NationStates Jolt Archive

(Just to make sure every knows this: the poll is for what is OFFERED and NOT what you took! :))

I'm curious what all the NSers took/take in school as a foreign language. And also what is offered. And why did you take it?

I took French because my paretns said only French or Spanish. My mom took French and my dad Spanish and I didn't really want to have to work with ym dad...it turns out a very wise decision :)

Poll ahoy!

German and Japanese. German because it was easier than French (The other mandatory language), and Japanese because I used to be a ^_^KAWAII ANIME^_^ fan. Which I'm not any more.

I took German, and I'm still taking it in college. As a matter of fact, I'm working on a minor in the language.

My school offered French, Spanish and German. I took all three, but went ahead with AP level Spanish. It's come in helpful here in the southwest. :)

No option for English? :rolleyes:

At my school, English, Latin and French were compulsory. They offered Russian, Italian, Spanish and ancient Greek as voluntary courses.

I took French in Junior high (3 years) and Spanish (2 years) and German (2 years) and Latin (2 years) in highschool (I was in Latin and German at the same time)

I took them because I needed electives and I didn't want to go to the other options that were allowed during that time block.

French and German were the modern ones. Classical languages were Latin and Ancient Greek. Not-actually-subject languages were Modern Greek and Russian (but they might've lost these last two now, they were only taught after school by teachers who may have left).
That was at my secondary school.
Now I go to uni, so... loads.

^^^ OFFERED ^^^

TAKEN:
French - 9 years.
German - 3 years.
Latin - 5 years.
Modern Greek - 1 year.
Currently studying at uni: Russian, Japanese, Spanish.

and Japanese because I used to be a ^_^KAWAII ANIME^_^ fan. Which I'm not any more.
Glad to know that you got better. It gives hope to the rest of that sad lot.

As for me, I took three years of high school German because my school requires me to take a language. Waste of my God damned time.

My middle schools collectively offered Setswana, French, Italian, Spanish and German. My high school offered French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Japanese. My university offered everything in your poll and a bunch of other languages as well.

In middle school I took French (one year) and Italian (two years). In high school I took French (four years). In university I took French.

EDIT: I'm almost certain my high school offered a couple other languages as well, but I can't remember what they were.

top 3 plus portuguese

At my secondary school they offered French and German (I took both) but I think they've added Spanish since I left. At my sixth form they offer French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and Greek. There are also evening classes in Russian, Swedish, Welsh, Chinese, and Japanese which students can take for free but due to the workload I'm only doing French.

German
English
French
Latin
Spanish (introduced after I graduated)

All those were offered, but I did go to a school that profiled itself through its combination of humanities and science, with strong emphasis on language.

All are offered

French, Spanish, German were the main ones. Italian (and something else, possibly Chinese, I can't remember) were offered as voluntary courses. I did French, Spanish and Italian.

i took german because my mum is german and i have family there, plus its a fantastic language. i prefer it to french, which was offered, though i tried spanish for a year but couldn't get on with my teacher.

also did latin but while it was interesting, it was also a crock of shit. could have done greek but latin was crap enough :p

I assume this is limited to secondary school education, since most colleges have tons of language courses.

French in high school. I learned nearly nothing.

Russian in college, and I'm going to pursue a minor in it.

(Just to make sure every knows this: the poll is for what is OFFERED and NOT what you took! :))

I'm curious what all the NSers took/take in school as a foreign language. And also what is offered. And why did you take it?

I took French because my paretns said only French or Spanish. My mom took French and my dad Spanish and I didn't really want to have to work with ym dad...it turns out a very wise decision :)

Poll ahoy!

Because I'm dutch, the following classes were offered: Dutch, English, French and German. Also latin and Classical Greek. Some other schools might do Frisian and Spanish. And at my primary school there was Turkish and Arabic for the kids from Morocco and Turkey :) And sometimes you might even find a school that offers Russian :)

My school offers Latin, Spanish, and French. I'm currently taking AP Latin.

My school offered Italian, German and Spanish.

It insisted on French and Latin. (We had no choice but to study these)

I suppose it might have helped when I had to learn Portuguese much later in life, but then it may not have helped at all (the genders of nouns are all messed up between French and Portuguese.)

High school: Latin, 3 years
College: German, 3 semesters

Still retain at least reading knowledge in both, probably better in reading German.

My high school offered spanish and french (they just cut out German from the budget). I took two years of Spanish and I´m spending my Junior year here in Mexico to study the language (if you REALLY want to learn a language, then you´ve got to jump right in and immerse yourself).

(Just to make sure every knows this: the poll is for what is OFFERED and NOT what you took! :))

I'm curious what all the NSers took/take in school as a foreign language. And also what is offered. And why did you take it?

I took French because my paretns said only French or Spanish. My mom took French and my dad Spanish and I didn't really want to have to work with ym dad...it turns out a very wise decision :)

Poll ahoy!

I'm surprised that you put Greek and Russian over Japanese in the poll.

I'm surprised that you put Greek and Russian over Japanese in the poll.

idk...I tried to think of the top 9 or so

All in the poll, plus more.

What I took: German and Spanish.

Since im chilean, we study english in my school mandatory class, its not like they offer they just say "take it or get out" so your dont have that much of a choice

Presuming we talk actual school, and not uni, that'd have been English (compulsory), French, Spanish, and Latin (one of these compulsory, too). Of course, we had German (this being a German school), and IIRC they were going to try and establish a Russian class when I graduated.

French and Spanish. Oh, and American Sign Language.

