According to Newsdle<\/a>, a newsletter for French and Spanish students, more than 75% of American high school students take Spanish, while only 15% take French. These statistics cover the entire nation, but do they match the opinions of the students at our school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think Spanish is a better language to learn because it’s more widely spoken,\u201d said Willow sophomore Iris Murphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another reason students seem to prefer Spanish is the perception that it\u2019s easier, and this is not just coming from students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs someone who voluntarily studied both French and Spanish in high school and went on to major in French at Tulane, then get a Master\u2019s of Science in Linguistics, I would have to say Spanish is far easier in terms of pronunciation, spelling, and almost everything else,\u201d said English and Publications teacher Ms. Crockett, \u201cMaybe there are a few areas where Spanish is harder, like having two verbs for \u2018to be\u201d. I really can\u2019t think of any others.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the majority of students seemed to prefer Spanish, French wasn\u2019t without its supporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think French is a better language because it’s easier,\u201d said Willow sophomore Brooklyn Perkins, That said, Perkins came to Willow from a French immersion school, so there is a bias in her ease with French. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Student opinions of French are certainly subject to bias and change. Most students answered with whatever language they were taking at the time. But their overall opinion was clear. Spanish was the winner at Willow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But how do the actual language teachers feel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think which language is \u2018better\u2019 depends entirely on a student\u2019s own personal interest and which countries interest them,\u201d said French teacher Ms. Krebs, \u201cIf we’re talking about incoming eighth graders, I’d say for level 1, the thing that makes Spanish easier is the pronunciation because it\u2019s phonetic, but French has easier grammar. In level 1, they only have to learn \u00eatre. But for Spanish, they have to learn two verbs for \u201cto be\u201d, ser and estar. Honestly, as someone who has studied both, I think French is easier. French has far fewer different verb tenses and conjugation that are regularly used than Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spanish teacher Ms. Johnson said, \u201cI can\u2019t say that one’s better. I think it depends on the student. There may be specific reasons why you\u2019d want to learn French. Maybe you want to communicate with your family or travel to another country. It depends. I think that French pronunciation has a lot more nuance. Spanish is very phonetic. The vowels make the same sound every time. The only silent letter is h. Spanish is a little more streamlined when it comes to pronunciation. I think they’re the same for difficulty. However much you’re willing to put in, you’ll get back. It’s more about how you approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to language teachers, there seems to be no clear victor. They both acknowledge the differences in the two languages but were both adamant that one wasn\u2019t better than the other. On a certain level, it’s less about which language you learn, and more about learning the language itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are so many benefits of learning a second language,\u201d Krebs said, \u201cFirst of all, it can prepare you for different careers that can take you internationally. Second of all, learning a second language can actually develop different parts of your brain. It makes you more aware of other people and other ways of life and makes you a more tolerant, accepting human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are infinite benefits,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI think that learning a second language teaches you a lot about your own language. I think it opens your mind to different experiences, to things that aren’t in your comfort zone. Being able to communicate is huge. Knowing even bits and pieces of another language can be really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willow students are extremely lucky to be offered two foreign languages by a team of dedicated and qualified teachers. So, next time you’re complaining about your Spanish or French test, remember all the good you’re doing for yourself. And with, adios<\/em> and au revoi<\/em>r.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nabeeh Ndiaye Photo by Nabeeh Ndiaye Everyone at the Willow High School knows you need two mandatory language credits to graduate. This means incoming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","two-columns"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_5689-11-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2281&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}