Poll: Did you have to take a foreign language in school?

[elfkin477]

I'm curious about the foreign language requirements in schools and the idea that many people, Americans in particular, only speak one language since they were never required to learn any others.

By "have to" I mean was taking the class a graduation requirement?

[SpoilerVirgin]

I was not required to take a foreign language in high school. However, since I went to high school in California, we were all strongly encouraged to take a foreign language if we planned to go to college, since the University of California system had a foreign language requirement. In fact, much of our high school curriculum was designed to meet the UC requirements, so that we would all be able to attend if we wanted to.

I was able to meet the college foreign language requirement with an Advanced Placement exam, but I ended up taking a new language anyway.

[alphaboi867]

In my HS it depended on what track you were on. Math & Sciences and Arts & Humanities both required at least 2 years of a foreign langauge (unless you were an ESL student). I'm pretty sure Business students had to too (or at least they were strongly encouraged to). VoTech students didn't have to. The guidence counselors encouraged everybody too take a langauge because "all colleges require it for admission".

My school offered Spanish & French. I took 4 years of French and 3 years of Spanish. It would've been 4 of each, but my counselor would only let me take one Freshman year. The district didn't have any FL programs before high school, but by the time one of my younger neices went to the middle school they'd started teaching Spanish.

[Spectralist]

In Canada, or at least in the district I went to in BC, French was required in grades 4-7 but after that no foreign language courses were required. My high school offered French and German initially and started a Japanese program my last year there.

[Procrustus]

I didn't have to take a foreign language in high school (although I did), nor in college (where I didn't).

The Seattle Schools strongly encourage students to take two years of foreign language. My daughter didn't (on my advice) and got into her first choice college. I started a thread about it once......worried that I had doomed her chances.

My Alma Marta flirts with the idea now and then of requiring students to be fluent in another language to graduate, in order to better become "global citizens." I always tell them they've seen my last dollar if they do such a thing. I think speaking more than one language is a great thing for people who want to, but by no means necessary to be considered "educated."

[even sven]

California. I think we had to take one year, and two years were strongly encouraged to meet CA public college admission reqs.

I had crap teachers and didn't learn a thing, which is a shame because knowing a second language is essential to my career, and it turns out that once you are out of school it is ungodly expensive.

Anyway, being fluent in another language opens up doors you never even knew were closed.

[carnivorousplant]

For an Electronic Engineering Technology BS a foreign language was required. I believe the choices were Russian or German. I should have taken Russian:

"Where is the safety?"
"Is not safe, is gun."

But I choose German.
To misquote Mark Twain, buying peas at the grocery store:

"I am going to buy him, I will boil her, I will eat it." :)

[Oakminster]

Yup, two years of a foreign language was required for a B.A. at my undergrad school.

[HazelNutCoffee]

I attended a charter school in Korea that focuses on foreign languages, and my major was Chinese. All Korean high school students are required to take one foreign language.

As an English literature major in college (also Korea) I was required to take a "Western" language. Obviously my background in Chinese proved completely useless. I chose French.

Now, several years later, I have a scanty knowledge of both.

[Not a Platypus]

It was required in elementary school, but that was on an army base in another country, so they were teaching the local language. It's never been required at any of my other schools, though they did recommend it.

[MovieMogul]

My BA required two foreign languages (!) so even though I didn't need to take any in High School, the amount I did (Spanish) transferred over for credit, so that only left one (French) to contend with.

[Eva Luna]

My high school had a two-year foreign language requirement; I took 4 years of one foreign language and two of a second. My college had a requirement that students either take two years of the same foreign language or pass a proficiency test. I majored in one foreign language and minored in a second (a different one than the second one I'd studied in high school) and obviously tested out - they made me take the proficiency test at the beginning of freshman year even though I'd gotten a 5 on the Spanish AP exam and declared a Spanish major at the start of orientation.

IIRC these requirements were only for the liberal arts college; engineering students, etc. had a different set of requirements, and I simply have no idea what they were.

[Pai325]

I have an "other" answer. I was not required to take a foreign language to graduate from high school, but by taking 2 years, I fulfilled my college requirement. That's not why I took it, I just wanted to speak German. Which I never really did, unfortunately. Maybe I should buy Rosetta Stone.

[ZipperJJ]

Yeah my answer is sort of like Pai325's. I'm sure I could have taken something other than Spanish and graduated high school, but I wanted to take Spanish. In college, they lumped math and language and "foreign studies" together in one requirement for journalism and I leaped at the chance to take Spanish II and III.

So, no one required me to choose the path that included those requirements, but I did.

[Onomatopoeia]

I think I'm a bit older than most of you guys, and when I was in high school in the mid '70s, there was no foreign language requirement for high school graduation. I did take two years of French though, but prior to that, before my dad was deployed to Vietnam, we lived for a couple of years in Nuremberg, Germany, so I picked up German because it was a requirement in grammar school there.

