can do it and it's not as daunting as it sounds.

It’s not daunting if you are good at languages! In fact it might even be enjoyable and certainly opens doors if he continues with them!