What language do most American students prefer to learn in school as a second language?

[-]

cat-kitty332@reddit

For my school the only choice was Spanish

[-]

[-]

Jake0024@reddit

My experience in grad school was selection committees repeatedly saying the criteria they use to evaluate candidates (GPA, school rankings, course load, entrance exam scores like MCAT) aren't good indicators of future success and they want to improve the process, but never actually changing anything

[-]

smoore1234567@reddit

As someone who graduated law school in the past five years and has talked to lawyers of various ages about whether taking Latin is helpful, the prevailing opinion seems to be that maybe it used to matter more, but now it doesn’t really matter at all if you took Latin. There’s really only a few Latin phrases you need to know (primarily ex parte, res judicata, habeas corpus, and few others) and you just need to know what they mean in the context of legal practice.

Really? I remember all my smartest friends took Latin because they were planning on going into medical or legal professions, I just assumed that was a normal offering. Enormous public high school in rural/suburban Texas.

[-]

invisibleman13000@reddit

Yeah, a quick Google search shows that only between 2-4% of all highschool students have taken a latin class at some point.

[-]

chilltownusa@reddit

My high school’s only options were Spanish and Latin. We all had to take one year of Latin, then you got to choose which language to take for the next 3 years. It was a Catholic school, so most of the Latin we learned was focused on religious texts.

[-]

No-Conversation1940@reddit

My high school only offered French.

Rural high school in the Ozarks with abysmal pay, but they had to have some sort of foreign language teacher, so it was about who they could get.

[-]

yellllowjaaacket@reddit

My parents made me take Latin in middle and high school and I so regret it to this day. Other options were French and Spanish.

[-]

Coldfyre_Dusty@reddit

I wasn't forced but I took it anyway, big mistake. It could have been useful, using it as a basis for learning roots and how it evolved into the romance languages. Instead it was learning a word, then the 120+ variations of that word depending on who was doing what to whom of which (if any) gender in varying quantities

[-]

HooptyDooDooMeister@reddit

I desperately wanted to take Latin, because I thought it would unlock a lot of European languages for me.

Look up this phrase plus "Life of Brian".

Parts of Florida have large Brazilian populations. California has whole communities of Korean, Chinese, or Japanese immigrants, I would guess they are large and influential enough to have language programs in local high schools. There are large older German immigrant communities scattered across the eastern us.

My high school offered only Spanish, French, and German.

[-]

sweet_hedgehog_23@reddit

I imagine German would be more common in the Midwest.

[-]

_subpar_username_@reddit

parts of us with large populations of those native speakers. a lot of people who already speak the language will take it in school for easy credit

[-]

velociraptorfarmer@reddit

My school district offered Latin as a communal thing between the 3 high schools. Between the ~4000 9-12 students in the entire district, they barely managed to fill one class with 25 kids.

Latin is much lower, but you're correct on the rest:

Spanish: 69.2%
French: 12.2%
German: 3.1%
Chinese: 2.1%
ASL: 1.2%
Japanese: 0.6%
Arabic: 0.2%
Latin: 0.2%
Russian: 0.1%
Other: 10.9%

The original California Constituion (from back when Vallejo was the state capitol) was written in Spanish. An English translation was provided for the convenience of non-Spanish speakers (I really didn't want to research my term paper in the library at SJSU. The 1853 Acts of the Legislature was a wonderful diversion). I don't think the current constitution is officially in both languages, exactly, in that I think (would be happy to be wrong) that in case of conflict, the English version governs.

Most state documents are available in Spanish, English, Cantonese, and a bunch of other languages depending on the locality (the Central Valley has a lot of Hmong, LA has Koreans, I think we have Sikhs somewhere).

achilles_cat@reddit

French has been the 2nd most common spoken language in Maine for some time, arguably its prevalence has been dropping over the last 50 years. They are smaller communities in the St. John Valley where French was the prevalent language, and still is for the older population, but that is fading out.

SincerelyCynical@reddit

And yet we have so many states like Texas that no longer require students to take a foreign language. I’ve lived here for twenty years and am still appalled by how many Texans can’t even pronounce Spanish names properly. I’m not even talking about difficult names!