When I became an adult, I realized I had an affinity for languages and began teaching myself Hebrew and Arabic (I was dating a Yemeni girl at the time, so I must admit my motivation was not purely academic). I then met my wife, who's a native Spanish speaker and it was simply easier on her for me to become proficient in Spanish. In my mid 30s, I became enamored with Japanese culture, and have been a student of the Japanese language ever since.

When people say Americans tend to speak only one language, I have to agree. I know very few Americans two or more generations removed from an immigrant relative who can speak a language other than English, and by speak I mean converse.

Perhaps there's a heightened emphasis on learning a second language in American primary and secondary schools now. I certainly hope so.

[Sunspace]

In high school, we weren't required to take a foreign language. We all had to take French as a second language, but French is not a foreign language in Canada. The school also offered German as an elective, so I took that. :)

Interestingly, the school now offers Spanish instead of German as a third language.

In both university and college, I didn't have to take a language, unless you count math as a language. Architecture (university) and electronics (college) had other things on their mind.

[Onomatopoeia]

In high school, we weren't required to take a foreign language. We all had to take French as a second language, but French is not a foreign language in Canada. The school also offered German as an elective, so I took that. :)

Interestingly, the school now offers Spanish instead of German as a third language.

In both university and college, I didn't have to take a language, unless you count math as a language. Architecture (university) and electronics (college) had other things on their mind.Yeah, but you also speak Esperanto, Sunspace, for which I am insanely jealous. :)

[elfkin477]

I have an "other" answer. I was not required to take a foreign language to graduate from high school, but by taking 2 years, I fulfilled my college requirement. That's not why I took it, I just wanted to speak German. Which I never really did, unfortunately. Maybe I should buy Rosetta Stone. That's not really other. It's the "not required in high school but required in college" answer because the poll is about the requirements, not how you fulfilled them.

[Onomatopoeia]

I have an "other" answer. I was not required to take a foreign language to graduate from high school, but by taking 2 years, I fulfilled my college requirement. That's not why I took it, I just wanted to speak German. Which I never really did, unfortunately. Maybe I should buy Rosetta Stone.By the way, and slightly off-topic I know, but don't waste your money on Rosetta Stone. A great marketing strategy/business model, which I admit they have, does not mean the product provides any value to the language learner, which Rosetta Stone doesn't.

[Rodgers01]

Had to in both college and high school. My impression (from the number of younger cousins and family friends I know who are struggling through Spanish or French to fulfill their language requirement) is that it's required rather more often than not.

However, whether you were required to study a language or not has, I think, very little to do with why most Americans can only speak one language. Taking a year or two or even three of a language in high school isn't going to mean much in the long term if you don't consciously decide to keep studying it. The vast majority of Americans just aren't exposed to another language on a regular basis, so most of the time their language skills die. My mother took French for years and can still ask for directions if pressed, but no way is she as proficient as she was when she'd just graduated from school - there are just no French speakers around or any demand to use it.

The sole exception, of course, is Spanish. And - just as you'd guess - most Americans seem to have picked up just as much Spanish as they might need. I've never had a Spanish lesson in my life, but can understand every word in (for example) comedy skits where they making fun of Latin American soap operas. Presumably most other Americans can, too, or else they wouldn't do it. (For comparison, you'd never see a parody of a Chinese drama without subtitles.)

[Revenant Threshold]

Over in my high school in the UK, we had a choice of two from three; French, German, or Spanish. I took the first two and don't remember much of either (more of French, but that's more picked up stuff than actually remembering it). They also very briefly offered Sanskrit as an after school thing, but only because the Religious Education teacher at the time understood it, and I remember pretty much zilch of that.

[mnemosyne]

... we weren't required to take a foreign language. We all had to take French [as a second language], but French is not a foreign language in Canada.

This.

I went through the English school system in Quebec, so I had French classes from Kindergarten through to the Cégep. My full-day kindergarten had the mornings in French and the afternoons in English, with the two swapping every month. After that the requirement was ~1hour per day through to the end of high school (grade 11). Then two French courses in Cégep to get my diploma. University does not have any language requirements, other than proof of proficiency in the language of instruction at enrollment. The amount of French required per day from grades 1-11 has now changed, I think - maybe 90 minutes? I'm not sure. The bilingual kindergarten was particular to my school board at the time.

In my schools, the French classes weren't necessarily Second Language courses - for those of us that are bilingual, there were more enriched and mother tongue classes (instead of "regular") so that the subject matter was at a more appropriate level.

[Shagnasty]

We barely had a foreign language in my tiny high school and it was Spanish only. I took it and also had to take three intensive semesters of Spanish in college as well. Spanish 100 was the only college course I got a C in but I clawed my way up to a B+ by my third semester when it was 100% immersion literature and lectures plus intensive papers in Spanish. I tried so, so hard but that was the one academic subject I couldn't excel at even though I could give good student lectures 100% in Spanish at the end with a question and answer session from professors. I can read some complicated Spanish now but I can't speak it very well. You need to start young on that stuff and I did not. My daughters are bilingual French though because their public school offers an unusual program in complete French immersion from Kindergarten through high school. They can talk behind my back because I don't speak French either.

