Preuss is a charter school whose mission is not only having students attend college but to also graduate with a four-year degree. One way they contribute to the success of this goal is by providing language courses that fulfill A-G requirements and to also help students appear competitive on resumes and applications. Currently, the only language courses Preuss offers are Spanish and Mandarin. I believe these two languages aren’t enough to pique student interest. At the very least Preuss should add a third language, preferably French.
The primary reason French should be added is the fact that Mandarin is not a popular course at Preuss. Very few students are even aware it is a possible course to take. Therefore, the course does not have many applicants. French is a much more popular language as far as interest, making it a more desirable option for students to take. According to the article “Top 10 Most Studied Languages in the World,” French is the second most studied language with 82 million learners, while Mandarin follows in third place with 30 million learners. This shows that French is a more favorable language to learn or teach, likely due to the small difficulty compared to Mandarin.
Another reason French should be added to our language courses is because French is very similar to Spanish, which is already a requirement to take. French is a Romance language, like Spanish, and is one of the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers. This means that by the time students complete the Spanish courses, they would have already built a strong foundation to then learn French. In fact, French ranks 8th as the easiest language for English speakers to learn, according to “5 easiest Languages to Learn for Spanish Speakers,” an article written by Alison Maciejewski Cortez. She also states that if many students realize that they can pick up French very quickly, it will boost their interest in the language, making them likely to ask for the course for their following year.
The only negative to providing another language is going through the trouble of finding qualified teachers to lead the courses, but also adding educational support such as tutoring for the language. My response to these downsides is that first, our school should not rush the implementation of the language course. If it takes a lot of time to find qualified teachers, then the proper precautions should be taken to ensure that only the best are being hired. For the educational support, students create many clubs on their own, and French could be one of them, providing a space for students to collaborate and help each other while being led by a suitable person capable of providing assistance when other students cannot.
If there’s a language that is easy to learn, fits our schools’ A-G requirements, and is very popular, I believe that Preuss should implement it into our courses. We as students should also advocate for this additional language if we agree it’s a better fit.
Sources: Cortez, Alison Maciejewski. “5 Easiest Languages to Learn for Spanish Speakers.” Lingoda, 17 Oct. 2023, www.lingoda.com/blog/en/easiest-languages-to-learn-for-spanish-speakers/. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Babbel.com, and Lesson Nine GmbH. “9 Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn.” Babbel Magazine, 2017, www.babbel.com/en/magazine/easiest-languages-for-english-speakers-to-learn.
“Top 10 Most Studied Languages in the World.” Www.marstranslation.com,
www.marstranslation.com/blog/most-studied-languages-in-the-world.
