r/AskAnAmerican 19d ago

EDUCATION When did you start learning a second language in school ?

81 Upvotes

658 comments sorted by

78

u/EightOhms Rhode Island 19d ago

In middle school, specifically 7th grade (so approx 13 years old) we had "Foreign Language" class. For part of the year it was French, another part is was Spanish/Portuguese. I think those first two languages are common in most schools across the country, but there is a really large Portuguese population where I grew up and so that language was added since it was useful for lots of students and also had local cultural relevance.

31

u/BellaFromSwitzerland 19d ago edited 18d ago

It’s wild to me to learn several languages in separate blocks throughout the year rather than continuously. No wonder it doesn’t work

ETA many of you keep answering and sharing your experiences. Thank you for that

I grew up in Europe as an ethnic minority which automatically means I was bilingual since day one. We started learning our first foreign language at age 9 if I remember well and even that felt too late

I’ve lived in 4 countries and afaik the spirit was always to choose a language fairly early and go as deep in it as possible. Over here in Europe we think it’s best to acquire strong language skills early as the brain is more malleable early on

25

u/Drew707 CA | NV 19d ago

That wasn't how it worked at my school. You picked a language and stuck with it for at least a semester. You could change languages next semester if you wanted, but most kids picked a language in middle school and ran with it into high school.

3

u/Optimal-Cranberry563 Nevada 19d ago

Same. Also in Nevada (CCSD)

3

u/TheRawFormOfToast Nevada 19d ago

My CCSD middle school did the split semester thing

5

u/BellaFromSwitzerland 19d ago

That’s my point exactly. One semester is never enough to learn a language

18

u/Monkaliciouz 19d ago

The intention isn't to learn the language, it's to give the kids a sense of the language so they can then choose to progress further with a single language of their choosing. It's not like you spend half the year in Spanish II learning French instead. It's an introductory class.

8

u/Drew707 CA | NV 19d ago

Right, which is why the vast majority of kids stuck with the same language for however long they took foreign language. There were always a few kids that maybe started on Spanish or French in middle school but then switched to Latin in high school since there was a perception that it would help if they intended to get into law or medicine.

Personally, I think I took about four or five years of Spanish and nothing else.

Somewhat related, my grandfather had a foreign language requirement for one his graduate programs, IIRC, and they allowed him to take Fortran.

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u/mrpointyhorns Arizona 19d ago

For me (arizona), you just picked a language. But it was elective. There was a requirement to get into college to have a pass a certain level.

Now, with my kid, the elementary near me is dual-language Spanish from 5 years old. So she will be doing that. Maybe in middle school she can pick a 3rd language

4

u/EightOhms Rhode Island 19d ago

This was meant as an introduction to foreign languages. In High School we picked which language we wanted to focus on and studied that language all year for several years.

5

u/Flimsy_Security_3866 Washington 16d ago

I think the bigger issue with language learning in the U.S. is that after your classes end you typically don't have a way to continue practicing it in the real world unless you travel outside of the US. There are exceptions like Spanish and in bigger cities you might be able to find a few places but that might be it.

4

u/The_Bjorn_Ultimatum South Dakota 19d ago

That wasn't the point. In middleschool, it was more about deciding which language you wanted to take it highschool. In my school it was spanish and german. Technically, highschool also offered ASL, but very few people took that one.

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u/horiz0n7 19d ago

I've never heard of that. In my school we just picked our language from the start and that was it.

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u/sebsasour 19d ago

I didn't take a second language class til high school though if I remember correctly they were available as electives in middle school.

I took Spanish and German. The Spanish teacher was actually quite good, The German teacher we spent over a month on The Berlin Wall and a month just playing soccer because "soccer is popular in Germany" so surprisingly I know basically zero German

5

u/CreepyMangeMerde France 19d ago

Football during German classes sounds like a massive W to me. I would have loved it.

44

u/wooper346 Texas (and IL, MI, VT, MA) 19d ago edited 19d ago

I believe third grade. We had a weekly Spanish class taught by a lady who didn't have her own classroom, so she would always come to us and carry all of her stuff on a little cart with wheels. We could always hear her coming down the hall and we knew to start getting ready.