[Kyla]

I'm not sure how to answer this. I don't think my high school had a foreign language requirement, but I took four years of Spanish anyway.

Like SpoilerVirgin, I attended the University of California, but my memory of the admission requirement is different - as I recall, to be admitted you needed to have 2 years of a foreign language in high school, and if you didn't have 3 years, you had to do a year of a language in college. I didn't take the AP exam and it wasn't an issue.

Since I had taken four years of a language in high school, that didn't affect me. But I took two years of Hebrew anyway.

So my university did have a foreign language requirement, but I think a lot of people weren't actually affected by it, since pretty much everyone I knew had taken at least three years in high school.

[gonzomax]

I am old. Two years of Latin were required back when I went to high school . I took Japanese classes in college, but it has rusted away.

[Sunspace]

Yeah, but you also speak Esperanto, Sunspace, for which I am insanely jealous. :)But I didn't learn it in high school. I found it on the net much later, and joined a club. :)

I am old. Two years of Latin were required back when I went to high school . I took Japanese classes in college, but it has rusted away.I wish we'd had Japanese in high school. It would have fed directly into my obsessions interests. Strangely, by the time I was well into university, things had changed so much that the obsession was gone.

However, whether you were required to study a language or not has, I think, very little to do with why most Americans can only speak one language. Taking a year or two or even three of a language in high school isn't going to mean much in the long term if you don't consciously decide to keep studying it. The vast majority of Americans just aren't exposed to another language on a regular basis, so most of the time their language skills die. My mother took French for years and can still ask for directions if pressed, but no way is she as proficient as she was when she'd just graduated from school - there are just no French speakers around or any demand to use it.

The sole exception, of course, is Spanish. And - just as you'd guess - most Americans seem to have picked up just as much Spanish as they might need. I've never had a Spanish lesson in my life, but can understand every word in (for example) comedy skits where they making fun of Latin American soap operas. Presumably most other Americans can, too, or else they wouldn't do it. (For comparison, you'd never see a parody of a Chinese drama without subtitles.)It's somewhat similar for French in English-speaking Canada. We can read the French on our cereal boxes, but try to conduct a conversation? Nope. The French I took is long gone, and the German as well. It might be easier for me to pick it up again, than for a total beginner to, but that's about the only legacy of my public-school and high-school French.

Why is it gone? We never used it outside the classroom. I suppose I could have inquired about trips to Montreal and like that, but my family wasn't rich in high school, and couldn't afford to send me on trips. And I lived in a strangely-blinkered world where many things I could have done, it never occurred to me to do, because I thought I was powerless.

I so wish I'd had an opportunity to take French in immersion from age four or whatever--I know I was soaking up Japanese like a sponge in the immersion course I took last year (before I moved).

[Cunctator]

There was no requirement when I was at school or university. The only languages that my school offered (in the 1970s) were French, Latin and Ancient Greek. I did all three at some stage.

[congodwarf]

I had to take 2 years of foreign language in middle school (7 and 8). I took Spanish and didn't learn a damn thing.

I had to take 2 years in high school. I started to take Spanish 3 but dropped it when I realized the futility of actually trying to learn a language at my school. I took Latin for 3 years and learned a hell of a lot more than I learned in Spanish. I credit Latin class with helping me do well on my English SAT.

I will have to take 2 semesters of foreign language for my Liberal Arts degree (Associates). I will be taking Spanish 1 in the Spring and Spanish 2 over the summer. I'll probably take at least 1 semester of ASL also but that's just because I want to.

[congodwarf]

I should probably clarify, since I'm a college student now. I didn't just graduate from high school. That was 12 years ago. I have no idea what the high school or middle school language requirements are in MA schools these days. I do know that my years of Latin don't matter to my college and wouldn't have 12 years ago.

However, my mother took this same major, at this same school and graduated 22 years ago. She said she didn't have to take a foreign language.

[Driver8]

I voted "foreign language in high school but not college", which is not technically correct because of the word "foreign", but in spirit correct because high school demanded that you take two languages. In my case this was Afrikaans, which I barely scraped through and can no longer speak or write very well.

[Alessan]

The poll didn't give my option - two foreign languages required.

I studied English from 4th grade until I graduated from high school. It was considered one of the most important subjects, up there with math and Hebrew; for me, of course, it was an easy A. An additional language was required from 7th to 9th grade - in my school it was (literary) Arabic, of which I unfortunately remember very little.

This was in regular municipal schools in Haifa, Israel.

[Musicat]

I am old. Two years of Latin were required back when I went to high school.What foreign country was Latin spoken in then?

[Alessan]

Foreign and dead is still foreign.

[alphaboi867]

What foreign country was Latin spoken in then?

Vatican City.

[BigT]

I was not required, just encouraged. But it was impossible for me to fit into my schedule: I was in both band and choir, and took accelerated classes. In retrospect, I probably could have dropped band in the spring semesters, but I did not consider that possibility.

