Which language?
District 211 offers French, German, Mandarin and Spanish. Many times students who are about to take their first world language have a difficult time deciding which one to study. They may ask their parents, guidance counselors, friends or relatives for advice, but these people may not be of much help due to a lack of familiarity with other languages or because of long-held misconceptions about language study.
The following is an attempt to give students some basis to evaluate the three world languages offered at Fremd.
Vocabulary
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Mandarin |
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| less difficult | less difficult | a tonal language | more difficult |
| more words similar to English cognates | more words similar to English cognates | not similar to English | fewer words similar to English due to Arabic influences |
| more difficult to spell | less difficult to spell, longer words are made up of smaller words | Uses characters, spelling is different | easy to spell, many letters only produce one sound |
Grammar
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Mandarin |
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| less difficult, especially with past tense and subjunctive | more difficult ,especially due to noun and adjective declensions | more difficult, especially with past tense and subjunctive |
Pronunciation
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Mandarin |
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| more difficult | somewhat more difficult | very difficult a tonal language: slight change in tone changes meaning |
less difficult |
| more exceptions to the rule, some sounds that don't exist in English | spoken as written, with some sounds that don't exist in English | Uses characters not letters | more phonetic, fewer sounds that don't exist in English |
Links to why French?:
High Tech Reasons to Study French
Links to why German?:
Top 10 reasons to learn German
Links to why Spanish?:
Top 10 reasons to learn Spanish
Links to why Mandarin?:
Customer Service
Spanish is useful for health care and public service occupations in many urban areas. It is very helpful in communicatingwith a rapidly growing segment of our population. The NAFTA agreement facilitates the trade with our hispanic neighbors and creates the need for Spanish speaking personnel. Spanish is useful for the careers in hotel-restaurant management, production, customs, international banking, business, and airlines.