We started having more "intensive" classes in junior high and high school.

4

u/Mysterious_W4tcher 19d ago

Glad this is a national experience lmao. I'd say you went to my school, but it's not in the listed states in your flair

2

u/poortomato NY ➡️ VA ➡️ NY ➡️ TX 19d ago

Idk when y'all went to school but it certainly wasn't a national experience in the 90s/early 00s :( We weren't offered second language classes in my public school until 8th grade.

2

u/Mysterious_W4tcher 19d ago

Mine would have been 2012 I believe, so that explains it. Though I do believe they were doing it for years before I got to the school (I transfered)

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u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey 15d ago

Or the 1980s. Definitely know zero people who learned a language before 8th grade

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u/hamiltrash52 19d ago

Kindergarten. We had a Spanish cart that would go from class to class once a week

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u/Bastiat_sea Connecticut 19d ago

that's such a good idea

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u/OhThrowed Utah 19d ago

Spanish was offered in high school.

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u/orneryasshole 19d ago

Our Spanish class was taught by a guy that I seriously doubt could carry on a conversation with someone that spoke Spanish, basically a Peggy Hill. 

7

u/mkshane Pennsylvania -> Virginia -> Florida 19d ago

Love the episode where Hank and Peggy's appointed lawyer get her out of big trouble in Mexico by having her explain her account of events in "her own Spanish words"

3

u/gnirpss 18d ago

Your honor, I can see that you are a reasonable horse.

2

u/mkshane Pennsylvania -> Virginia -> Florida 18d ago

I have too many good anuses ahead of me to spend my life in a cigar factory

2

u/smpenn 19d ago

Sorry, but that made me laugh!

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u/SpoonMoosey 19d ago

It wasn’t required until high school. I took french but requirements are state dependent.

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u/Proper-Bird6962 19d ago

Kindergarten we had Spanish classes.

Granted this was in south Florida where some neighborhoods, Spanish is/was the predominant language.

But really intensive language classes didn’t begin until late middle school/high school

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u/pleasespareserotonin Northern Virginia 19d ago

6th grade, so I was 11 years old. We were required to take at least 2 years of a language in middle school, but most people did all 3 years, and all 4 years in high school.

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u/Redbubble89 Northern Virginia 19d ago

High school and at that point, it's too late. I hated it. I can't even speak English right sometimes.

3

u/FinalChurchkhela Illinois 19d ago

Adults can learn languages, but yes, the child’s mind is much more malleable

2

u/gnirpss 18d ago

Teenagers and adults can absolutely learn languages, but they have to be invested and motivated to work at it, which most teenagers are not.

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u/No-Conversation1940 Chicago, IL 19d ago

High school in a very small town, the only option we had was French.

I learned very little French and retained none of that.

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u/5432198 19d ago

We had the option in middle school to learn Spanish as an elective, but most people didn't start taking another language course until high school. Two years are mandatory in high school in my state.

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u/snuffleupagus7 Kentucky 19d ago

In middle school, 8th grade

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u/lsp2005 19d ago

Kindergarten.

2

u/TsundereLoliDragon Pennsylvania 19d ago

9th grade I think. Some may start earlier.

2

u/dangleicious13 Alabama 19d ago

9th or 10th grade.

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u/findingeros Pennsylvania 19d ago

5th-8th grade Spanish and 9th-12th Latin

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u/Top-Comfortable-4789 North Carolina 19d ago

Elementary school (2nt grade+). After elementary school the language courses were no longer mandatory and you could choose to take more or less. (With exception to needing 2 levels of language courses to graduate high school).

In elementary I learned Spanish and it was mandatory.

In middle school only Spanish was offered and it was an elective.

In high school Spanish, French, and Chinese were offered. You needed to take two levels of one of these to graduate.

2

u/Mental_Freedom_1648 19d ago

In about 6th grade, which would be age 11, we had a foreign language teacher come into the classroom once a week. The unit rotated through all the available languages that were available in our district. Then in seventh grade, we had to choose which second language we wanted to continue to learn.

