My middle daughter (senior) is taking German, French, and Latin this year.

[HopeHoops]

Right now she has them all at the same time, but they do spread them out for other marking periods (of which there are six in our district).

I took French in middle school (2 years of it) and other than some of the numbers and colors, pretty much all I remember is "Je ne parles pas fraincais" (sp?). I figured it would be the most valuable thing I could retain. All of the words just mush together into an incomprehensible stream of babble for me.

In sharp contrast, I took 2 years each of Russian and German in college and did quite well in both. At least I can help her with the German this year.

[rurallib]

1. she may be planning to run away.

just a thought.

[HopeHoops]

2. Unlikely. That would interfere with afternoon naps with her cat.

[seabeyond]

3. Je ne sais pas....

i dont know.

how i got thru the questions in french

[BuddhaGirl]

4. wow!

In high school, I took 4 years of French and 2 of Spanish...my junior & senior years had both at the same time and I loved it.

In college, one year I had French (was minoring), Spanish, and Latin at the same time. I love languages so I was in heaven! :-)

[MiddleFingerMom]

5. Why does she hate America so? n/t

[HopeHoops]

7. LOL! I almost pissed my pants when I read that!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:patriot:

[struggle4progress]

6. You should heckle her that they're all useless languages: if she wanted to succeed,

she'd take Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish

[HopeHoops]

8. Two years ago my youngest spent a month in a Chinese immersion class - she was 13.

It was at a college out in the middle of nowhere CT (beautiful setting) during the summer.

If you're interested in Arabic, check out http://www.arabion.net/learnarabic.html

The eldest (19 and just entered her sophomore year at college) took 4 years of Spanish in middle and high schools. She's taking ASL at college.

[Lyric]

9. I took French and Spanish simultaneously in high school

and I'm taking Russian in college. Just started it this semester, in fact. So far I'm loving it--the sentence structure and syntax are sooooo much more similar to English than the Romantic languages were.

:hi:

[mnhtnbb]

11. My son just started Russian this semester, too!

:hi:

[Lyric]

12. Tell him I said

Здравствуйте!

:hi:

[mnhtnbb]

16. I will!

[mnhtnbb]

10. My youngest son (3rd year college) is a German major; he's starting Russian

this semester and he took two semesters of Spanish already.

He's always loved languages. His elementary school had a Japanese and Spanish elective program--prior
to the start of school in early a.m.--and he took those as well as sign language.

He spent 7 weeks doing summer study in Berlin this summer. He's planning, at this point, a Ph.D.
in German to become a college instructor, and wants to take a year off to live in Germany after
he finishes undergraduate before he starts graduate school.

We're encouraging him. I can think of no better place for him to be able to live outside the U.S.
than Germany.

[HopeHoops]

13. Russian is an absolutely beautiful language (all politics aside).

Although a lot of languages have forced alliteration because of gender agreement, something about the way it is handled in Russian adds an element of grace to it. I'm sure sure he will love it.

As for German, if he doesn't already own it get him Cassell's New German Dictionary (Funk & Wagnalls Company) for his next holiday or other celebratory event. I scored the 1939 edition in a used book store for $4 while I was taking German in college, so that would have been about 1987-1988. Not only is it a comprehensive reference, but it is just all around attractive and has the tabbed thumb guides. A more recent version (1978) is http://www.amazon.com/Cassells-German-Dictionary-German-English-English-German/dp/0025229303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283174186&sr=1-1

[driver8]

14. My kids are in a Spanish Immersion program -- I wish we had a program like this.

My daughter is starting her fourth year in the program (3rd grade) and my son is starting his second year (first grade).

My daughter reads, writes and speaks Spanish like a native speaker. My son is getting there...

Good for your daughter! I wish I had paid more attention in my French classes.

[Brickbat]

15. Good for her! I took Russian, French and German in high school, and threw in a little Spanish in

college, and studied some languages on my own on the side. I love learning languages. I'm still good with all of them, too.