[-]

Loud_Ad_4515@reddit

A lot of kids take ASL, especially those with learning disabilities. My son began Spanish, but if you're off by a letter in written work it changes the meaning. He switched to ASL.

It is still not taught in most schools, but it is accepted as fulfilling, a second language requirement in most universities

[-]

BrilliantBarnacle474@reddit

It was not originally at our school, partly because it was taught by adjunct who were just local ASL interpreters and it wasn't a full fledged language program at this college. But the disability office signed a waiver for him and it wasn't a problem.

[-]

phicks_law@reddit

my wife has a learning disability and still remembers her ASL. Its cool to see her sign with deaf kids when she was a teacher.

[-]

Mysterious-Art8838@reddit

That’s so cool that ASL was offered

[-]

Loud_Ad_4515@reddit

His guidance counselor recommended ASL to fulfill his language requirement after he struggled with Spanish. (Though he really enjoyed the class, he just couldn't keep up with coursework.)

Currently, as a family, we are taking ASL classes. I have a son with speech challenges, so it's nice to learn ASL beyond "baby signs." It's a program through the State School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We're allowed 4 semesters.

I work in a hospital. I encounter languages other than English and Spanish every day at work. I ought to be fluent in Tagalog by now and thats just hearing my coworkers. It obviously depends on where you live and what you do bit in urban areas there are immigrants from lots of different places.

[-]

GurProfessional9534@reddit

it’s essentially the only other language any of us have any chance of encountering

[-]

satellite_station@reddit

But is this their preferred one? Or are they just taking it for the “easy A”?

[-]

Adorable-East-2276@reddit

Context for this:

I've seen this quite a bit in the NYC/Philly area among Puerto Rican parents who deliberately didn't want their kids to speak Spanish, thinking that it'd make them less of a target for bigotry. The parents were fluent or close enough in English that communication wasn't a problem with them, but sometimes it did mean that the kids couldn't talk to their grandparents and other relatives who spoke little to no English. I've also met some Portuguese families with the opposite issue, with kids born in the US but only taught Portuguese at home and they end up starting public school at age 5 knowing almost no English.

[-]

PacSan300@reddit

Yeah, my wife is Latina, and she took French.

[-]

mercurialpolyglot@reddit

Louisiana specifically has state funding for getting French programs in schools, so it really is a supply thing. Our native frenches and creoles were killed by the Louisiana government banning French in schools like 100 years ago and then in the seventies they went, “oh no! Our culture!” And created those programs to try to bring French back. It’s not really working in terms of bringing back French in Louisiana but I think something like 5,000 kids are enrolled in public school French immersion programs right now so that’s pretty cool.

[-]

brzantium@reddit

I'm you but in Texas

[-]

SteelGemini@reddit

We had the options of Spanish, French, and German. Hardly anyone took German and it was dropped midway through my high school years.

Like you, I took French to be different. Our teacher was the sole French teacher, compared to 2 or 3 Spanish teachers. I don't even know who taught German while that was available.

And yes, I wish I'd just learned Spanish. Knowing a smattering of French, while living in California, is useless.

[-]

trudge@reddit

There used to be a focus on Spanish, French, and German, I think because those were the big three Western Europe languages. Like, in the boomer generations and earlier. I remember hearing the phrase "learn German because it's a business language" from my grandparents.

Now I think schools just whatever languages they can find teachers for, which is usually Spanish + whatever else.

[-]

dirtyjew123@reddit

My school in Kentucky had 3-4 Spanish teachers, one French, one German, and one Japanese teacher.

[-]

Gertrude_D@reddit

My cousin was a language teacher in the midwest who mainly taught French (he was qualified in Spanish too). He took another job and ended up using his French everyday because co-worker was from an African country that was colonized by the French, so that was his native language. He didn't speak mush English, so the cousin was hugely helpful to him. Obviously not a common use case, but I thought it was funny. :)

[-]

GreenBeanTM@reddit

I’d bet most come from Louisiana. My middle school and high school split a French teacher, but she left my freshman year (2015-16) and as far as I’m aware they still don’t offer French.