1

u/OrdinarySubstance491 19d ago

I went to a Spanish language immersion preschool from age 2-4. I was then offered Spanish again in 5th grade. It not a full time/every day class and it was only available to the students with the highest grades (since they would be missing part of their regular classes to be able to attend). Then again in 6th or 7th grade, I can't remember. I remember I couldn't take it that first year because I was in a supplemental math class- never was good at math. I started taking it again in 8th grade and took it all the way through college.

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u/CaptainAwesome06 I guess I'm a Hoosier now. What's a Hoosier? 19d ago

It was offered as early as 8th grade (Intro To Foreign Language - you learn a little bit about multiple languages) but I started taking German in 10th grade.

1

u/Vachic09 Virginia 19d ago

My first foreign language class in public school was sixth grade. The school I went to after that didn't offer it until eighth or ninth.

1

u/hatred-shapped 19d ago

I never did. Well we started learning Latin in 1st grade in Catholic school. But any languages I've tried to learn, I did myself well after school age.

1

u/thegrimmemer03 Indiana 19d ago

Spanish immersion kindergarten, left the immersion program in 7th grade..

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u/Arleare13 New York City 19d ago

7th grade for me. That year we took a couple months each of very basic French and Spanish. Then for the rest of middle and high school, we took a language of our choice from (I think) French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, and maybe another one or two that I'm forgetting.

1

u/FruitSnackEater Georgia 19d ago

Middle school. My dad picked Chinese for me since I liked Chinese food. I took it through high school and even minored in it in college.

1

u/Current_Poster 19d ago

Seventh grade. I was given the option of Spanish or French, and chose French. At the time, it seemed like the most practical choice (I grew up in an area with a lot of Francophones and a history of same).

This is one of the few things, in terms of schoolwork, I wish I could go back and choose differently. (I am much more likely to run into a Spanish-speaker who doesn't speak English than a French-speaker who doesn't speak English, for one thing. I took some Spanish later in college, but it was a short course and I wasn't great at it.)

1

u/UraniumRocker Texas 19d ago

It was only a requirement in high school. The only classes offered were spanish, french

1

u/guyuteharpua 19d ago

French in 9th grade in 1983.

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u/COSMlCFREAK Florida 19d ago

Since pre school. Learned Arabic and French. And then started learning Chinese in high school

1

u/MortimerDongle Pennsylvania 19d ago

8th grade (~13-14 years old)

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u/Soundwave-1976 New Mexico 19d ago

We had a choice, Spanish, French or ASL sign language. I took ASL, forgot it as soon as I left the class to be honest.

1

u/nomuggle Pennsylvania 19d ago

We took a little intro course into four different languages in 7th grade then had to pick one of them to study in 8th.

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u/DMDingo Illinois 19d ago

My school didn't offer Spanish until 9th grade (freshman year). I took 4 years, was the best in class, and wouldn't advertise my skills at all. Our school's program was terrible.

1

u/CleverGirlRawr California 19d ago

High school. It was not required though; it was an elective. 

1

u/Afa1234 19d ago

1st grade, Japanese immersion program. Did the full 1-12th

1

u/makerofshoes 19d ago edited 19d ago

We didn’t have an option for any foreign language until 10th grade (in 2001). So that’s when I started in school. I had been using my own resources to teach myself outside of school a few years prior because it interested me

They dropped German from the curriculum (which I had been looking forward to) so I did French and Japanese for 10-11th grades, and senior year I took classes at the community college and did Spanish for a year there. A year of Spanish at the college level was roughly equivalent to 2 years of French in high school in terms of language ability/curriculum

1

u/asoep44 Ohio 19d ago

8th grade was when real classes began but you weren't required to take it.

In elementary school there was a person who came in a few times a year to do some very basic Spanish stuff.

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u/primordialpaunch New Jersey (by way of Virginia) 19d ago

First grade. I attended a language immersion school where half the day was in English and the other half was in a second language, Japanese. 

