# High school foreign language classes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849 "2017-05-04T12:03:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/121 "2017-05-09T23:50:42Z")
I took two years and two weeks of French in high school. I occasionally used a dab of it, I worked France and Eastern Canada where French is _de rigueur_. See what I did there? Anyway, the place it came in surprisingly useful was in Siberia. The guy I was seated next to at dinner spoke no English, I spoke fluid Russian, by which I mean I could order fluids in Russian, as long as they were Russian Standard Vodka or Baltica 9 beer, but we had both taken two years of French in high school. It had been 40 years ago for me, and almost as long for him, but we made do. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/122 "2017-05-10T00:48:37Z")
2 years of Spanish, 1 year of French, The Spanish (what little I remember after all this time) is frustratingly useless, and 1 year of any language is only long enough to get started, barely, if you’re not in an immersive environment to learn it. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/123 "2017-05-11T10:30:32Z")
I studied two years of German in high school and did very poorly. I can’t even count to ten any more. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Not particularly useful in my case (German and Latin), but I think schools should teach languages early, when children’s brains are best at absorbing language, rather than late. Actually, there are tradeoffs. Young children do learn languages, but their study habits suck, and consequently it can be difficult to effectively teach second languages in anything but immersion classes. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/124 "2017-05-11T20:54:54Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > This is bizarre! Was it because girls are generally better at learning languages (I think I’ve read about real evidence of that – not positive), and so were less likely to need help from formal instruction? I’m guessing that’s not the reason…but ??? > > **constanze** : Thank you for your eloquent reply to **edward**. You were gentle enough to not target him/her directly, but that all-too-typical American attitude (not all Americans, obviously) needed to be addressed. > > **Nava** , the “ice cream” query was in reference to a jokey children’s chant: _You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!_ 🙂 I have no idea why, I agree it’s bizarre. I went to a Catholic school which at the time was considered coinstitutional, boys and girls but we were separated. It later went coed but I have no idea what they did with the language classes at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/125 "2017-05-12T03:40:26Z")
I ended up majoring in the primary foreign language I studied in high school (Spanish). I use it at work on a daily basis and really couldn’t do my current job properly without it. I also took 2 years of French in high school as an elective, and another semester intensive course in college because I enjoy learning languages. That has come in handy on various occasions, too - reading academic literature in grad school (which involved study of a 3rd foreign language - Russian, which I only started studying in college), traveling, and now and again even at work. It’s not often that we have clients who speak only French, but it does come in handy for reading documents in French. Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/126 "2017-05-12T04:32:49Z")
I took three years of Spanish. I live in California. Highly useful. Especially when I worked for a county hospital and had to work with immigrants who didn’t speak English. I took one year of German, and I was stationed in Germany for 3.5 years. It was useful then, too. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/127 "2017-05-12T06:36:55Z")
I had four years of French from 5th to 8th grade and then a year in high school. I didn’t learn much at all in terms of being able to hold a conversation with a French speaker or reading French literature. This is partly because the method for teaching it was poor which is not to say my French teachers were necessarily poor. And partly it’s because I just goofed off in class. I learned more Dutch when I stayed there for a year or so then all the years of French classes I had. And that’s considering that almost none of the Nederlanders would speak Dutch with me. They all insisted on English because they speak it so well and my Dutch sucks. I think if foreign language could be taught in more of that immersive kind of way in school it would help a lot. When I’ve been to France I haven’t been able to use much if any of my minimal knowledge of French to any effect. But I can look at a French newspaper or web page and get a halfway decent idea of what I’m reading so something must have stuck. When I was in the Netherlands I met an African man who spoke French as his second language. He spoke no Dutch or English. We were able to communicate a few key things using my rudimentary French. That made me realize I had benefited from my school French more than I had thought. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849/128 "2017-05-12T09:35:13Z")
> [@Patx2](#): > > I have no idea why, I agree it’s bizarre. I went to a Catholic school which at the time was considered coinstitutional, boys and girls but we were separated. It later went coed but I have no idea what they did with the language classes at that point. _Gratias tibi._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-foreign-language-classes/785849.md?page=6)