[-]

MonarchGrad2011@reddit

My grandfather was a first generation American. He was raised speaking Italian. He learned English once he got into first grade. (No kindergarten back then.) He took German as his foreign language, because that was the language of science then. He wanted to be an MD. While in college, war with Germany, Italy, and Japan broke out. The powers that be made Latin the language of science.

[-]

Uxslws@reddit

Were there alot of native French speakers in that part of NYS?

[-]

Perplexio76@reddit

It's hard to say as there were a lot of people that were fluently bilingual. They'd speak English with no discernible accent and then they'd make a phone call to a friend or family member in fluent French.

After I left the area I realized I had the same accent in English they did. It was slightly Canadian. That is to say that region of NY picked up some Canadian English pronunciations and some American English pronunciation and inflections. I drive my wife a little crazy when I choose to lean back into a Canadian accent as it comes with ease.

[-]

Genepoolperfect@reddit

I love that they offer ASL for your kids! I took it in college.

[-]

imalittlefrenchpress@reddit

My daughter took ASL in college, even tho she grew up around a lot of Spanish speakers.

800 English score, took Latin too!

[-]

dragon-queen@reddit

Well Latin could be helpful as a base for learning a lot of other languages. Or for being a doctor.

[-]

Ameisen@reddit

Well Latin could be helpful as a base for learning a lot of other languages.

Not... really.

The Romance languages have diverged a lot in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary...

It would effectively be like learning early Old English in order to learn modern English.

[-]

stiletto929@reddit

Or a lawyer. But Spanish would still have been much more helpful.

[-]

dragon-queen@reddit

Yeah, when I think further, I think most doctors or lawyers would benefit a lot from knowing Spanish. Latin is helpful for their profession, but not as helpful as Spanish.

[-]

fleemfleemfleemfleem@reddit

I teach at a med school, and I think knowing latin is overrated as preparation.

There are definitely some latin words, but you'll be taught most of what you'll need to know as you go. All the exam materials are in English and you're never actually speaking or reading latin.

Hahaha, this is perfect.

[-]

IndependentMacaroon@reddit

French tenses are just about a strict sunset of Spanish ones though?

[-]

sophiefevvers@reddit

Spanish has a more regular pattern to their tenses for me to follow. French irregular verbs were a learning curve for me.

[-]

StretchJazzlike6122@reddit

I only learned French via Duolingo and YouTube. My purpose was to vaguely understand French music (which I loveee). Didn’t need to be fluent, just enough to get the general point of songs. And I did just that! ❣️

Now I read shampoo bottles for fun to practice my French 🙃😂

q0vneob@reddit

Same. I took 4 years of German in HS and another high level course in college and never spoke it again. Both class trips to Germany got cancelled due to 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

It depends on the school. I mean yes you will learn the academic version of the language and not much slang, but you could still be fluent by your junior or senior year of high school.

[-]

IsbellDL@reddit

Yeah, an introduction to the concept is really all that's realistic for 30-45 minutes a day for a few months. II took 2 years of Spanish. I can sound out words well enough, ask a few basic questions, & maybe understand the dumbed down answers. I was nowhere near conversational when it was fresh. My retention 25 years later is laughable.

I've recently decided to start learning Japanese in my free time. I consume enough Japanese media that I couldn't stand nor knowing. I haven't tracked my time, & self guided learning has its own issues. That said, I'm sure I've pur more time in over the last year than I had in both Spanish classes combined. I'm not remotely fluent in Japanese yet either, but I've made significantly more progress than I did with Spanish. And that's despite having to also learn entirely new character sets. The typical high school just can't devote the time needed to make real progress.

[-]

r2d3x9@reddit

I took French. What a complete waste of time!! I was told you had to take a foreign language to get into college. Which is completely false. I should have taken Italian, then I could have practiced with my neighbors

[-]

thekins33@reddit

you get 2 options spanish or french in most schools so uhh pick one i guess?

[-]

PureMichiganMan@reddit

Spanish and French are really the only two I remember friends learning in school.

[-]

Snarleey@reddit

In the US, not every public school student is funded equally.

