Class of 1997 in Wisconsin.
We had French, German and Spanish offered to grades 7-12. Japanese was offered in grades 10-12. You needed at least 2 years of a foreign language to graduate.
When I was in grade school, I was part of a learning group called GATE (Gifted and Talented Education). We took weekly classes in Russian in grades 5-6.
Early 90s, prep school in New Hampshire. Latin, French, Spanish, and Ancient Greek. I think the Greek teacher also offered an independent-study Italian course.
French, German, and Spanish. 1991-1995 in southeastern Ohio.
Illinois, USA, Class of ’86. I don’t think any foreign language was required for all, but anyone applying to college was advised to take at least 2 years of the same language. Spanish and French were most common, but my school also offered German, Latin, and Hebrew. I think the Latin teacher was willing to arrange independent study in Ancient Greek for anyone interested.
Mine was a small parochial school offering Latin, Spanish and French. I had a scientific orientation and chose Latin.
Mid-1980s, small town in upstate New York. When I first got to high school, French and Latin were the main choices. The Latin teacher occasionally offered a year of Greek and a year of Russian when there was enough demand, but there rarely was. While I was there, they introduced Spanish, but almost no one took it.
American high school 2004-2008, we had French, Spanish, and German. When I was on my way out a Chinese program was just starting up, but didn’t have the necessary number of courses (2-years worth) to actually count towards a language requirement yet.
7th-12th grade, 1982-1988 in NYC - we were offered Spanish, French, German and Latin as primary language choices, then after completing 4 years of it, could choose from a wider range of elective languages. In large part this was because there was no NY State Regents exam for some of those elective languages like Russian or Chinese.
As for me, I took 4 years of Latin and then 4 years of French (continuing on another 2 years in college). I did quite well in Latin but it never “took” - I never got to the point of reading Latin “as Latin” but was always parsing and dissecting the grammar and translating it. In French, I did internalize the language to some extent but not quite all the way to fluency. I could read and write relatively well and had a decent speaking accent, and could “think in French” to some degree, but was probably a 6-12 month immersive stint in a francophone part of the world to really get all the way to fluent.
Parkville High School in Baltimore county in the early 70s - French, Spanish, Russian, and Latin.
I was at high school during the period 1976-1981. The available languages were French, Latin and Ancient Greek.
First year, you have a choice of German, French, Russian, Greek, Spanish, or Italian. However, only Spanish and Italian had 2,3, and 4 year options. To graduate, you needed two years. For college, you needed 3. So, if you wanted to do all 3 the same you had two choices. However, my school said it was fine if you took a different one every year. I think that’s stupid. I graduated in the early 2000s.
That school is a middle school now.
Urban public school in Toledo OH, late 80s: Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese. Now closed, those languages moved to the school where I now teach, adding Latin.
An across-town school offers French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Arabic. Decades ago another offered, among others, Italian and Polish. Toledo is a fairly diverse city.
64-68, Jesuit college prep HS. Latin, Classical Greek, Spanish, French, German, Chinese.
Catholic High School, 1965-1969 in New York City. Spanish and French only. In previous years they had taught Latin but by my year they had dropped it.
Australian Public School, 1996-2000: Indonesian & German, with Japanese added in as a limited-access subject towards the end of the 90s.
My brother went to another Public school about four years after I did, and he studied Japanese.
Most public schools that I’m aware of around here teach one or more Asian languages as a matter of course these days. Some will still teach European languages, but the thinking is that there’s more likelihood of encountering Asian languages for students these days, either in travel to Asia, or especially in the tourist-prone areas.
Public school in the early 70s. French, Spanish, German. Latin was still available but being phased out. I finished at a small private school, recently established, only Spanish was offered. They grew and offered other languages later.
1998-2003 Spanish and French. Taking the latter meant you were advanced, since it was assumed you’d have no use for it.
BTW, the advanced Spanish teacher was actually Chinese.
1987 to 1990: Spanish, French, German, Italian.
American mid 90’s
French
Spanish
Latin
Greek
German
UK 1994-2001
Compulsory French for 3 years, second language added in the second year- my year was the first to be offered a choice, as they’d just got a German teacher, the other option was Spanish.
I also did a year of Latin in lunch breaks, having been told we could take it as a scheduled class for later years, only for the school to drop it entirely just before the end of the year…
My brother’s school taught Ancient Greek, as well as Latin (his school was founded in the 13th century, the standard joke was that half the teachers had been there from the start, and god they looked like it), but all other local schools had no ancient language options at all.