In college, it was on the list of things you could take for a certain type of course, but, as there were English-based courses in that group as well, I wouldnt' consider that required. I do not count my choral language classes, as we didn't really attempt to learn the language, just how to sing it, and do very basic translation work with dictionaries.

I did finally take a Spanish 101 course as an elective. I got an A, but not because I learned anything from it. As I've pointed out, I don't do well with memorization, and, until you get a foundation, that seems to be what is required to learn a language. Back when I was in grade school, I could memorize a lot better, and was pretty proficient in French--but I lost the vocabulary since I never used it.

[Nametag]

I was required to take French for my major in college, but I had already met the general foreign language requirement by taking Spanish in junior high, high school, and at the junior college I attended before transfer. I was almost fluent in Spanish, but alas, I have forgotten most of it.

[BleizDu]

In France at the time I grew up (born in 1982), we began to learn english toward the end of elementary school, and in junior high you had to take another foreign language, either spanish or german.
In high school you then had to pick, besides two foreign language between english/german/spanish, either latin or greek, or a third foreign language (I think it was russian, where I was, or maybe dutch).
English was a requirement in my college classes (psychology) for the first two years I think.

[don't ask]

When I was in high school in Australia the electives were set up so that you had to choose a foreign language up to year 10. After that it was optional and hardly anyone did it except the people doing really well in year 10.

[footballisplayedwithyourfeet]

I had to take (at least) three foreign languages in high school - for different amounts of time though - but none in college. But it has to be said that 90% of literature was in English (for clarity, I went to school in a non-english speaking country) and if a professor was from abroad, you were expected to just take the course and examinations in english.

[Walther Ego]

(Finland here) I had mandatory foreign language (English 10 years), mandatory 2nd domestic (Swedish 6), chose also Latin (3) and French (5). My school had also ancient Greek, German and Russian. Didn't fit anything and the OP was interested in Americans, so I didn't vote.

No amount of years in 20 pupil groups exposed only to a teacher and the group gets you a fluent language, so the system should focus on giving the basics in as many languages as possible. People will pick up phrases and words whenever exposed to the language as long as they know the basics and givin these is where a school is at its best. This is my experience of all the languages I've studied. In some of them I'm fluent in some I can only skim thru texts, but always when I'm exposed I'm likely to learn.

Languages stick much better at young age so as many as possible should start at the elementary level. If you wait longer the method is likely to become the painful "let's memorise all these grammar rules on rational conscient level until they possibly become automatic".

[Nava]

Does Latin count?

Spain. I had to choose English or French for all four years of high school; one year of Latin was required. If Id' been pure-humanities track I would have had three years of Latin and one of Classical Greek. These requirements were set at the national level. Most of us chose the foreign language we'd already had since 4th or 6th grade (which one varied by school).

There was a module set aside for "optionals", 9th-11th grade: in my HS, the optionals offered were draftsmanship/art drawing or accounting, in the other HS in town it was a second foreign language (you could take the foreign language that you had not chosen as your first out of French and English, or Italian) or accounting.

My college required English and a second foreign language (French or German). They started offering English lessons when I was there; previously, and it stayed so for the other two, all they offered was the exams. These grades do not count towards your GPA but you can't have your viva until you've passed everything, including the language requirements and other non-GPA stuff.

The current requirement is to start a second language in 4th grade; many schools begin in 1st or in kindergarten.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

In the UK a foreign language in secondary school is mandatory. Our school offered French or Spanish. I took French. In the last two years, Latin was also offered to those in the upper sets in languages (English, French and Spanish), but we had to do it in our spare time (after school and during lunch breaks).

[Mops]

Germany, two foreign languages mandatory in my Gymnasium (I took the maths/science branch), none at university as you were supposed to have covered that at school.

[elfkin477]

Does Latin count? Yes.

[KarlGrenze]

Puerto Rico. English is taught as a second language since elementary school. Public schools do not tend to offer any other language instruction (other than Spanish or English), and only some private schools offer an extra language (usually French, by comemierdería).

When I went to college, UF, it required a foreign language, but since I already knew two, I didn't need to take any more language classes. But, I needed Gen Ed credits and there was this Brazilian Portuguese class that seemed fun... I ended up getting a minor in Portuguese.

So it has been required for me since elementary school, and it was required in college, but I didn't have to take any courses because I knew another language already (Spanish). Yet I took a different one and made it a minor.

[SanVito]

British schooled here.

We were required to take French to 'O' Level (the major exams you sat at 16, at which point you could leave school if you wished). Plus we took 2 years of Latin or Spanish (ages 12-14), plus had to take one other language through to 'O'Level (Latin, Spanish or German).

No requirement to take languages in the 6th form unless they were one of your chosen subjects (the two years we take, optionally, at school aged 16-18, where we focus on 3-4 subjects).

No requirement at college, where we only study our 'major'.

OP, I wouldn't be too hard on Americans. Us Brits are just as bad at speaking foreign languages, because everyone speaks english to us. A few of us make a little effort when we holiday in Europe, but that's about it. My French is very rusty, my German long forgotten, and I won't even discuss my Latin.

