German, Spanish or Latin?

[MEMsmum]

My DD (12) has to choose her second language option tomorrow and we're a bit stuck on how to choose. I know this has come up before (2 years ago in April 05! Must be the time of year!! ) - but having read these old threads, just wondered if anyone could update on their DC's choices.

There's a possibility of a short-term sabbatical in South America so Spanish would be great. But she's quite keen on history so Latin could also be useful. But wouldn't German be handy too and from what I've read it's harder to pick up German later. On the other hand, what I'd really like her to learn is Italian as that's where her cousins live!

Choices, choices, choices - if only it was either or it would be so much easier! ... and don't get me started on kitchens!!

[lucy5]

I would say Spanish as out of the three it is more widely spoken.

[ScottishThistle]

Latin is very useful to then go on & learn spanish/italian.

I personally would choose spanish as it's more useful.

[slalomsuki]

Spanish would be the one I would choose

I had the choice of German and Latin and took German and apart from the odd buisness trip about 15 years later when I ordered beer I didn't realy use it. Brother took Latin and used it even less.

However Spanish is useful and also you can use it to understand French and Italien due to the language root.

[portonovo]

German or Latin definitely. Both are great languages and I've found them both useful in lots of ways - loads of English and foreign words have Latin or German roots.

German is one of the easiest languages to learn, I found.

[Marina]

Double check if any more options are possible further up the school. In the same situation I chose Latin (and never regretted it) and picked up O Level Spanish in the 6th form.

[throckenholt]

I would go for Spanish - it is widely spoken, is linked to Latin and Italian, and is much easier to learn than German.

If she is good with languages then she can do German later.

[melrose]

I did French and german, got A at both and have never spoken a word of either since, bar reading the odd menu on a weekend trip to Paris.

Wish I had doen Spanisha s far mopre likely to go there on holiday!

I was persuaded to do German on the basis of it being more widely used business wise but not sure how true that is.

Re: latin, not sure i know anyone who has used it outside of education

[franca70]

Spanish is certainly useful, and once you know spanish you can at least read Italian fairly easily. (I'm Italian and I'm able to read spanish and french without many probs)
On the other hand I studied Latin (and ancient greek) at high school, and I loved it.

[PavlovtheCat]

Spanish, its a beautiful language. Getting a sabbatical would be great! And she would be able to do this later if not now. If she is keen on history, she will pick up whatever latin she needs as she goes along anyway, and she wont need it anywhere else really.
If she is able to learn one language now, she will find learning another much easier later in life so she could learn German another time if she choses.

Spanish opens up more of the world to her IMO.

[mankyscotslass]

Spanish is probably the most useful. But i have always loved the arts and humanities and did latin and ancient greek at high school. I have to say i found the latin really helpful, and i loved the history behind the language. I was lucky, not many schools in the area of scotland i was from did either latin or ancient greek as a language. I was and still am a bit of a geek...

[wychbold]

What results do your school get? Is there a marked difference between the GCSE results of the three languages?

[Lilymaid]

Latin is brilliant. After doing Latin O Level I (and my friends) managed to get a Spanish O Level in two terms of once a week after school classes. It is the foundation of the romance languages and is also helpful for learning German (and other languages with a complicated case/verb structure). And you get the chance to study all those poems by Catullus.

[Hallgerda]

I had the same choice around 30 years ago, chose Latin and didn't regret it. We got to read something of real interest to teenagers ,and it looks impressive on the CV. It would probably be easier to pick up a modern language after leaving school than to take up Latin then.

[Londonmamma]

Spanish

I studied French and German at uni - Spanish would have been far more useful.

Latin does have its place though.

[MEMsmum]

Wow! Thanks everyone - lots of burning the midnight oil trying to find out answers - like most things in my life, should have thought of asking Mumsnet first!!

[DarrellRivers]

Another vote for latin here
I took latin and german as well as french and happily dropped german rather than the latin at GCSE.
fascinating basis for the development of modern languages

[ejt1764]

As a language teacher, I'd suggest Spanish - it is spoken in far more countries than German.

Once dd learns Spanish, then Italian would come fairly quickly (as would Portuguese)

German grammar is easy to start with, but gets really hard very quickly.

Latin is very good if dd is interested in classical history, but is far easier to learn by yourself (if you are so inclined) when you are an adult, as the spoken side is obviously not as important.

It's a difficult choice: you are fortunate (in one way) to have that choice to make - there are not many schools around offering multiple choices for a second language - in fact there are very few offering a second language at all!

[SueW]

I did German first, added Latin and finally added French at O level.

I never did Spanish but I still wish I had - and still intend to learn. Then again, those three languages have given me an excellent grounding for understanding lots of other European language signs as I've travelled e.g. Dutch, Spanish, Italian.

[SueW]

ejt1764, why do you say German grammar becomes hard? It has always seemed very logical to me. In fact, sometimes I still use it to work out what I should write in English.

E.g Der Mann, mit dem Ich....

The man, with whom I....

ok perhaps I could have come up with a better example.... I do like the logic of rules like time, manner, place but having not learnt it for 20 years, I wonder how much it has changed and relaxed.

[marialuisa]

For various reasons I was made to learn Latin from the age of 13 and although I was initially annoyed (having opted for German over Latin at age 11) I was quickly really glad to have the opportunity to study the subject and ended up choosing it as one of my GCSE options. I have a bit of a thing for learning languages and it really helped with those but I also found it helped my English and Science.

I would love DD to learn latin at school but sadly Minimus doesn't appear to have hit the East Midlands yet.

From a personal point of view I would say that Spanish is the easiest of the 3 to pick up, my sixth form college ran courses where you went from beginner to a-level in 2 years and everyone who took it as an option, even the less-gifted linguists scored highly.

[TenaLady]

Spanish, isnt it the next most widely used language after English?

[Cashncarry]

Hi MEMsmum. Hope you don't mind me saying but what does your DD want to do? I only say that because I don't remember discussing with my parents what language to choose to learn at that age. They pretty much left those type of decisions up to me!

Maybe I'm out of line but I think 12 is old enough to choose your own academic direction - that way you've only yourself to blame if you make the wrong choice!

No doubt she's probably asked your advice which is why you've asked the question but I would probably encourage her to make her own choices. Just my opinion so feel free to tell me to bog off

BTW I chose Latin and never regretted it - it's a great base for learning other languages.

[clerkKent]

30 years ago German used to be very useful for advanced chemistry - lots of original research was published in German. A friend doing a chemistry degree (who went on to to a PhD then lecture in Chemistry) used to read papers in German.

Has DD done any of the subjects before? If so, choose the one she likes best. In fact in any case let her make the choice (with your guidance).