Learning a second language in school is an opportunity that you should try your best to not shy away from. There are many important reasons for this, which will be explained in this article.

During the many years spent at school, you will find yourself the opportunity to try a wide variety of subjects. This is a great time to dip your toe into many different subjects to decide if you want to pursue the more seriously outside of school, or as a career. One of the subjects that will be offered will be some sort of foreign language course. The types of languages that will be offered vary from school to school and some of these will be easier to learn than others.

School is the best place to try your hand at language learning, and I would highly recommend that you give it a shot, even if you aren’t sure you want anything to do with languages later on. The benefits of language learning extend well beyond simply learning to speak using other words. You can find out more about these benefits here.

What Is The Easiest Language To Learn In School?

The language that is easiest for you to learn may be different from the next person, however, for the majority of Americans, the easiest language to learn would be Spanish. This is simply because the language is so widespread that it will be easier to practice the language outside of school, as compared to other languages.

There are many factors that influence language learning and how easy it is to learn a language. In school, this will be influenced by how good your teacher is, as well as the general interest in language learning in your school.

An alternative to this for those living closer to Canada would be to learn French instead. You are much more likely to have teachers who are fluent in these languages, which will make the language easier to learn. Languages spoken less commonly in America will also have fewer native-speaker teachers in schools. This won’t make language learning impossible, but can certainly make it much more difficult.

How Many Years Of Language Should I Do In School?

Before you can decide how many years of language you should do in school, it would be best to consider what you’re wanting to get out of learning the language. If you are only wanting the extra credit and don’t want to become skilled in another language, perhaps doing only one year is all you need. Perhaps you have longer-term goals, such as completing some time abroad as part of your study, or travelling once you have finished studying.

Deciding on these factors will also help you know which language would be best for you to learn in school. You may have a specific country you wish to travel to once you have finished studying, so this will help inform you in your decision-making.

There are other benefits to learning and language, even if you don’t become fluent in it. One of these benefits is to have a greater understanding of the culture of another country, which in turn will expand the way that you think. It will also mean that you’ll have a more open mind about people’s lifestyles, habits, and traditions because each country and culture has its own traditions.

How Much Of A Foreign Language Can I Learn In School?

Learning a language just in school is not likely to get you very far. Part of this is because it’s difficult to teach languages to large groups of students, some of whom will be interested in learning and others who will be trying to do the bare minimum. On top of that are coming and leaving the school, and teachers are changing from year to year. This means from a teacher’s perspective, the teaching is not able to get very in-depth, because a lot of time stamps insuring that students are able to understand the basics of the language.

If you are serious about learning a language, the classroom will give you a good foundation of the general grammar and language rules. I would recommend that you take advantage of your teacher drafting your work, to try different things to get a better understanding of the language. Make no mistake, language learning is a skill that will take a long time to master, and it would be wise to put some time in outside of lessons as well.

To make language learning easier for yourself, study at home and practice the language as often as possible. Have written more about how to do that in my post here.

Should I Learn A Foreign Language In College?

There are different reasons to learn a language in college, and it would be best to consider your motivations for learning a language. If you want to branch out a little bit from your major subject area and treat language learning as ‘downtime’, this would work very well for you. In this case, your aim is not to specialize in the language, however, it will still look good on your resume, and you will pick up some excellent language skills that you’ll be able to use if you travel to the country.

The alternative to this is studying languages for the purpose of using them in your career. This is a great choice, but it does come with some caveats. Completing a degree in a language, as I have done, specifically in languages does not guarantee a job or career path in the same way that a degree in teaching or medicine does. This is because you also need to learn a specific skill set at the same time as studying languages.

If you are wanting to become an interpreter and/or translator, make sure you look around to see if there are specific degrees that you also need to complete to do this. Some of these may require that you have a particular level of skill in your chosen language. Another option that may be available for you is to get the qualifications to teach English as a language, and then travel to the country of the language you studying to teach English there. This will give you the benefits of improving your own language skills, well at the same time having a job. Obviously, this will not be viable for everybody, but it is something you can consider.

How Do I Study Languages Outside Of School?

If you are still wanting to study languages but would prefer to do this outside of college, there are still many options available for you. Studying languages at home is always an option, but so are taking night classes, getting a private tutor, as well as travelling to the country to live for a period of time. You’ll be able to find a lot of information about these different aspects of language like in other posts on this blog.

Specifically, you can find more information about language classes, as well as making the most of language tutors. Alternatively, there is more information you can read about if you are wanting to learn a language at home.

There are many other aspects of language learning to be found on this site, which I hope will benefit and inspire you in your language learning journey.