Chopticon Foreign Language

[kalmd]

At the end of 8th grade my son had to pick his high school courses. One of the foreign language options was Chinese and that's what my son chose. So today we got his schedule and he was put in Spanish 1. I called the counselor to find out why and she said they don't offer Chinese. It was an option though when he had to pick so I don't know what that's about.

My neighbor's son picked German and he was also put in Spanish 1 and was told they don't offer German.

[Pandora]

Originally Posted by kalmd

At the end of 8th grade my son had to pick his high school courses. One of the foreign language options was Chinese and that's what my son chose. So today we got his schedule and he was put in Spanish 1. I called the counselor to find out why and she said they don't offer Chinese. It was an option though when he had to pick so I don't know what that's about.

My neighbor's son picked German and he was also put in Spanish 1 and was told they don't offer German.

My son also choose Chinese and he is going to be really disappointed if he doesn't end up in it. I lost my son's home access center password, so I have to go to the school and present identification to retrieve it. I intend to do that tomorrow.

I wonder if there wasn't that many who selected it?

[kalmd]

Originally Posted by Pandora

My son also choose Chinese and he is going to be really disappointed if he doesn't end up in it. I lost my son's home access center password, so I have to go to the school and present identification to retrieve it. I intend to do that tomorrow.

I wonder if there wasn't that many who selected it?

I didn't ask a ton of questions, but the counselor made it seem like they never even offered Chinese. She asked me what middle school he went to. My son said when they had Chopticon reps come and talk about the courses there was someone who specifically talked about Chinese.

My son was pretty disappointed too. He really wants to learn Japanese, but settled for Chinese. He took Spanish 1 last year.

[Pandora]

Originally Posted by kalmd

I didn't ask a ton of questions, but the counselor made it seem like they never even offered Chinese. She asked me what middle school he went to. My son said when they had Chopticon reps come and talk about the courses there was someone who specifically talked about Chinese.

My son was pretty disappointed too. He really wants to learn Japanese, but settled for Chinese. He took Spanish 1 last year.

And you are absolutely right. A female teacher came to the school, talked about the course and the option to select Chinese as an elective was clearly available to the students.

I'm pushy, when I go in tomorrow, I'll ask.

[kalmd]

Great, let me know if you find out anything. There must be others in this situation too.

[onebdzee]

They may not have had enough students to fill the classes so they either have a limited amount of classes or none at all.....When my 19 yr old took it at Leonardtown, there weren't many students(12) in his class

[kalmd]

Originally Posted by onebdzee

They may not have had enough students to fill the classes so they either have a limited amount of classes or none at all.....When my 19 yr old took it at Leonardtown, there weren't many students(12) in his class

I thought that may be the case, but the guidance counselor made it sound like it wasn't ever an option. I think a small Chinese class would be better. I'm sure it's a very hard language to learn.

[blacklabman]

Stop your whining and get Rossetta Stone.

[frozenrain]

Originally Posted by kalmd

I thought that may be the case, but the guidance counselor made it sound like it wasn't ever an option. I think a small Chinese class would be better. I'm sure it's a very hard language to learn.

That is a shame.My son's middle school is supposed to offer German ,Spanish and French but I got the impression they had the materials for German but not many students chose it and therefore it was not aften taught.He is just starting 6th grade and can take an intro to foreign languages and decide on the one he wants to take next year.

I remember signing up for Italian at college once and they did not have enough students to fill the class and so they scrapped it. It is disappointing.

[Beta84]

A couple comments...

1st, there are often times when schools offer more "unique" languages because they happen to have found a staff member who is able to teach it. Languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and German aren't offered everywhere. I know my school had Spanish, French, and Latin...but I'm not really sure much else was available because it's tough to find people who teach it.

So it's very possible that at the end of the last school year, they were projecting some of those languages to be available. The teachers may have left after class selections were offered to students. That, or they just really screwed with you guys.

But honestly...are your kids planning on moving to China, or conducting business with the Chinese (who can mostly speak English anyway)? If not, why not have them take a class that may actually be useful to them in the future? I'm sure most of you have noticed the "Press 1 for English" thing that wasn't around when you were young. Spanish is a growing language in this country and unfortunately there are a bunch of idiotas (haha) that won't learn English or have a hard time learning English. Spanish is the most useful foreign language and should be required for all students, since it's starting to become the 2nd language of this country. Anyone who speaks English AND Spanish ends up with a much easier time finding a job, because they're in high demand.

If your kids are going to college then maybe they don't need to worry about it yet, but otherwise they need to use high school as their preparation for the real world. Chinese and Japanese classes are more for fun than for anything else.