Amo, amas, amat anyone??

[Martini Enfield]

At High School in New Zealand a foreign language was also part of the curriculum- your choices were generally French, Japanese, or maybe German. I think they introduced one of the Chinese languages in the year I left.

I took French and have found it to be very useful indeed, FWIW.

There's been no requirement to study a foreign language at any of the universities I've attended in Australia, either at postgraduate or undergraduate level, although I've heard that it's a requirement for some business degrees now.

[Giles]

This was back in the 1960s in Australia. I did not have to take a foreign language at high school, though the way that the class timetable was arranged, it was hard to avoid. As it was, I took French, German and Latin for varying numbers of years. In addition, I think I was the only student in my class who visited countries with all of those as official languages while I was still in high school. (Yes, I did indeed visit the Vatican.)

At university, doing two undergraduate degrees, I never had to study a foreign language.

[Shodan]

I took enough German in high school to get college credit towards the foreign language requirement there. I also took a year in French in high school, and a year of Koine Greek was required in seminary.

Almost all gone now.

Regards,
Shodan

[RealityChuck]

I took five years of French in high school (7th and 8th grade counted as one year); that was a state requirement.

In college, there was none.

For graduate school, there was a foreign language requirement. Here's how it worked: You chose a passage in a foreign language (I think it was three pages). You handed it to the professor. A week later he would hand it back to you to translate. You were allowed to use a translation dictionary in the exam. If you translated the passage correctly, you got credit.

Sort of like the test for becoming a coal miner. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grg5tULy0tY#t=00m32s)

[Sleel]

It wasn't required in high school (though highly recommended) but it was for my major at university. I took Spanish in high school and earlier for one year in junior high, and Japanese at university.

[ctnguy]

I went to school in post-1994 South Africa. We weren't required to take a foreign language; we were required to take two different official languages (of which SA has eleven). At least one of them had to be taken at "home language" level. At my school it meant either English+Afrikaans or English+isiXhosa.

As I recall, students who had come to South Africa within the last four years of schooling had the "two official languages" requirement waived, and were allowed to take English plus any other language. But everyone had to take two languages.

[Sattua]

At my US public high school, foreign language was required. You had to take either three years of one language, or two years apiece of two languages. The classes were offered beginning in seventh grade, so it was possible to take six years of a single language, if you started early. The languages available were French, Spanish, German, and Latin.

I took French for three years. I have a very good passive vocabulary--certainly I can read it and even sometimes understand it spoken--and I speak enough to get by.

The schools of science and liberal arts at my university also required that undergraduates either take two years of a foreign language or demonstrate equivalent proficiency. I tested out of French.

My graduate work was in linguistics--had to demonstrate proficiency in a second foreign language (tested into the second year of Italian, for that, with self-study and my knowledge of French) and take a year of guided study in an "exotic" language. I chose Swahili.

[Terra1041]

I went to high school in rural Michigan, and there was no foreign language requirement. The high school offered French and Spanish.

College didn't require foreign languages either, although I took German there and barely remember it.

[Zeldar]

Based on the phrase "have to take" I answered no.

However, I did take Latin and Spanish in high school and Spanish in college.

All those courses were electives and not required.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I recall being encouraged to take a foreign language in high school but not required. Took two years of Spanish.

[Olentzero]

Definitely a requirement at my high school, but I don't remember how many years were required. I took four years of French (I think third and fourth year were both honors courses) and if I'd known where I was going to end up in life I would have dropped physics and chemistry for Latin. Georgetown may have had one as well, but since Russian was my major it was kind of a moot point for me.

Man, Esperanto... I gotta dust off those books again.

[ratmanizhere]

Foreign language was a requirement for graduation at my high school, but I failed each class. I did not graduate from high school because of those damned classes.

Why?

I'm hearing impaired and there was no opt-out for the classes. Take the classes or not graduate.

Got my G.E.D. the same year my classmates graduated from high school. I was in the top 2% for the entire state and I didn't have to learn a foreign language.

[JohnT]

I had to take a foreign language in college, but not high school.

First tried Japanese - this was in the days of "America bow to our Japanese overlords and their immense buying power" - and dropped it after 2 days.

I then took German. Did three classes out of four, never finished the fourth. We had to give a speech at the end of the third class in German and I kind of cheated - I got a guitar, translated both the "Beverly Hillbillies" and "Gilligan's Island" songs in German, and sang that in front of the class. The professor was entertained/confused* enough that she gave me a "B", despite the fact that I didn't really do as asked.

I technically didn't graduate because of that never-taken fourth German class, but, in one of those things that I wouldn't believe it if I read it in a book, a year or two after my last class the university revamped the curriculum requirements for my major and applied the changes retroactively. I wasn't aware of this until I received my diploma in the mail.

Whew!

*She started a discussion asking WTF was I singing, did it have cultural significance here in the US, what?

