Dual Language - Spanish or Chinese

Spanish will be more useful day-to-day, but Chinese is becoming an important business language so you'd be giving them a leg up if they went into business. Whichever you choose, I'm so jealous. I would love for my kids to be in an immersion program.

I would go for Spanish. Just because it's more "likely" that they will light on a career where Spanish will be more useful, statistically.

My vote is Spanish, much more used in the US.

Spanish. It will be most useful in our changing demographics of America. And it's a Romance language. The language skills learned will be much more benficial. The structure and syntax are closest to latin and to English, so it will help them develop skills for picking out gender, conjugating verbs, prefix and suffix. WHen they get to Jr High, high school and college they will have a language requirement and Chinese wont be one of the options. You get Latin, Spanish, German, or French as your options. Give them that foundation now.

I learned chinese as an adult. If it were me (and I have considered it, but the closest one is about 50 miles away) I would do the chinese program. It is the "harder" language because they think differently than western language. Which means that your child will be developing greater mental flexibility as he learns. That is probably more valuable than anything else.

My vote is for Spanish simply because it's a language that is more prevalent in society today and can open up many jobs in the future. Imagine the possibilities if your child speaks Spanish. As a teacher, medical professional, or business person if he/she speaks Spanish, he/she is more marketable.

I'm in this situation too.... but it looks like we won't be staying in this state so we may have the decision made for us... no immersion b/c we can't commit to 5th grade.

We have both in our school system and I was HEAVILY leaning toward Chinese b/c I thought of how hard it is and how open the brain would be and therefore why not learn the hardest language (of the two) when the brain is most open ..... as Spanish is (IMO) much easier to learn.

BUT then I was at the beach this summer w/ my college roommate who was fluent in French in HS .... spent a summer over there, only spoke french while there, dreaming in it and then minored in romance languages in college (a.k.a - she can learn a language) and a family from France was behind us and I could see her concentrating, etc. Well when they left I asked her what she was doing and she said she was trying to understand what they were saying but that she couldn't make out a word. She had lost it b/c she didn't ever use it. That swayed my decision ( if we stay) to go w/ Spanish-- such a greater chance of being able to use it and therefore retain it. Also several of my friends in the nursing and education fields say they wish they were fluent in Spanish.

Also - Mandarin is like learning 3 languages for them... 1) the pronunciation 2) the symbols that they write with 3) the English they should be learning . At least with Spanish the alphabet is the same (except 2 xtra letters) so that makes it a bit easier.

Great choices - but I can see the difficulty in choosing! Well, my children, husband and I are Spanish speakers and my son is interested in Mandarin and has been able to pick up a little from Ni Hao Kai Lan. I think that both languages could be helpful in the future career-wise, it would just depend on the field and naturally you don't know that at 5! In the western suburbs you would have access to both populations for practice . . . . I guess my vote would be for Chinese only because a) it is the more difficult language and b) there is a better chance of Spanish being offered down the line and your children would have an advantage due to the education they have received in Chinese. Best of luck - feel free to message me if you want ideas for materials to supplement with at home for either language.

I believe that the Chinese will be one of the most prominent languages of the future and I believe if someone can learn it that they can learn any language. It is one of the hardest so learning it this young would be beneficial for life long and they would retain much more of it.

I think both are wonderful as both will give children many opportunities. I do feel that Chinese is a much more difficult language to assmiliate into our brains and therefore will be great to learn at this age when they are sponges. I also for my own comfort would start the learning process for myself too. This will give them the ability to practice, teach you and you teach them. It will expand your brain exercises and give you the ability to help them beyond a K program. We were discussing this yesterday at work that it is amazing that majority of the world's education involves learning English and being fluent in both and ours the "richest of all"(don't know how true this is anymore) doesn't realize the importance of being truly fluent, sure they have spanish class, but as a high school graduate to put together a conversation that makes sense the day after they grad and most counld not do it. Good luck.

In ***our area*** Chinese would be more useful day to day.

Chinese is also the 'harder' language to learn (tonal system, writing system), so I'd personally pick that one for while he's young and his brain is still forming. Spanish, being Latin based, is usually pretty easy for people to pick up

BUT, more to the point, which would your KIDS like?