Public school funding is based on property taxes from each specific school district. If you live in a nice neighborhood with nice houses and fancy businesses, your school gets more funding. Thanks to the “great white flight” in the US when people of color moved into the cities and the rich white people fled to walled and gated neighborhoods in the suburbs, neighborhoods are very segregated.

Uneven school funding is an intentional strategy to fuel the cycle of poverty in the US.

What I’m saying is, rich schools have a wider array of language classes from which to choose. Most schools just offer Spanish and French. Rich neighborhoods’ schools offer those and more, like Latin, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Russian.

Japanese and Chinese are rare, but exist at some schools as there is some interest.

Spanish.

Tea_Eighteen@reddit

I got to learn Japanese. :D

[-]

chivopi@reddit

I had 9 years of Spanish and 8 of French by graduation.

[-]

Lady-Kitnip@reddit

Spanish is the most practical within the US.

I went with French in high school for several reasons.

It was one of two foreign language options available, the other being Spanish.
I had 7 years of Spanish in grade school (I went to Catholic schools from k-12th grade; high school was high school, but while my k-8 schools were often called elementary schools, they were k-8s and a lot of us just called them grade school. Not sure if it's a regional thing or unique to schools that are k-8s, if not a mix of both) and so, was sick and tired of it, as we'd be going over the stuff we'd gone over in grade school.
My dad had learned French as his second language and, due to the fact that he'd died when I was a toddler, I'd not learned much of it growing up beyond what my mom had taught me (she'd also taken French in school; not sure if it was in high school or at the college level).

[-]

No_Dragonfruit_9656@reddit

My school only has German and French. I opted for French because Canada isn't that far.

[-]

BrumblebeeArt@reddit

Most schools only offered Spanish or French when I was growing up (think it's pretty much the same nowadays, I'm just shy of 40). In the US, Spanish is really the only useful second language unless you have an immigrant family member speaking something else (in which case they probably taught you, and within 2-3 generations will mostly likely be completely lost) or you're planning to move to another country.

The real drawback is they typically don't start the classes until middle school (6th-8th grade) so it's a million times harder to begin learning a second language for the first time when you've already hit your early teens. The foundational brain wiring isn't there. Many continue into high school, some into college, but there are ways around the requirement in later school such as taking art classes instead (which is what I did.)

[-]

MartyPhelps@reddit

Spanish, anything else is a distant second.

[-]

No_Cartographer5955@reddit

I took three years of Spanish and one year of American Sign Language.

[-]

dr-brennan@reddit

Spanish. Even when I was in 7th grade it just made way more sense to me. I think it would be great for the standard to be LatAm Spanish, not Spain Spanish.

[-]

VictorianPeorian@reddit

I don't know what I would have chosen, given a choice, but my entire class was started on French in middle school, so I continued that in high school. Almost everyone else would have taken Spanish. I'm not sure what else was even offered—I think maybe German and (new at the time) Chinese? I'm pretty sure they added Arabic later. Not sure if Latin was an option, although, as a history nerd, that always interested me.

[-]

EaglesFanGirl@reddit

Spanish b/c there's a lot of native spanish speakers in the USA today.

The more divorced from everyday life, the higher the 'prestige' of taking the language. So, taking Mandarin, for example, is extremely trendy, especially in elite schools. The thought behind it is that these 'elite' kids are going to grow up and be business leaders, and need to speak Mandarin for all those big, fancy, corporate contracts they'll need with China. As opposed to the poor kids, who should learn Spanish since they'll be working in kitchens or lawn care or need to think about practical usage. Most of the people who attend an expensive private school and learn Mandarin rarely to never actually use it, not like they might with Spanish, but the prestige factor is there.

The really rare languages are almost seen as a vanity project, which again is used to signal that you are smart and wealthy enough to be wasting your time on a non-practical language, or that you have a reason, such as your family travels or you have fancy plans to enter some elite overseas job, to be learning Arabic or similar.

[-]

LadybugGal95@reddit

If a school only has one option, it’s almost guaranteed to be Spanish. If a school has more options, then it’s wide open. My two kids are in different school districts. Both offer Spanish and have more Spanish teachers/classes than any other language. One district also offers French. The other offers German and Japanese.