[Duke]

I had a requirement to pass a foreign language for the Master's program in History at the University of Toronto. I suppose for most students this would have been a minor speed bump if they were studying European or Canadian history, but I was working in the history of the Church of England. I opted for Latin, though unlike most of my colleagues I wasn't actually using it in my dissertation.

[amarone]

In the UK a foreign language in secondary school is mandatory.
Yep - we all had to do French. After one year those in the upper stream also did Latin; the next group down also did German; the remainder did more French.

UK college courses are much narrower than in the US so unless you were doing language degree, or related, you would not study a language.

[chizzuk]

2 years of foreign language required, public American high school. I started with French as an elective in 7th grade and did it through 11th grade, but my level of fluency was a little better than the other students because my mom speaks pretty good French and German and made us learn it when we were little. Since I haven't used it in 6 years (SAT II got me out of the requirement in college), it's deteriorated a lot. I can still read it very well and understand OK, but conversational speech is bad.

[Miss Mapp]

I took French in jr high and high school, then a couple of semesters of Spanish in college to meet language requirements.

In my final undergrad year, I took one course in basic Russian to fill out my hours to graduate and, since I'd been to Russia when I knew only a handful of basic words, I thought it'd be useful to know more in case I ever went back.


The French has stuck better than the Spanish or Russian.

[Hypnagogic Jerk]

I studied in Quebec during all of my primary school, high school and cégep years. I had to take English classes starting in 4th grade (I believe it now starts in 1st grade) all through the end of high school, although I didn't take any English class in my last year of high school, having already done it a year earlier. I could also have taken up to two years of Spanish in high school, but it wasn't compulsory and I took computer science instead.

In cégep, I also had to take two English language classes as part of the requirements common to all programs, but since I had tested in the highest level of proficiency I could have replaced them with two foreign language classes, namely Spanish or German. I tried to do it, but I got bad advice from my advisor who said that since I had already taken an optional Spanish class in my first trimester, I would have had to take German instead. It was mostly Spanish that interested me so I ended up taking these two English literature classes. Maybe I should have taken the German classes; it is one language I would like to know.

I then went to the University of Ottawa, which doesn't have a foreign language requirement AFAIK. So the answer is that I had to take English for most of my schooling, but I wasn't required to take another language although there were plenty of opportunities to do so.

[Pleonast]

My high school did not exactly require foreign language courses to graduate, but if you were on the the college prep track, it was de facto required to take two years. My undergrad college required one year of a foreign language. My grad school used to require a foreign language, but it was eliminated several years before I entered.

I took four years of Spanish in high school (from a native Chilean, so I have an accent) which gave me a technical pass on my undergrad requirement.

[gwendee]

The requirement in my high school wasn't so much that we had to learn the language as it was we had to pass the regents exam. I took french because my sister took it, and the teacher liked me. He liked everyone and passed us with no proficiency. A couple years after I graduated it was reported in the local paper that his exams had been chosen for review and every single one was regraded or rejected.

As a result, when I went to college (a few years later) I was not able to test out of the language requirement. I thought I had no facility for language, but it turned out I really enjoyed learning spanish and ended up completing a minor in it.

Had I actually learned a language in high school I would not have needed to continue studying it, or another language in college.

[Kobal2]

Yup. German/Spanish, switched to English/German just before the final exam because bilingual means free points. I also took the Latin elective but lost all interest after two years, which is what happens when horrible, horrible teachers follow great teachers.
My school also offered Russian, Italian and ancient Greek.

Almost all the college programs I enlisted in had a mandatory if skeletal English component, but no other languages.

[Jack Batty]

It was a bit ridiculous at my high school. I attended in very northern Maine, right on the border of very French New Brunswick Canada. Virtually everybody in my little town was brought up bi-lingual ... so of course everyone took French for their foreign language and then went home to tell their parents, who didn't speak English, that they got an A.

Not me. First of all, I wasn't bi-lingual. I was born elsewhere and moved their young. There was no ubiquitous French in western New York. So I took Spanish for my foreign language. Me and about 5 other people from the whole school, from a teacher who could speak passing English, fluent French, and had to read from the book to even fake speaking Spanish.

I think everyone got an A in that class too because the teacher didn't know if we were butchering the language one way or another.

[FallenAngel]

I kinda sorta had to take a foreign language in high school. It wasn't a graduation requirement, but it was a requirement for the college prep curriculum I was on.

I took two years of Spanish and a year of French, which turned out to be the last requirement I needed to fulfill for the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, too.

In college I took 6 classes of Spanish, just because it was an elective I liked, but I don't think there was a foreign language requirement.

[Dr. Woo]

In elementary school I had elementary Spanish - mostly names of animals and stuff. Then in junior high (7th & 8th grades) I had two years of more rigorous Spanish with actual grammar. In high school we were required to take two years of a foreign language for graduation and the University of California system required 4 years (in high school) for entrance.

So I took German and Russian in high school and ended up with the equivalent of 8 years of high school foreign language. I took French in college but I might as well have saved myself the trouble - I'm terrible in French.