((Oh. About 'losing' a language for lack of use. I used to be fluent in Japanese. When I hear Japanese these days, I struggle as well. Takes me about a week to get back to total fluency, though, although I'll "lose" it again after a few more years of not using it. And then it takes me, wait for it, about a week to get back to total fluency. Versus never having been fluent and it taking YEARS for people to become fluent. A week, vs 5 years. Loss doesn't really matter.))

I think if you are looking at the future, Chinese will be more important. Also, Spanish is more similar to English and can always be picked up later. I tried learning Mandarin as an adult and it was SOOO hard. I have read that if you learn this when you are younger, it is much easier to pick up.

When you enroll in an Immersion Program - they usually have helpers to help the parents.

Both languages will be good to have under the belt. Chinese might be harder to pick up but it has it's advantages as well...it helps to learn other Asian languages like Korean, Japanese, etc....

Spanish is good and can be easy for a parent to pick up as well.

If you have the money - you can pick up the Rosetta Stone to help your family learn a chosen language together..

GOOD LUCK!!

My kids, at public school, learn Mandarin, Japanese and Hawaiian. Not immersion. But they teach these languages at school. My kids, are pretty good at it. From Kindergarten they teach these classes.
We are not fluent in it at home. But my kids, know it.

Kids, up until 13 years old, (per National Geographic magazine) says that these are the ages which kids learn languages best. And, learning other languages, actually develops more synapses in the brain.

My kids are multi-lingual, per the languages they learn at school, and at home, my Husband is bi-lingual as well.

Kids learn it.

According to a study, which my Husband saw on the news, the top 2 languages per global usage, today, is: Chinese and French. Sorry but I forget what news channel this was. But of course, each study and lists, vary.
Just do a Google search.

And, there are the top languages per business usage, by native speakers by population, and by global usage or the most widely spoken language, etc.
So the variables, vary. Per the purpose.

First of all, I believe it is insulting and rude for someone to call people out on a public forum saying a response is "not true".

What is going on in one area of the country can be different in another part of the country and just because it is not the way ONE person may think.... it does not make another person wrong or what they said.

There are many differing opinions and I don't see how answers to this question can be a blanket answer of yes or no.

That said.... We are in the burbs of Dallas and my 16 yr old is in AP Spanish 4 as a Junior now. She had options in 7th grade for what to take and opted for Spanish. She is happy with her decision, as are we.

I do agree that Chinese is a good choice as well. You probably would not go wrong with either choice.

What Tracy K. said isn't true. I taught high school in several different states (my husband was military) and most of the highschools I taught in offered Chinese. Also, if it's an immersion program, the district is probably already prepared to offer Chinese in Jr/Sr High or they wouldn't offer it in kindergarten.

While I agree they are more likely to speak Spanish in casual conversation to others because that language is more prevalent in the US than Chinese is, I disagree about it as a career move. If you want them to have a leg up in a future career, Chinese is definitely the way to go.

I, personally, took Spanish through college, and did find it very helpful as a Romance language, in improving my English grammar skills as well. However, my daughter is in a kindergarten Chinese immersion class, and I am just as pleased with the benefits of that. More than anything, learning another language at a young age improves all kinds of cognitive thinking skills, not just those related to language. WIth Chinese, they also have the benefit of learning not just a new way of speaking, but also a new way of writing, improving cognitive skills even more!

As far as difficulty goes, that's why they start young. It's only October and my kindergartener can already clearly pronounce (I swear she sounds like she just stepped off the plane from China!) all the colors, count to 5, all the members of a family, left and right, and many commands. She can also tell an entire story about colored balloons, and write two characters in addition to her three character name. It's a breeze for her, not so much for me!

Spanish is almost necessary to get so many jobs these days. Chinese maybe in the future, but right now bilingual English/ Spanish is listed everywhere. I took French for many years, and cannot remember a lot of it, and don't use it-but when I married my husband I learned Spanish and it has truly helped in the workplace (and I can hear what his family is saying about me too! haa!)