The first time we moved to Canada, my parents put us in a francophone school (because they could, and mom made sure we were fluent enough, so we didn’t just fine). It was as you describe only backwards. Everything was taught in French, then an English class was introduced starting in the third grade. So while I was learning to read with Rémi et Aline, my sister (one year older) was learning to read with Rémi et Aline and Mister Muggs.
The weird thing was that when we moved back to the U.S. a couple years later, I was scared that I had been reading “baby books” in English and would be behind in English reading, but it turned out that we’d been reading third-grade English books in our third-grade class even though it was supposed to be a second language for us. So we had the same textbooks.
I’m wondering about the schools that do, how “flexible” would they be? I can’t imagine a school saying “you’re what we’re looking for, but we won’t bend out requirement that you must take to years of another language in HS. Go somewhere for college.”
I don’t understand. If she’s already been accepted into a college, then why are you worried about the admission requirements? Do you just mean the college she’s hoping to be accepted to? If so, it should be easy enough to find out if they require any foreign language in order to be admitted.
*I’ve never worked in admissions, but it’s my understanding that decent schools have plenty of applicants and would rarely have reason to bend the rules. Maybe for a star athlete or real whiz kid or someone with filthy rich parents who’d be donating lots of money, but not just a regular good student. They can fill that slot with someone about equally good who did meet the requirements. A school that was desperate for students probably wouldn’t have very strenuous admissions requirements in the first place.
sorry I wasn’t clear. When the thread started, she was just applying. I updated recent now she’s been accepted. The questions now are just of academic interest.
Fair enough, and that’s true. Although I didn’t think it showed that much, I posted as coming from a more traditional background. There, it’s expected that the parents very likely will have an extremely large investment in how their kid’s academic career goes, given that they’re the ones paying the tuition and also hopefully have more experience from which to judge the merits of a school.
Good luck to Procrustus and his family – I’m glad to hear that your daughter got into a good school!
One thing that she’ll be expected to do in college is write well in English, and for this, taking a FL may help. I learned to read and write simply by doing it, over and over, from a young age (my mother teaches elementary school and took time off to raise us- she was desperate for someone to teach!). Writing came very naturally to me, so I never got any real attention in an English class until college. I never considered how to conjugate a verb until it was brought up in a Spanish class- since I didn’t have this burned-in grasp of the language, I’d never had to think about how it all fits together. Taking Spanish in high school greatly improved my English skills, and I expect that they might help your daughter’s too.
I am actually a big fan of people learning foreign languages, in theory at least. I would urge almost anyone to try to learn a language other than their own. I think I just chafe at the whole “requirement” thing. I don’t think everything “helpful” should be required, nor everything unhelpful forbidden. (This is how I got her–almost–into this mess) I took three years of H.S. French and can honestly say it didn’t do me any good. The idea that the class I performed the worst in would help me get into college is a strange one indeed.
She can, and might, take some language classes in college. I do know that this school concentrates on writing (English) is most of the curriculum. She also has a lot of skill already in writing. So, that’s good.
The “2 semesters of a foreign language” thing is an admission requirement (in Florida state universities), but you can get in without it. However, if you are admitted without it, you have to take the college courses, and you have to take them prior to completing Gen Ed, and you don’t get the in-state tuition discount on them- they count as remedial courses.
Ah, I must have missed that. Thanks for clearing things up for me, I was feeling quite puzzled!
If her college doesn’t have a foreign language requirement then that will certainly be easier on her. She can choose to take one if she wants to try something new.
Through poor planning, lack of talent for foreign languages, and the decision transfer schools my sister would up really being hurt by the language requirement at the school she (eventually) graduated from. So although I am in favor of the study of foreign languages I’ve also seen such requirements turn into horrible, expensive ordeals.
Not necessarily, my BFF had what would have been A+ in the USA for English, but when faced with not-explained-in-class situations she froze. She happens to be good at regurgitating, but never really understood either Spanish or English grammar; she was never able to perform comparative grammar and nowadays when her eldest (14yo) is asking to watch TV series in English with subtitles, BFF doesn’t understand a word anybody says.
Good grades in any subject can mean that you understand it or that you were good at saying exactly what the teacher wanted you to say, or that your school inflated grades (my college first-year classmates with the best high school GPA all came from a school with serious grade inflation and lousy science/math teaching, they hadn’t seen material that was required in 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades). What people understand out of good grades isn’t necessarily what the good grades mean.
If it turns out she has to have a language, you might consider an intensive summer program, especially one held at a college or university. For example, the summer after my junior year of high school I took German 101 at Cornell summer school. In six weeks I learned more than I would have in 3 years of high school classes.
I went to UC Santa Cruz, which is, like all of the campuses of the University of California, a perfectly good school, but the truth is that if you’ve fulfilled all of the UC requirements in high school (of which there are many), you’ll almost certainly get in. My senior year, I did work study in the admissions office and mailed out a few thousand rejection letters. It seemed that most of the rejection letters had to do with unfulfilled requirements.
So, I’m not saying that they COULDN’T make an exception, I’m just saying that yes, it absolutely does happen. I think it’s kind of a bummer if you’re not from California and decide halfway through high school that you want to go to a UC, because there are so many requirements that at that point it could be difficult to fit them all in. I went to HS in California and diligently took all of the college prep courses (which are set by the UC) and was shocked when it came time to apply to college and I found out that not every college or university required two years of a foreign language, three years of math, three years of science, two years of arts, etc. I remember wanting to take a conceptual physics class my senior year of high school, but had to switch to chemistry when I realized the physics wasn’t college prep - but a classmate of mine who ended up going to Yale took the physics class with no problem. Sheesh.
Requirements change. Needs change. When I went to high school, the only “foreign” language offered in our school was Latin. Now two years of a foreign language are required to graduate by the state.
And there is good reason! We are a center for Hispanic migration. There is a time when everyone needs to be able to use Spanish and you never know when it will be your time.
A lost child wandered into my life when I was shopping in a tourish area. She spoke only Spanish and I spoke only English. I was of little comfort to her until her mom came. But someone who did speak Spanish was able to help.
You haven’t ruined her life. She may need a tutor for a summer course or two.