This is possibly a swag, but the amount of univercitys in Canada pales in comparison to the states, but we do take in quite a number of bilingual or multi-lingual persons combined with folks that learn the mother tongue at an early age may have made the need for the FL redundant.
One thing I think that i remember is that U Ottawa has different primary language requirements depending on the course, not sure if it was Matt or somebody who mentioned that.
Declan
It’s too late for your daughter, but I took 2 years of Spanish in high school (junior and senior year) and that translated (pun!) into getting credit for 1 semester of Spanish in college and I ended up taking Spanish II in college which was just a rehash of the Spanish II I’d just taken in high school. I got done with all my foreign language requirements in one semester and it left me open to take some more cool classes that caught my interest.
Plus, now I know Spanish. Er…un poquito.
(Why the heck would an American learn French rather than Spanish? Who the heck speaks French? Why? Never mind, I am just ranting.)
The Canadians? A fair chunk of Europe? Some parts of Africa?
I assume it’s the second most widespread language after English.
Does the guidance counselor mean that she “has to” take two years of foreign language not just to get into college, but to graduate high school? I know I was required to take two years as part of my expected high school curriculum. I would not have received my diploma at all without studying a foreign language.
So… was my (public) high school strange in that it required two years of a language for graduation? Besides the math-english-science classes every high school seems to require for graduation, our school also required 2 years of a language, 2 years of history, 1 year of P.E. and 1/2 a year of heath. Two kids in my class weren’t allowed to graduate with us because they failed health and needed to take it in summer school. Obviously no one who graduated from my high school had to worry about language requirements to get into college.
I only took two years in high school after some bad advice from my counselor. My school requires a third level course for engineering students so I started all over once I got to college since I had been 2 years away from the language. I’d definitely have her take some classes.
I think we both went to Tulane. I had no foreign language experience and got thrown into Spanish 100 my first semester. At least 1/3 of the people were from South Texas or were of Hispanic descent. I worked my ass off yet it was the only ‘C’ I got in college. I clawed my way up through the next two semesters of Spanish and was conversant enough to give academic lectures in Spanish with question and answer sessions. I got a ‘B’ in Spanish 203 and that is the grade I am probably most proud of even though I graduated cum laude. It was a real bitch. I can read Spanish mostly now but I can’t really speak it. Foreign languages can be very hard for people that weren’t exposed to them early on.
Its been over a decade but 2 years of foreign language was not only a requirement for state schools, it was a requirement for highschool graduation.
The foreign language requirement at the University of Utah happened sometime after 1980 when I graduated from high school.
I think we’re making the same point. If a person can avoid being the “never studied Spanish before” person in Spanish 100, they probably want to avoid the pain you went through. I think those classes move faster than most people who haven’t studied the language before, or mastered another similar language, can reasonably pick it up.
Actually Mandarin is the most widespread language and various sources say where English falls - but usually in the top 3. Spanish is spoken more widely than French worldwide
Cites:
I emailed him that question today, and he said she doesn’t need it to graduate. But “almost all four year colleges require it.” I don’t know if “most” is true. But he did suggest ASL as an alternative, which I like. My family just doesn’t learn language well, but I’d hate to have to explain that to some admissions officer.
According to what website you check, the second most spoken language after English is Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, or French. You did say most widespread though, so perhaps.
Well, this has nothing to do with the original question, but the thread has already been derailed anyway.
While I still sometimes struggle with my English, it’s not much more often than with my native Spanish. And yet, during my first two… scratch that, my first five… years of English lessons, all I learned was that “Johnny is under the table.” Then I got a teacher who, instead of saying “you can’t make sense of English” like the previous two, said “oh, but English is the same as Spanish!” and wrote on the blackboard to go to = ir a. Oh my. The ceiling didn’t open and no doves were involved, but the awe we felt was absolute. My grades and those of most of the class jumped from “scratch a pass” to “near perfect,” and it wasn’t inflation, it was, finally, comprehension.
Taking that jump into comparative grammar (why is that considered “advanced,” when it actually makes studying any European language easier, I’ll never know) isn’t something I expect a student to be able to do on his own, but it may help your daughter to know it’s possible.
When I taught at the University of Miami, foreign languages weren’t expected. But it was a private institution where over half the student body was bilingual or foreign, so…
There are a lot of different ways to learn lanugages, and chances are your kid just hasn’t found the right one. Indeed the way they teach it in high school is probably the number one worst way to learn. I took French for a million years and never learned a word of it. Then I moved to Africa and became totally functional in 10 weeks- as did the other 30 people in my group.
Africa! Really, I thought it was the most useless thing I’d ever seen when I was taking it in high school. Now I gotta speak it every day. I guess that goes to show you that you never know where you are going to need something…
Oddly enough, music is a great way to familiarize yourself to a language, provided it is music you like. I was taking German last year, being mildly familiar with it and I am a fairly big fan of a german rock band who has good clear diction when singing, so not only was I learning the language with formal lessons, but casually hearing the language on my play list. Spanish would be fairly easy to find pop or whatever style of music in, as would be french.
Just a suggestion. You can also watch the foreign language movies with the subtitles on just to hear the language spoken at speed to get your ear used to picking apart the sounds.
When I was in high school (in Ontario), grade nine and ten French was compulsory to graduate. Has that changed?
Um, because they want to? They like French? They are of French descent? They want to appreciate French literature/live in France/travel?
I took 5 years of HS German (the 2 years of middle school Deutsch count as one year of HS) and one semester of German Lit in college. I’ve never used my German (and I do wish I had taken French–it would have helped). I learned a lot about English via taking German. I have nothing against learning Spanish or Japanese or Ubby-Dubby if that’s where their heart lies, but why shouldn’t someone take French?
Are we only supposed to learn languages that can be of immediate use to us? 
I cannot imagine anyone going to college without at least 2 years of FL. It is required at my HS. My daughter just took the AP French test and is now tutoring freshman in French. #1 son is in his 3rd year of French. #2 son is only 10, and may take either French or Spanish–the choice is his. What I deplore is that back when I was in HS, we had the choice between French, Spanish, Latin, German, or Russian. Now it’s only French or Spanish. I’d like to see Urdu or Madarin in there, but budgets etc.
ETA: I thought all Canadians had to take French in grammar school(?)
I agree that you should check with the colleges that she wants to attend. I went to a small state school in PA, did not have any languages. It was not a deal breaker.