[-]

Honest_Paper_2301@reddit

At my very small school, Spanish was the only option. So everyone took Spanish classes

[-]

SmoothSlavperator@reddit

Spanish if you're Humanities or social sciences oriented.

French or German if you're STEM oriented.

[-]

First_Bar_8024@reddit

English

[-]

Absurdtittyz@reddit

My high school only offered (spain) Spanish and French.

[-]

djmcfuzzyduck@reddit

We only had two languages available; Spanish or French. I did both.

[-]

No_Owl_7380@reddit

Definitely Spanish. I took 5 years between middle and high school. Yes, I speak Spanish proficiently.

l contend it doesn't matter because in the U.S. students are not actually expected to learn a foreign language when they take it. They can take four or more years of a language and upon graduation not be able to hold a simple conversation, and nobody thinks anything of it. Language teachers get a free pass in that way.

Now if a student graduates from high school and is unable to read simple sentences, or unable to solve simple math problems, it's a big deal, a major failure, and questions will be asked.

[-]

Due-Garage4146@reddit

I know a lot of kids here in public school like to take Korean. Mine took Japanese. When I was in public school back in the 90s I took Arabic. Now it’s expanded a lot. There’s also a Russian, Vietnamese, Mandarin. I live in the south. I’m sure there’s more variety in public schools up north or in major cities.

[-]

Ishpeming_Native@reddit

Almost all will pick Spanish, because it's almost a second national language. But Spanish is very unlike English -- the verbs, the tenses, pretty much everything is more like Latin, which almost no Americans know. The easiest second language would be German. All the verbs and tenses are almost exactly the same. Many of the words are the same or similar. The two languages were almost the same language about a thousand years ago.

So, yeah, most students will pick Spanish and do awful with it. A few will pick French and do even worse. And very few will pick German and those will actually do a lot better but have little confidence. No matter; they won't have much chance to use German, anyway.

[-]

Disastrous-Rise-6526@reddit

Spanish, French, Japanese, in that order.

[-]

spiniton85@reddit

In my school in Tucson, Arizona, we only had the option of French or Spanish. Being surrounded by Spanish speakers, I chose to take French because it felt more exotic.

[-]

Hawaiian-national@reddit

Spanish.

My high school only offered French or Spanish, as did most high schools in my area. Spanish was more popular, mostly because the French teacher was a bit... off.

I know of one high school near my hometown that also offered German, and another Italian.

[-]

MysteriousMeaning555@reddit

In school, I chose French despite living in Southern California, close to the US/Mexico border.

But at home, I learned Spanish from my mom's boyfriend.

There was a similar question posted in here about 4 months ago, which I did not save. And that question got me curious as to what was offered in Orange County schools, so I posted a question in r/orangecounty which can be found here..

[-]

THE_TRIP_KEEPER@reddit

Spanish is the only practical language for day to day

[-]

lovemesomezombie@reddit

I think it depends on region. I'm from Southern California so for me, Spanish I assume if you lived in states close to areas in Canada, it may be French. My Mom took Latin for some reason, never used it but it helped in trivia.

[-]

Complex_Solutions_20@reddit

Everyone always told me Spanish was "the easiest one"...that's what I went for. Also there's more likely to be people speaking Spanish than other offered languages.

Suspicious_Art9118@reddit

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE is coming up fast. Yes, I'm shouting at you

[-]

ThePostalTilt@reddit

My school offered only Spanish and Mandarin. For some reason, I picked Mandarin, thinking it may help me in a future career.

Zivata@reddit

Spanish, French, and German are the most offered and chosen. I can't guarantee it, but I'm pretty sure that is the order of popularity, for most places.

Anchorage AK has more. They do immersion programs starting in Kindergarten that progress through highschool (for now anyway, the anti-education right wingers are voting out everything lately).

But they have Chinese (pretty sure Mandarin), French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Yup'ik.

[-]

cheetah-21@reddit

French

[-]

Apocalyptic0n3@reddit

My high school offered Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. Spanish is by far the most common and it wasn't even remotely close. We had 3 full time Spanish teachers. If you combined the other 3 under a single teacher, they still would have been part time.

