And please tell us what years we’re talking about. When my dad was in high school in the '50s, they could take Latin. I was in high school 1979 - 1983, and we had Spanish, French, German and Russian. I’m curious about how this has changed over the years. Do they still teach French (helpful if you’re 19th century aristocracy, or Canadian, but maybe not so popular today otherwise)? Russian? Japanese? Arabic?
Late 1990s: Latin, French and Spanish.
1982-6, in Spain.
Foreign Language, compulsory for the whole country but which ones got offered changed by school, your choice of English or French.
Latin: compulsory for everybody in 10th grade, and for people in the Pure Humanities track for 11th and 12th.
Classic Greek: compulsory for the Pure Humanities folk in 11th and 12th.
There was an elective subject in 10th and 11th which changed by school; my school offered your choice of Accounting or Drawing (Draftsmanship in 10th, choice of Art, Science or Draftsmanship in 11th); the other HS in town offered English (as third language for FSL), French (for ESL), Italian and German.
1958-1962 in a selective state high school in Australia: French, German and Latin. None were compulsory, but I did all three for at least three years.
High school was 93-97. We had French, Spanish, or German. Two years required. I took four years of Spanish. There were only four of us in Fourth Year Spanish my senior year.
Late 80s - early 90s in the Netherlands: Latin, Greek, German, Dutch, English, French.
High school was 69-72. We had French, Spanish, German and Russian. Two years required. I took three years of Spanish.
At the time it bothered me that the Hispanic kids were all allowed to take and ace Spanish class, but they struggled through English class as much as I struggled through Spanish class, and they had to take English just as I did.
Late 50’s: Latin, Spanish, French.
1988-1990 - Latin, German, French, Spanish.
Ditto, but right after I left they were piloting Chinese. Don’t know how that turned out.
Early 70s - Spanish, German, French, Latin. I took a couple of years of German which I don’t remember at all and the last Latin class taught at the school, of which I remember quite a bit.
Right now, the high school I teach at offers Spanish, German and French, all through the AP level.
Early 80’s Texas public school: Spanish, French, German, Latin
Catholic school, Wilmington, DE, 1990s: Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese
New Jersey - '84 - '88 - Spanish, French, Latin, German and Italian
Twas the same in the late 80’s and early 90’s. My school district was high school for the last three grades and junior high for the three years prior (7-9th grades). Spanish was available in either 8 or 9th, but all four could be started once in high school. Not long after I graduated there was a movement to add an Asian language to the mix but I don’t know what happened.
French & Spanish, early 1990s. There might also have been German, now that I think of it.
Graduated in 2007, French and Spanish were the only languages offered.
British private school, 1980s.
French mandatory for all, age 11-16
One other language mandatory up to age 16: choice between Latin, Spanish, German.
Options for the gifted few on top of the above with specially brought-in tutors: Greek, Russian, Mandarin.
I was in high school in the early 90s. Our choices were:
French
Spanish
Russian
Japanese
Latin
I took Russian all 4 years, and at this point can barely remember how to say more than “Hello, my name is.” And, randomly, how to say “stewardess.” But I can also sound things out in Cyrillic and sometimes get a gist of written words.
81-85, Latin, French, Spanish, German. Required to take 1 year of Latin, and 2 years of a modern language. They did offer a 2nd year of Latin, but it didn’t count towards the modern language requirement, so there were few takers.
According to the school website, they currently offer Latin, Spanish & French. And the Latin & French teachers haven’t changed in 30 years!