[Rhiannon8404]

I had to take 2 yrs foreign language (Spanish) because that was required for "college prep" students in high school. I took another year in college to meet my "multicultural" requirement.

[Hari Seldon]

I had to take two years of a foreign language in HS (I took 2 each of Latin and French) and in college only one year was required--but it had to a third year course, so I took three years of German. I guess you could place out of it. This was all in the 1950s, could be very different today.

[Rushgeekgirl]

We had French, Spanish and Latin. You had to take two years of foreign language, but I think you could skip one year of Latin if you took Etymology first.

I took three years of French. I remember nothing except when I'm trying to learn Spanish. This only adds to my confusion.

[appleciders]

You didn't have to take a language in high school, but your counselors gave you funny looks and tried to talk you into taking them, because it was well known that colleges liked to see four years of a foreign language. I did take four years of Spanish in high school, and everyone who was obviously college bound took four years of a language too. Class of '06.

You didn't have to take them in college, either. That's very strange for a hippie liberal arts school, and it's the direct result of a revolt from the Language departments' professors; they hate teaching eighteen sections of French 101 every year to students who don't want to be there. They'd rather offer just enough for the people who want to be there, and let the others be ignorant. Class of '10.

[Slow Moving Vehicle]

Very much a requirement, in high school and college (both of which were in Georgia - this may be the one thing I've ever heard of where Georgia beats California in something to do with education).

My suburban Atlanta high school offered French, German, Spanish and Latin - I took the last two. Then, at the University of Georgia, I took more Latin and Biblical Hebrew.

Wish I still had the Hebrew - I got to really liking the phonetics and the flow of the language, and it was neat to be able to say that I had read at least part of the Bible in the original. I was one of only two goyim in the class. My prof was a cool guy, too - he was an expert in ancient Middle Eastern languages - Ugaritic, Akkaddian, Canaanite, Sumerian. Neat stuff.

[Siam Sam]

Whether I had to take one in high school, I cannot remember. I did take German, but not sure now if a foreign language was actually required. But I do remember intentionally shunning Spanish, as I feared it might for some reason help make me be stuck in Texas.

It was required at university, and I took German.

[Olentzero]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I took courses in Greek and Basque my senior year at Georgetown. Still got the books. Oh, and Old English sophomore year. Fun times.

[minor7flat5]

I attended French classes regularly in middle school, though I don't recall actually learning any French. The teacher gave me the minimal passing grade, and that was an act of kindness on her part.

I decided that I sucked at languages altogether and figured I was destined to be monolingual.

Then I met a very nice lady from Rio de Janeiro...

With the proper motivation, it was a snap to attain fluency in Portuguese. And this same fluency allowed me to test out of college-level Spanish (CLEP) and college-level Portuguese (NYU).

I felt guilty about the Spanish CLEP test because a Portuguese speaker could pass it with little effort due to the similarities in the language, while still not being able to speak Spanish fluently.

[UncleRojelio]

It was required in high school. I took German.

In college I started out working on a BA degree and two years of foreign language was required. I took Spanish and made it through a year of it before I really started having trouble with it. I switched to a BS program, which required only a year of foreign language (but some extra math classes instead), to avoid taking any more.

[tumbleddown]

In addition to a foreign language requirement in high school (2 years Spanish, 1 year French) I was required to take French (as were all students) each year in middle school, as well. (Private school.)

[Gala Matrix Fire]

My high school did not require that I take a foreign language, however, it was an entry requirement for college in California. It was probably also a requirement in college.

Since it was my favorite subject in school and my major in college, I had no problem with that.

[Maeglin]

I went to public school in NY in the 90s. We had to pass a "regents exam" in one of the many available languages, of which my school offered French, Spanish, and Italian. I took French and took the fourth-year French class in addition. In retrospect, I wish I had taken Italian as well. I can read Italian if I have a grammar, a dictionary, and plenty of time. But it's a bit of a pain in the ass.

My university also had a two year language requirement. Sufficient high school prep could get you out of at most the first year. I am something of a language fanatic, so I chose a major that required another 4 languages or so. I came out of college quite proficient in maybe a half dozen languages. My focus was always on reading them, which is convenient since most of them are ancient.

In my PhD program now, I have to pass translation exams in at least four languages, of which two must be ancient. Four really is the minimum: most people in my program do five or six. I'm on target for five now, but if I pick up a Dravidian language sometime in the next few years, I'll do that, too. I've done two so far, at least three more to go.

[Balance]

I wasn't precisely required to take a foreign language in high school, but doing so meant I wouldn't have to take one in college. Everyone college-bound was therefore strongly encouraged to take one.

It was a complete bust. The only language offered was French, and the teacher was completely unqualified--she got stuck with it because someone had to do it, and with 2 semesters of French 30 years earlier, she was the closest to qualified our little Podunk school district had. We sat around listening to tapes and dutifully echoing them, mostly.

I still remember how to say, "I don't understand", "Please speak more slowly", and "I only speak a little French"--more or less. At least I can still read it a little.

