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I'm in agreement here in that I'm perplexed why it is that in this day and age, French is usually the compulsory language. I can only think that it harks back to the days when people weren't travelling the world for their holidays and those who were lucky enough to be able to go abroad went to France as our closest neighbour [without splitting hairs as to whether other countries are closer or not depending on geographical location in the UK obviously!!!]. German seems a little pointless in that very few countries speak German as a first language [bar the Germans, naturally!!] and Germans on the whole are excellent English speakers. Personally I think it would make more sense to teach Spanish first - it is spoken by a far greater percentage of the population than French, after all.

In my school you only had the option to take Spanish if you were in the bottom sets or were struggling with French. Everyone would take French at 11 - those in the top set at the end of the first year then took an additional language on - a choice of German or Russian. At the start of the third year everyone bar the ones who were really struggling in the bottom set had to take another language - Spanish if you weren't any good at French or again, a choice of German or Russian if you were proficient at French but not in the top set. If you were really struggling and couldn't manage French at any time (even in the 1st year) you were made to drop French and take Spanish instead - which lead to the concept that only "thickies" took Spanish.

All terribly off topic I know - apologies!!

<blockquote data-quote="Shadow Leader" data-source="post: 2089482" data-attributes="member: 65043">I&#039;m in agreement here in that I&#039;m perplexed why it is that in this day and age, French is usually the compulsory language.&nbsp; I can only think that it harks back to the days when people weren&#039;t travelling the world for their holidays and those who were lucky enough to be able to go abroad went to France as our closest neighbour [without splitting hairs as to whether other countries are closer or not depending on geographical location in the UK obviously!!!].&nbsp; German seems a little pointless in that very few countries speak German as a first language [bar the Germans, naturally!!] and Germans on the whole are excellent English speakers.&nbsp; Personally I think it would make more sense to teach Spanish first - it is spoken by a far greater percentage of the population than French, after all.&nbsp; In my school you only had the option to take Spanish if you were in the bottom sets or were struggling with French.&nbsp; Everyone would take French at 11 - those in the top set at the end of the first year then took an additional language on - a choice of German or Russian.&nbsp; At the start of the third year everyone bar the ones who were really struggling in the bottom set had to take another language - Spanish if you weren&#039;t any good at French or again, a choice of German or Russian if you were proficient at French but not in the top set.&nbsp; If you were really struggling and couldn&#039;t manage French at any time (even in the 1st year) you were made to drop French and take Spanish instead - which lead to the concept that only &quot;thickies&quot; took Spanish.All terribly off topic I know - apologies!!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shadow Leader, post: 2089482, member: 65043"] I'm in agreement here in that I'm perplexed why it is that in this day and age, French is usually the compulsory language. I can only think that it harks back to the days when people weren't travelling the world for their holidays and those who were lucky enough to be able to go abroad went to France as our closest neighbour [without splitting hairs as to whether other countries are closer or not depending on geographical location in the UK obviously!!!]. German seems a little pointless in that very few countries speak German as a first language [bar the Germans, naturally!!] and Germans on the whole are excellent English speakers. Personally I think it would make more sense to teach Spanish first - it is spoken by a far greater percentage of the population than French, after all. In my school you only had the option to take Spanish if you were in the bottom sets or were struggling with French. Everyone would take French at 11 - those in the top set at the end of the first year then took an additional language on - a choice of German or Russian. At the start of the third year everyone bar the ones who were really struggling in the bottom set had to take another language - Spanish if you weren't any good at French or again, a choice of German or Russian if you were proficient at French but not in the top set. If you were really struggling and couldn't manage French at any time (even in the 1st year) you were made to drop French and take Spanish instead - which lead to the concept that only "thickies" took Spanish. All terribly off topic I know - apologies!! [/QUOTE]

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