Having grown up in wales and put in a welsh first language school I was forced to learn Welsh, English and French

My welsh at one point was better than my English but I have corrected that problem now.

I was bad at French and used to fall asleep in class. I actually wanted to do German and had an interest in it but I wasn't allowed to do is because I hadn't achieved good enough grades in French (go figure).

Since then I have been trying to learn Japanese, even started classes at night school and did ok but my baby sitter bailed and I couldnt get another.

High school: French (which I had to learn), Spanish (optional)
University: All listed above including: Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, and Yiddish.

Oh I forgot to mention that the actual language spoken in my school was usually a mixture of English and welsh (called Wenglish by the commedians) but of a type where just about every other word was "fuck" or "****". (Except when teachers were within earshot of course :) )

Main language Finnish, but english and swedish are compulsory, french and german optional subjects (I study german now, but there weren't enough people willing to study french, so I can't study it yet in my school).

French, Spanish, German, Italian and Latin are offered at my school. I took Latin because I believed that it would help me understand English better, and it has! I guess that just shows how much English has borrowed from the Romance languages, since it's a Germanic language.

Incidentally, my Latin teacher also teaches the German and Italian classes. She speaks 8 languages: German, Itlian, Latin, French, Spanish, Russian, English & Romanian (I included English because her native language is Romanian).

As I'm from Germany, we had got German of course. ;)

Every pupil has to learn- sooner or later - English. Beside we could take French, Latin or Greek. (But as I went on school, there weren't any Greek-courses - there weren't enough pupils who wanted to take Greek.)

A history teacher of mine was an official Russian teacher as well, but we couldn't choose Russian as foreign language.

My first foreign language was English, (We could choose: Latin or English) my second French (I had the choice between Latin and French)

As you see, I prefered the living languages.

Another teacher offered Italian courses in the afternoon. But it wasn't "official", it was totaly voluntary. The pupils in the Italian course didn't get marks, either.

Languages taught at my current university: French, Spanish, Italian, German , Portuguese, Russian, Modern Greek, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and English.

Languages taught at the university I almost went to, but chickened out due to the specialisation. I do always wonder what it would have been like if I went to SOAS instead of Birmingham.
AFRICA - Afrikaans, Amharic, Hausa, Igbo, Shona, Somali, Swahili, Tigrinya, Twi, Yoruba and Zulu
NEAR and MIDDLE EAST - Arabic, Qu'ranic Arabic, Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish
EAST ASIA - Chinese (Only Mandarin), Japanese and Korean
SOUTH EAST ASIA - Burmese, Indonesian, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese
SOUTH ASIA - Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil and Urdu

At my high school: Japanese only (mandatory up until 10th grade), but others could be taken by correspondence.

I wouldn't have a clue what my university offered. I studied French there, but even languages like Ukrainian were possible to take.

German and English were mandatory, and you had to take another language class such as French, Latin, or Spanish.

Another voice from Germany.

English was mandatory from year 5, in year 7 we had to choose between Latin and French. Those who picked Latin later had the option to take French in year 9 as well. Russian was also on offer. (North Rhine Westphalia)

I took Latin, then opted for French in year 9. Dropped it in 11, unfortunately, since I didn't get along with the teacher and vice versa. Shame that, really, I wish my French was more fluent. I only just survive in France. May brush it up one day.

In my twenties I learned Dutch for fun. Ask the people in the dutch thread, they're still slightly green in the face.

French, German and Spanish are offered at my school. English to but ive read it since the third grade so it doesnt count. I have German but its the most booring subject and Im really longing for it to end next year. Ive had it since sixth grade but I feel I havent learned anything at all.

All of them, because my school had a 'language college' status.

My school offers Latin, French, Spanish, and German all only in high school, which is unfortunate because I'd like to have started learning earlier. I chose Latin, I don't know the actual reason, but I thought it would be pretty cool I guess. I'm currently in my fourth year of study in Latin. Now, if they offered Italian, I don't know where I'd be, I suppose I'd be taking Italian.

well I could of done French, German, Spanish and if I had stayed on I could of done Japanese

of course all I ever did was German because it was a toss between that and French and I had to pick one (so I picked German because Germany better:p )

German and Japanese. German because it was easier than French (The other mandatory language), and Japanese because I used to be a ^_^KAWAII ANIME^_^ fan. Which I'm not any more.

That's also why I decided to take japanese back in 9th grade. However, it seems like a dumb idea now.

German or French in my day not sure what they do now wish they had done Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse instead of French

French, Spanish and ESL. You were required to take either of the former languages though, which mean't that we had a lot of teachers for them and most were really good.

My school offered French, Spanish and German. I took all three, but went ahead with AP level Spanish. It's come in helpful here in the southwest. :)The same three my school offered. I took all three, and it did me no good whatsoever. I can understand a little Spanish, but more from living in the Southwest than from school.

Assuming we're talking about high school here, mine offered French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin. The first four were all five- or six-year programs, starting in middle school and continuing throughout your high school career; Latin was a one- or two-year program, and was generally taken in addition to one of the other languages.

We were required to pick either French or German.

Well here where I live the available language courses are: French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Sign Language. No specific one was compulsory, but you had to have a certain number of language credits to graduate. I took German because it is way cooler and Spanish, which is the language all the popular kids and lazy people take, and it was just better in some way than French, which I might take. Also, my friend in is German 3 now, but back when I wasn't in German class he started to speak German around me, so I kind of got accustomed to the language. Ich liebe Deutsche Klasse!

You forgot Polish!:eek:


My other is Punjabi.