My school had Spanish, French, or German.
As a Japanese native, the only foreign language I studied at school was basically English.
However, as part of my ancient Japanese language education, I studied classical Chinese literature written in Chinese characters, from which hiragana and other Japanese characters are derived, so ancient Chinese might also be included in the list of foreign languages I learned.
My middle school had English, German, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek.
That sounds amazing. In my high school I was the only one who signed up for Latin so they put me in Spanish instead…
Everybody picked English as first or second foreign language. Most picked Spanish as second language, the best students (or kids from solidly middle-class families) picked German as a first language, to get into the “good” group. Latin was an elective for nerds, Geek for Über-nerds.
I did grammar school, so we had:
- Dutch (our native language)
- English
- French
- German
- Classical Greek
- Latin
- Chinese (optional course)
Dutch and English were all through school, the other ones you took for 2 years and then picked two languages to follow through on, one of which had to be Greek or Latin. I did German and Greek.
In my part of Australia we had to learn Japanese between the ages of 10 and 14, after that is became optional.
We had to choose 2 of English, German, Spanish, French, Italian. We had the option of Japanese as extracurricular
Man I wish we had japanese when I was in school. I was completely unmotivated to learn french, and yet I still manage to understand some basic sentences. I bet I would have been way more motivated and probably would have remembered more if I had the option to learn japanese.
English of course, the language of the invaders
In America it’s French, German and Spanish and in Panama it’s English and French.
Mandatory:
- Danish (Native)
- English
- German
- Other Nordic languages: Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic (as part of Danish class)
Optional:
- French
- Spanish
- Latin (mandatory on certain schools)
Australia, we were offered French, Indonesian (and perhaps german?) in the two schools i went to.
I know my producer’s schools had only Spanish, though one school he went to had ASL (American Sign Language) in addition to Spanish. However, there was one college that offered Japanese, which he would have loved.
In my German “Gymnasium“, we had English, French, Latin and Russian.
I’ve been always surprised that Spanish is not as relevant as it should be in the German system, as for the german speakers it’s really easy to pick up and master, also Mallorca is practically a german city.
I’m not sure I would agree, maybe it’s a regional thing or a generational thing (mid 20s here), but every school I know of here in germany offered spanish as a 3rd language
That‘s true. On the contrary, having taken French and Latin, I picked up basic Spanish and Italian almost on the go, when visiting these countries.
Also French is prioritised as it’s our direct neighbour.
Yes but Italy is also a neighboring country. I blame the Big French corpos
Italy and Germany do not have a common border.
Ah shit! You got me. Then polish and czech?
Well, it depends. The south-western states usually prioritise French, some north-western offer Dutch. Idk abt the eastern states but judging by the world population speaking either polish or czech, I would believe those are more optional courses, if anything.
Spanish is most common, but many high schools also teach French, Latin, and German.
Fun times when my German teacher had the idea of showing up to the French class cookout uninvited (there were only 6 of us, cf. 12 students in French)
ASL, Greek, Italian, Russian, and Japanese were only offered at specific schools in my district, with a bus that takes you to those classes and back. Japanese ended up being just a TV broadcast alongside worksheets and was eventually dropped from the catalog. Friends and family living in larger cities and suburbs told me about taking Mandarin Chinese, but the school district I attended (and neighboring districts) didn’t offer it.
edit: this is in the US
I think mine only had French or Italian. I’m Canadian.
I only remember French, Spanish, or German (this was back in the 90s). My kids have all those plus Japanese, Mandarin, and ASL to choose from
In my hometown, it was Spanish, Latin, German, French, or ASL (I know, I know, not a foreign language. Arguably Spanish isn’t either, but anyway).
But each school only had one, so you only got fo choose if you had enough free periods to drive across town three times a week.
My school had Spanish. I learned Latin once I was in college.