[-]

SendHelp9417@reddit

A lot of kids in my high school (including myself) took French because we lived so close the Canadian border. Our town was also heavily influenced by Italian immigrants so a good portion took Italian, too. But far and away Spanish was most common.

C#

Python

[-]

More-Act2171@reddit

Spanish, but second place depends on location. In rural Pennsylvania german and Spanish were almost equal

[-]

Efficient_Advice_380@reddit

Spanish, but other offered languages usually include French, German and Mandarin

[-]

Historical-Composer2@reddit

It depends on what part of the US you live in. In Hawai’i most people take Chinese or Japanese. Spanish and French are usually tied for the next most popular.

[-]

MentalTelephone5080@reddit

When I was in HS I signed up for Italian and it was. Cancelled due to lack of interest. I was automatically put into Spanish.

Spanish (by a large margin; many taking it because they feel it’s easier than the others).
German
Chinese (though Chinese immersion classes are quite popular in the elementary school)
French
Russian
Greek
American Sign Language (only had like 8 students)

[-]

Away_Analyst_3107@reddit

My high school was German, and it was mostly because the German teachers were awesome and there was an exchange program. Nothing to do with the actual language lol

[-]

elucify@reddit

I would settle for them learning English

[-]

Too many students in the US take a basic language class in high school only to meet curriculum requirements, but not in any way that promises command or fluency. When I finished high school, I could speak Latin about as well as I could speak Spanish! (Neither one well, but one is dead.)

A better question: how do Europeans study English so well that they are readily conversational? In the USA, we do skits and rote grammatical exercises, but little conversation and no immersion.

[-]

Relevant-Emu5782@reddit

My daughter picked Latin for high school. But she had also had Spanish since kindergarten and was sick of it.

[-]

devilkaper@reddit

Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese.

[-]

RedLegGI@reddit

We only had Spanish and German available. Not sure on the split though.

[-]

PaleoBibliophile917@reddit

Whatever fits their schedule among the few offered. When I was in high school long ago, the options were French, German, Spanish, and Latin. How many choices are offered depends largely on the districts’s funding. Fewer teachers means fewer elective courses overall and certainly fewer languages. In some districts, students aren’t even allowed to choose for themselves what they take. A school with very strong funding might offer very different options.

diegotbn@reddit

Mexico has the highest number of Spanish speakers of any country.

The US has the second highest.

Well, the #2 slot is contested between the US, Colombia, and Spain. But you get the idea. We have a ton of Spanish speakers, both native and learned.

In school, no other language comes close to how many Spanish students there are. Bear in mind, a lot of rural schools offer only Spanish, and most others will only offer French and German as alternatives. Very few schools offer Japanese, Mandarin, or anything else. Some offer Latin if you count that.

I took German. A significant portion of my ancestry (primarily on my father's side but a small amount of my mother's as well) comes from the German speaking region. And I figured it would set me apart a little...

I'm not sure how many sections of each were offered... But from what I can remember my German 1 through 3 were full - 25± kids.

When it came to German 4 however ... There were only like 6 of us who opted to do the full 4 year program. The teacher retired after our junior year so I don't know if having a brand new teacher might have put some off. Or how it compared with how many did all 4 years of Spanish

A couple years after I graduated they axed the German program. Anyone who had taken at least German 1 could continue and finish off if they so chose but no one new could start it. As far as I know then they only offer Spanish, doubt they would have picked up anything new..

Though one of the Spanish teachers (if she's still there) is co-certified to teach French too so they theoretically could have picked it up without too much issue I guess

[-]

PrimaryHighlight5617@reddit

Spanish.

Funnily enough I took French in high school and at this point just from working in restaurants and being around Mexicans I can understand the Spanish way better than I can understand French 😂

[-]

burningmanonacid@reddit

Spanish for sure.

At my catholic school, they offered Latin, French, and Chinese in addition to Spanish.

[-]

Effective_Coach7334@reddit

The only French speaking places Americans really go are France and Vietnam

Other than Americans frequenting Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe, Switzerland and Belgium, and The Ivory Coast, I totally agree.

