[Lickety Split]

And if so, is it through their school or something else? What made you decide on which language you wanted them to learn?

[fancie]

My DD learned Spanish when she was in primary school. This subject was offered by the school (public).

[BadCat]

At our school Japanese is compulsory this year. Two years ago it was Mandarin. There's no rhyme or reason to it. They have to offer something so they go with whatever they can get a teacher for.

It is a waste of time. They have maybe an hour a week (if something else doesn't get in the way) and never really get past a bit of hello/goodbye/my name is type stuff.

Unless it's an integrated program throughout the school I don't see the point.

If I were to choose a language for them to learn it would be French. It is very widely spoken and is nowhere near as difficult to learn as an Asian language.

[caesie'n'linc]

My childrens school currently teaches Indonesian, this starts in either grade 5 or 6 (I can't remember which, my eldest is only grade 4 this year).
They have taught this language for many years now. I went to the same school and it was taught back then too (I left grade 7 in 1992), when I was there we did german in grade 6 and indonesian in grade 7, they stopped the german program a couple of years after I left.

No choice in which language they learn, most schools in the area seem to teach the same.

[Zesty]

At the first school my son attended, Italian was the language offered. At the next school it was French (and this program started in preschool).

[wildflowers]

My DD in year 6 is learning Japanese and next year they learn French. She loves it but I wish they did French for two years instead of different languages at each year level.

[Delirium]

My four year old goes to a Montessori school and she has a weekly French lesson offered through the school. It's really to cover the teacher's DOTT time, but the kids seem to love it. She's been doing it since the beginning of the year and can say hello, count to 10, name a few animals and sing a couple of French songs.

I probably wouldn't have chosen for her to learn a language at this stage, but I'm more than happy for her to participate in learning another language at school.

[mamaknits]

My kindy child learns french at school and mandarin outside school

[baddmammajamma]

My daughter is learning French, and instruction begins in the FYOS (kindergarten/prep).

[Rach42]

My DSs learn Japanese at school. At a previous school DS1 was learning some Italian and I prefer the Japanese - that could be because they have Japanese cousins though. I think it is a good idea for them to learn another language if for no other reason that it exposes them to another culture. My DSs have made sushi and done origami as part of their Japanese lessons.

ETA: Actually they haven't mentioned their Japanese lessons this year (I'm going on what they did last year) so will have to check about it. It would be a shame if they weren't doing it.

This post has been edited by Rach42: 06/05/2012, 05:13 PM