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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.