[-]

inbigtreble30@reddit

Yeah but the statistics don't lie. 70% of US high schoolers who earned any second language credits did so in Spanish, while only 12% did so in French. (As of 2019)

[-]

Expensive-Student732@reddit

Canadian here. I've heard alot of French in Northern Vermont. A wee bit in the county, Maine.

I went for German. Honestly they should MAKE us learn Spanish.

[-]

willoww3@reddit

Spanish, and French, or ASl when available

[-]

Hylian_ina_halfshell@reddit

Spanish for most

French and Latin are also in a lot of schools

[-]

dgmilo8085@reddit

Spanish

While its not uncommon for high schools to offer French, Latin, occasionally German, or Mandarin (on the rise), the most common is still Spanish.

I took Spanish all 4 years of high school and use it weekly, if not daily. My girlfriend took French. She never gets to use it.

Some parts of the US with very specific immigrant populations may have other foreign language classes in their school systems (I knew a few kids who took Russian in middle school due to a large slavic population), but for those part it's just Spanish and French.

[-]

AbbreviationsTop4959@reddit

Grew up in California. I took Spanish in middle school for one semester, because it was offered and practical. But I wanted to be a scientist, so my high school foreign language was French.

[-]

FirstPersonWinner@reddit

It is always Spanish

[-]

Serious-Mongoose-387@reddit

i wanted to take japanese because my best friend was going to take japanese, but my mom insisted that i take spanish so i did.

ImpressiveAppeal8077@reddit

Spanish cuz it’s easiest and closest qnd used the most in the states

[-]

FutureHot3047@reddit

Spanish followed by French because it’s what’s offered most of the time. I took Spanish and switched to Japanese now in college.

[-]

tawzerozero@reddit

In my middle and high schools, Spanish and French were the only choices. I just looked, and now (20+ years later), my high school now offers Spanish, Italian, or Mandarin.

[-]

My dad told me i should take Spanish, and we had like 6 Spanish teachers, 3 French teachers, 1 German (technically one of the French teachers also taught German), and 1 Latin and (i think) 1 Mandarin. Spanish classes were always full, but i ended up taking French and German.

[-]

arochains1231@reddit

Spanish is usually the only one offered

[-]

leonchase@reddit

Where I grew up (Michigan), French was a popular offering. Probably because of our local history and close proximity to Canada. People like me took Spanish because it was considered more practical. But a lot of people, especially young women, gravitated to French because it was considered more romantic and cosmopolitan.

lexicon951@reddit

Spanish is usually required, as well as the only foreign language option. If you go to a fancy school or live in a nicer district you may have access to French or German class. If your district has no budget at all you might not even have a teacher, just a computer lab with Duolingo or Rosetta Stone and the “teacher” makes you work on language of your choice for a few hours a week as a study hall elective

[-]

Spanish, it’s basically one of two languages spoken in the US. Dialect may vary

[-]

roumonada@reddit

Mexican

[-]

evaj95@reddit

Usually Spanish because we are more familiar with it.

Amuse_Me444@reddit

Espagnol, Français, Deutsch

[-]

formerprincess@reddit

Depends on where you live. In Southern California many people know at least some Spanish. I moved here out of high school and got a very good job as a French English translator because they couldn’t find anyone else who spoke French. Today mandarin speakers are in very high demand in the job market especially at entry level positions. My friends in hr tell me many applicants while fluent in mandarin do not have the English skills needed so the jobs remain unfilled.

[-]

intotheairwaves17@reddit

Spanish is definitely most popular. My school offered Spanish, French, and German, so I took French. It’s come in useful for trips to Canada, but Spanish probably would’ve been more useful in every day life.

My college offered Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Latin I believe (in addition to French, Spanish, and German), but I just stuck with French since I already had been taking it for 6 years by that point.

Unfortunately our school system often has us start learning a second language when kids are around 12, which is imo an awful time. You’re going through a lot and are self conscious enough already, trying to speak a different language in a class with a bunch of other self conscious kids can be detrimental when you’re scared of getting made fun of. Luckily a lot of schools are starting dual language programs earlier now, which is better too because younger kids can absorb new languages easier than older kids/adults.

[-]

BunnyGirlSD@reddit

Spanish, but i live closer to Mexico then i do to another state...