French, Spanish, Chinese, Japaneese for HS

[intogamer]

I'm currently assigned Spanish for freshmen year, and will have to follow throughout HS. My cousin is telling me to take Chinese(Mandarin) as he is a business major. I know Cantonese also, and I do want to take the business route for college. But I really have a hard time with calligraphy characters from previous experiences. Should I take the easy route and stay Spanish? Japanese would be more fun if I decide to go to Japan or something.

Any thoughts?

 

[Colt45]

Where are you planning on doing business?

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: Colt45
Where are you planning on doing business?

Not sure, but I do want to major in business/finance

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Spanish, for many reasons:
1. It's similar to English
2. As you get into higher classes where it's no longer a requirement, there are tons of women, which is good especially if you'll be going for an engineering major, because sausage fests in your normal classes are common
3. Plenty of people in the US that speak Spanish

While #2 might seem funny at first, it's not. If you spend your whole day in classes with just a bunch of men, you'll love your spanish class where it's the exact opposite. In my current one, I think there are 5 guys and 20-25 females?

 

[keeleysam]

¡Me gusta comer chicarrones en el baño con no pantalones!

 

[Saint Michael]

Chinese is a useful language. The pronunciation is quite difficult, although you'll already have a handle on the tones if you know Cantonese, however I've noticed that Cantonese speakers do not necessarily have a natural good handle on pronouncing the vowels/consonants, which are quite different from Cantonese. The characters aren't really as problematic as you might thing. In any class you'll be taught them gradually, and constantly exposed. Plus they're valuable for reading/writing for Cantonese as well, along with Japanese if you ever decide to learn it. Ultimately you should take whatever you want, but I wouldn't avoid one simply because you think it might be too difficult. Many people all over the world speak any number of languages without difficulty every day for their entire lives, it's not really that difficult for you or anyone else to do speak one of them. Spanish is useful as well, although it is (despite what I just said) easier than Mandarin, so if you ever have a strong need to learn it (if half the U.S. only speak Spanish or something), you'll probably pick it up naturally. Anyway, I wouldn't make it such a dilemma for yourself, just gravitate towards the one you are most personally interested in, that will guarantee as much as possible your success in the class.

 

[Juno]

habla en espanol?

 

[Gneisenau]

Take which ever language you feel will do you more good later on in life. Don't just take the easy road. Life is a much longer time than just high school and college. You'll have a lot more time to regret taking the easy way out now, later, then taking the best way now and suffering for a few years.
I suspect any language could be worth some big bucks, but spanish is going to be less so, since it's easier to find people who speak that then Chinese or Japanese.

And hey, if you speak Japanese, you can watch anime in japanese....What could be greater than that?

 

[razor2025]

Originally posted by: Gneisenau

And hey, if you speak Japanese, you can watch anime in japanese....What could be greater than that?

QFT... you'd be the envy of all those nerds in college.

 

[bonkers325]

are you chinese? will you be working with chinese people? if so, then pick chinese!

 

[uhohs]

Originally posted by: razor2025

Originally posted by: Gneisenau

And hey, if you speak Japanese, you can watch anime in japanese....What could be greater than that?

QFT... you'd be the envy of all those nerds in college.

and you can wear anime tshirts to class

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: intogamer
I'm currently assigned Spanish for freshmen year, and will have to follow throughout HS. My cousin is telling me to take Chinese(Mandarin) as he is a business major. I know Cantonese also, and I do want to take the business route for college. But I really have a hard time with calligraphy characters from previous experiences. Should I take the easy route and stay Spanish? Japanese would be more fun if I decide to go to Japan or something.

Any thoughts?

Mandarin buddy. It will be far more useful than Spanish.

 

[Mrvile]

Spanish will be easier, Mandarin will be much more useful.

 

[dugweb]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Spanish, for many reasons:
1. It's similar to English
2. As you get into higher classes where it's no longer a requirement, there are tons of women, which is good especially if you'll be going for an engineering major, because sausage fests in your normal classes are common
3. Plenty of people in the US that speak Spanish

While #2 might seem funny at first, it's not. If you spend your whole day in classes with just a bunch of men, you'll love your spanish class where it's the exact opposite. In my current one, I think there are 5 guys and 20-25 females?

i wasn't sure if this was just a phenomenon i was experiencing, but apparently it goes across the board. You speak the truth!

In my spanish class ATM, there are literally 3 guys (myself included) and 28 girls. immediately following that class i have a web development class, and networking class and between both of those combined there is 1 girl :|


also, IMO, depending on what type of business you are going into Spanish is going to benefit you more than chinese anyway.

 

[MyThirdEye]

Go with Spanish. The Spanish population is populating in the US, which will be more useful if you plan to stay in the United States.

(Assuming you're an American.)

 

[intogamer]

I'm coming from a HS of international studies. I don't think the Chinese teacher can handle the classes, one is new, I heard students were swearing at ze teacher. I'm not sure if I will learn anything from Spanish, as she is a noob. The French/Japanese teacher seems like he has a teaching degree.

Can I get by if corporate sends me to China, only knowing a little bit of Mandarin? Or I can double dip as I know Chinese(Cantonese) already and Japanese?

 

[nonameo]

esperanto is the only language worth learning.

 

[Gneisenau]

Originally posted by: razor2025

Originally posted by: Gneisenau

And hey, if you speak Japanese, you can watch anime in japanese....What could be greater than that?

QFT... you'd be the envy of all those nerds in college.

LOL. Ain't that the truth

 

[intogamer]

I don't have much interest in Anime. But Japan would be awesome!

Also, I believe that there is an abroad program too! Japan > * though

Plus I don't know anyone that speaks Mandarin. Everybody is Cantonese, Vietnamese, Spanish, or English.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: amjohns5
Go with Spanish. The Spanish population is populating in the US, which will be more useful if you plan to stay in the United States.

(Assuming you're an American.)

It's useful in that you can tell your construction workers exactly what you want done when you're remodeling your house? Sure I guess. It's used in the US which is why I took Spanish, but then again I'm Chinese. If I were to pick between the two as which would probably come in handy in business/engineering, I would pick Chinese.

So yeah, I guess it makes sense to take Spanish given that it's widely used in the US but... there's no way it's going to that important as a business language.

 

[Pakman]

I say pick whatever interests you. Because quite frankly, you will more than likely forget just about all of it once you're out of HS unless you continue on in college or you just have an interest in that particular language. I ended up taking Spanish in HS because it was the easiest from what I understood back then. I think Spanish is what the majority of the folks take if they have no interest in learning a foreign language. Japanese seems to be popular with the kids nowadays because of the anime craze. And I think French is probably more popular with the ladies. I think the people that want to learn Chinese either have an interest in martial arts or come from a Chinese background.

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to do business in the 21st century, it'd be wise to learn Chinese. Why? Because they are gonna be the next up and coming. I would say in about 10 years after the 2008 Olympics, they will be the biggest consumers in the world.