Learning a 2nd foreign language at secondary - advice please

[purpleturtle1]

DD has just started year 7 at our local state comp in London and is really happy - doing well academically and loving the social side of things. However pupils only have the option to learn one modern language there. She has been assigned to Spanish, but I would like her to learn French too - even if just for a couple of years.

I’m thinking of finding a French tutor for her - to give 1-to-1 lessons - but am wondering if there’s a different/better option. Anyone have experience with Duolingo? Or group lessons? Or just learning from a textbook? She’s bright (doing very well at Spanish) and I think would pick it up easily. I also did French for A Level so could certainly teach her the basics - but I imagine lessons might go better with someone who wasn’t her mum!

Many thanks in advance.

@TheaBrandt not great at all! It was one of the things that put me off the school the most (although has lots of other things going for it). It seems that foreign language provision in a lot of non-selective state schools is now pretty poor - as @Hoppinggreen suggests.

Does she have any friends who would also be interested in doing a second language? DD and a couple of friends did an extra language privately after school, and it was definitely better doing it as a group.

I love languages, so for my son I make my own lessons based on BBC Bitesize and he uses Duolingo to reinforce the learning. I make it active so that it is fun. Depends if you enjoy creating lessons though.

DD does Russian at school and really loves it. It is hard but she seems not to mind in the way I probably would! It is a good challenge for a clever child who might be inclined to coast a bit.

The point with Duolingo is about structure and how to form sentences as well as vocab. I am using it to learn German and I am finding it really helpful.
I have never needed to know where the library was in any country I have visited but learning it in French and Spanish in Y (now) 7 helped me with structure

I'd advise against starting French and Spanish at the same time because they are similar both in terms of grammar as well as vocabulary. I'd look for German, Russian or Mandarin lessons to stretch your DD.

Lots of people say Spanish is more useful. Why is that? Surely the most useful language is the one for the country you most often go to? I love Spanish but DD chose French because we go on holiday there. If I were looking for a European job, Germany has more opportunities.

@DorritLittle
People just look at holidays and how many people speak a language and then declare Spanish more useful. It’s not if you go to Italy a lot! My DD did French and Italian. There’s so much more to language learning than how many people speak it. Look at culture, food, history, politics, art, literature, theatre and other things that make countries tick.

@purpleturtle1 MFL availability at many state schools is awful. Why talented linguists should be limited to one MFL is beyond me when other groups of subjects are offered.

No, Dc don’t get confused by two Romance languages. Yes, there really are Dc who need more than one MFL. We don’t restrict scientists to one narrow science but many linguists are restricted in this way and it doesn’t help when they want to look at MFL degrees.

My mum managed to get my sister switched from Spanish to French, asked politely, pointed out three of my family lived in France. Any chance of a long lost relative being there?

Mandarin is very difficult, but there are many weekend schools in London teaching it. DC are learning it. I don't know about Russian.

Our top set pick up second language in yr8. Speak to school

Spanish is much more useful than french

@Feetache
As an academic subject, there’s no difference between them. How do you define “useful”? Having a chat on holiday? Or do you think Spanish is more useful when working in France? Or Brazil? Or n Switzerland? Or Canada? All languages have value for all sorts of reasons. For most DC it’s the academic stretch that matters. Not a holiday in Majorca.

No I don't mean holidays to brit resorts for two weeks!!!
Spanish is much more widely spoken worldwide. I lived in the states and Europe and it is more useful than french.

www.russiancentre.co.uk/

Russian Language Centre offers beginning and more advanced level classes.

At some point, fluent Russian is going to be a very useful language.

@Feetache
we are talking about academic subjects at university. Not chatting to the local Puerto Rican or Mexican. Young people should not be pushed into a language by merely thinking who speaks it. There’s so much more to discover and learn.

Impossible to know what subject a Yr7 might want to study at uni. They will have no idea. Language courses are less and less sadly too.
Imo a language that's wildly used and will give you skills to be able to travel & do business in was the basis of my comments.

I studied French, German and Russian at secondary school and loved russian classes so much i studied russian at university and then moved to Moscow until my mid twenties. As pp have said, its has a such a different base to the romance languages. Plus i found the history and culture of the russian nation very interesting to study alongside. Opportunities to visit would be potentially harder given current world events though.

Why would she need a tutor if she's bright?
I did 2 foreign languages at school.

most people near us do two languages at high school here (Australia) but as far as I’m aware it’s rarely two European languages. I did French and Chinese at one school and French and Korean at another, people did German and Japanese etc etc. that makes much more sense than French and Spanish i think.

@ImPickleRickSpartacus
Because she hasn’t been offered two foreign languages at school, as per the original post!

My views, from someone who has been learning languages on and off for most of her life:

• so much easier to learn languages when you’re younger, so if she’s agreeable I would definitely go for it now
• if a few of her friends want to learn, that would be a great idea though problems might arise if they get fed up at different rates
• I use Duolingo. It’s good for repetition but I have no idea how anyone learns any grammar from it, and the vocabulary can be a bit off the wall
• if you’re in London you should have no problem finding a tutor, but I was studying Spanish when Covid hit and we switched to Zoom. Horrifying at first, but once we got used to it (and I am old) it just became so much easier in terms of not having to travel quite long distances to get to class. Most language schools now offer online courses which have the advantage that they can use teachers from anywhere in the world so doesn’t tie you down to what is available locally, and obviously if you enrol via the school (I use Instituto Cervantes but no doubt there is the French equivalent) then you would expect them to have access to a good standard of teachers.

Spanish is spoken in far more countries than French.

Not true.