Should I take Spanish in school?
What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of taking Spanish in school? I'm trying to decide whether to do it or wait till later in my life.
9 Answers
It takes a long time and a lot of work to learn Spanish, and right now you have the time, and the advantage of taking a free class which helps keep you focused on doing it.
If you take 4 years of high school Spanish, you still won't be very good at it, but you will have enough of a beginning to test out of a lot of it in college, and possibly go overseas for part of your college years.
My son went to Panama for college credit. His girlfriend spent a year in Spain. For both it was a life changing experience, and both of them gained a lot in their Spanish. But the key is that they never would have had that chance if they were still learning their alphabet and "¿Cómo está usted?"
Take it now.
Hi spanman,
I have my degree in secondary education with focus first on Spanish, and then French and Music. I also studied at one of the colleges that was considered a leader in the Teaching Profession (at that time, anyway)
Part of becoming a teacher in any subject is to understand how the human cognitive system works, and this means a taking a lot of [child] Psychology classes. The absolute best time to learn languages is from the ages 3 to 6 years old. Unfortunately, there’s no curriculum similar in the U.S. but in other countries, teaching a second language (usually English) start the students around the same age which is considered to be first grade. It’s a normal tendency that when children learn languages at this age, the individual more easily grasps concepts and retains them.
At the University or Adult level, one usually learns an additional language because it’s necessary i.e. for their career. The lessons are more intense and presented to the student in a way that they acquire knowledge more readily (yet at the same there's the risk the student losses the knowledge if not purposely maintained)
Classes taught at the high school level are usually provided to the student in order to help determine a career path before going on to college, but at the core of the high school curriculum is the fact that whatever course is being taught, the essential purpose of providing education to students at this age level is to develop learning processes in which the cognitive system can adopt. In other words, it’s not necessarily the destination, but the means to that destination.
Now, speaking from personal experience, most of the world has accepted English as the official language to conduct business. For any English speaker this could be advantageous, but it’s also a crutch….especially once you realize that any country that can contribute to the global economy already speaks English plus their native language, and those that are starting to pull ahead have people fluent in not only 3 but even 4 or 5 languages.
So the question remains up to you, Will learning the process of assimilating a new language be beneficial in your thought process or career goals?
It is easier to learn when you are young. Do it now. No matter what job you have in the future, to be bilingual will be a big plus for you.
If I could return to school and select a language to learn based on what I know today, I would definitely choose Spanish. Back then I took German because it was considered the language of science. I got as far a a semester studying German in Germany and a minor in the language. I ended up not going into science and pretty much lost all my German from lack of use.
Now, many years later, it seems difficult for me to learn Spanish. I would love to take some classes at a local community college but right now schedule and funds don't allow this. I am learning with the many resources on this site, Rosetta Stone, a couple of different texts and references, but the going is slow. My vocabulary is pretty good, my grammar is OK, but my speaking is abysmal.
So my advice: Take as much Spanish now as you can! You will not regret it.
I am taking Spanish in college in effort to keep up with the changing culture in my community. I took one Spanish class in High School, but didn't give it the attention it deserved. Now I'm paying nearly $1,000 for each semester (4 total) and I find it extremely challenging when dealing with other college classes (the pace is a bit faster). Even after spending nearly $4,000 for my Spanish classes when it's all said and done, I will still have a long way to go before I can consider myself literate. Take the classes!
I took two years of high school Spanish and thought I didn't learn anything. Then when I found myself in South America, a lot of what I had been taught came back, and I understood it a lot better. After a couple of months in SA, I had surpassed everything that had been taught in my high school classes, but I was glad I had the foundation.
If I were running the circus, oops, I mean curriculum, I would start teaching Spanish in pre-school (it's almost a default second language in the USA anyway), then in about the 4th grade I would add a foreign language (my choice would be Chinese simply for pragmatic reasons), then in high school (first year) I would add another language. Students would graduate as bilinguals with a strong foundation for two more languages.
The globe is getting too small to remain as provincial as we currently are in the US.
Advantages: A teacher to explain things to you
Friends to practice with you so it'll be more fun.
More practice in conversation, writing, reading.
Disadvantages: You have to learn with the rest of the class, you might be a very fast learner but you have to wait for your class, or you might be a slow learner and hold up the whole class.
Also you don't get to learn a lot in a year.
But it will be better if you decide to learn spanish in school. I am learning Spanish in school now and I found that I am more interested in Spanish than any other language. I learned not many things but I can remember most of them because I got lots of practice.
yes you should
Classes are helpful. You should definitely take classes if they are available.