[Ludy]

In Canada, or at least in the district I went to in BC, French was required in grades 4-7 but after that no foreign language courses were required. My high school offered French and German initially and started a Japanese program my last year there.

Odd, I went to school in BC and I had to take French in grades 8-10.
I don't remember taking it in Elementary School at all, but I know it was requied in Junior High.

I chose to take it one more year because it was required for the college program I wanted to take.

[OpalCat]

My college required a foreign language, but if you had enough from high school, they counted that. So my 3 years of French in high school negated my college foreign language requirement.

[Jim's Son]

When I was in sixth grade, our teacher had us fill out a form if we wanted to study Spanish or French in seventh grade. I picked French "because it's more prestigious" or some such silly thinking to an 11 year old. I'm not sure if it was mandatory take a language and I think out of the six "tracks" in junior high, three had French and one had Spanish. Most of the really bright kids were like me and etudied francais. When I got to high school I took it for one year and quit after that.

When I went to college I was told I needed to be third year proficient in a foreign language. I took the test to see how I was, they rated me as second year and I had to take two semesters. After sophomore year, I transferred and they said they didn't require foreign language for BA.

Amusing thing. In 9th grade one of our right wing blowhard teachers found out all 25 of us were taking french and told us how wrong we were. We laughed and said no, french is the language of civilization. He proceeded to tell us about immigration and birthrates and how Spanish would be more widely spoken than French. He turned out to be right. Far more Salma Hayaks have emigrated than Brigitte Bardots. On another example of how naive 14 year olds were, one of our left wing blowhard teachers told us how useless it was to study algebra. I've never had to use anything past 6th grade math, he said. Like our RWBH, he turned out to be correct also.

[Martini Enfield]

What's worth bearing in mind is that both French and Spanish are Romance (ie, descended from Latin) languages and that France and Spain are geographic neighbours. It's not like, say, Swahili and Pashtun.

When I visited Mexico, I found that I could use my knowledge of French to read signs and billboards, and a knowledge of French consistently proves itself to be very useful in ways that don't seem obvious at the time but still make me glad I took the time to study it.

[Clare de Loone]

My HS and college had general multicultural/fine art requirements, with foreign language being one way to fulfill the reqs.

I took 4 yrs. of French & 2 yrs. of German in HS.
I majored in French and took quite a few German classes in college.

[Skammer]

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school. In college, the program I was enrolled in required 4 semesters of a foreign language but I passed out of the first three by taking a test to show what I had learned in HS, so I only had to take one semester in college. This was all Spanish.

[Sternvogel]

There was no foreign language requirement in my public school system, but I took Spanish from seventh through twelfth grade (the equivalent of five years, since the class only met for a half-period a day before I started ninth grade).

No college requirement to demonstrate proficiency either before matriculating or before graduating. I considered taking French, but never found an opportunity to fit it into my schedule.

[overlyverbose]

I've taken a foreign language since I was in Kindergarten. I took Spanish from K through 5; I switched to a merit-based school in 6th grade that offered only French my first year there, so I took that; then in 7th grade, they offered Spanish, which I took 'til I graduated and continued to meet my foreign language requirement in college.

I've also taken Latin, additional French and traveled/lived abroad enough to pick up some Italian and Portuguese. (I also know some Catalan, but don't really count that.) All have been really helpful, mostly for research, though I've done editing in Portuguese (I don't do it anymore, though, since I think it's been too long since I've actually used it).

[Saintly Loser]

In high school, we had to take a modern language, as well as Latin and classical Greek. In college, there was a language requirement, which I satisfied by continuing in Latin and Greek.

Now that I'm an adult, I kind of wish I could speak and read a modern language as well as I can Latin (my Greek is a bit rusty).

[Rala]

Italian was required in primary school. For the first two years of high school, we had to take Italian, Indonesian or Japanese. After that it wasn't required anymore, but I kept it up. I took TEE Italian by correspondence because I was the only one in the school who wanted to do it. Now that I'm in uni, I've finally stopped.

[Khadaji]

We were not required to. We were strongly encouraged to and I was told that any college degree I wanted would require it.

I don't know what other colleges are like, but my state college did not require it for computer science degrees.

I had a year of Spanish in high school and a semester in college. It came very hard to me.

[2square4u]

Oh, yes. Both oral and written. But not a foreign language:

1st foreign language (English) in primary school, through middle and at least into the freshman year of high school. Also, if you were an immigrant with a foreign language background (and from one of the larger immigrant groups), you were given the opportunity of attending classes in your native language.
2nd foreign language (usually German, French or Spanish) in middle school and at least into the freshman year of high school

3rd foreign language (usually German, French or Spanish) was electable in high school, but it was (IIRC) mandatory if you chose a language specialization instead of specializing in natural science, social sciences or crafts.

No demands for taking foreign languages in college/University (unless you studied language in college/University), but it seems as if it may be changing these days. Study-specific foreign languages (technical English, business French or whatever) is, of course, electable at many colleges.