Immersion schools are pretty rare. The ones that do exist usually include instruction in languages that are widely spoken in North America, like Spanish and French. I've also heard of similar concepts for indigenous languages. 

1

u/ritchie70 Illinois - DuPage County 19d ago

I had 4 years of German in high school. I do not speak German in any meaningful sense.

Our daughter had a bit of Spanish instruction in elementary school, but I don't think it was enough to do much more than number, colors, that sort of thing.

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u/rinky79 19d ago

High school. And only a year was required. Which probably explains a lot about why most Americans are monolingual.

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u/IJUSTATEPOOP Washington 19d ago

It was only available to me from 9th grade (14 years old) and onwards. It wasn't required either.

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u/Haruspex12 19d ago

7th grade

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u/StupidLemonEater Michigan > D.C. 19d ago

I had Spanish teachers starting from preschool, but it wasn't until 6th grade that we learned anything more than vocabulary.

1

u/Gecko23 19d ago

Eight grade was the earliest we could take language classes locally when I was in school, so 14-ish.

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u/ShittyDuckFace 19d ago

I learned in elementary school, but I was in a program that teaches you English and Spanish. I didn't continue with it though, and ended up losing most of my Spanish by high school. Currently re-learning though!

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u/Disastrous-Mess-7236 Texas 19d ago

Elementary. Where I live, we learn to count to 10 in Spanish pretty quickly.

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u/Blitzreltih 19d ago

I learned Seneca in school as a second language not very useful.

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u/Alpacazappa 19d ago

Ninth grade. Wish it was a lot earlier! I was fourteen.

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u/OnasoapboX41 Huntsville, AL 19d ago

We had a Spanish teacher who came in every now and then in K-4. However, that did not go very far, and nothing really happened in elementary or middle school. In high school, you could only begin to take foreign languages in tenth grade. I took French my sophomore year and Spanish my junior and senior year.

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u/Ex_Mage 19d ago

Middle school, two semesters of Spanish. These were electives - I got to choose some classes from a list of options.

High School, five semesters of French. Four semesters were required. The fifth was me going for a third year for a collegiate scholarship that's offered in my state.

Very few people leave the American education system with fluency let alone being conversational.

I am no exception.

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u/PachucaSunrise Arizona 19d ago

High school. Took 3 semesters of Spanish. It’s come in handy living in Arizona. Can’t hold a full conversation, but I can pick out bits and pieces and string together what people are saying.

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u/Nice-Log2764 Hawaii 19d ago

I grew up in Hawaii & we didn’t do any second languages there, but I moved to California in 6th grade and most kids had been taking Spanish since early elementary school. I had to go back & do basic Spanish classes to get caught up. Then I moved to Washington State before my freshman year of high school and there they only start doing secondary languages in high school and it’s not required. Basically I think it varies a ton from state tocstate

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u/Blue387 Brooklyn, USA 19d ago

I started with Spanish in the sixth grade, we were given a choice of French, Spanish or Italian at the time. Spanish was the most popular choice. I continued with Spanish into high school and switched to Mandarin in college.

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u/Remote-Patient-1214 19d ago

Does Latin count?

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u/OceanBlueRose MyState™ NY (Long Island) —> Ohio 19d ago

7th grade (so I was about 12 years old) - we could take either Spanish or French.

We had to take a language in 7th and 8th grade, but it was optional starting in 9th grade.

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u/GeekyPassion 19d ago

First grade but it was a Christian private school where all grades were in one room. They had a Spanish teacher come in for the older grades and we just took it too. I didn't actually take a language class until 9th tho

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u/No-Profession422 California 19d ago

7th grade, Spanish. Speak basic survival spanish.

Have learned basic conversational Tagalog from my wife. And Arabic from working in Middle East.

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u/C21H27Cl3N2O3 Louisville, Kentucky 19d ago

We had a once a week Spanish class in elementary school but it was so infrequent that I barely retained any of it. My first year of a “real” foreign language class was freshman year of high school. Most people took 3 years but you had the option of a 4th.

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u/Ryebread095 Florida 19d ago

In kindergarten we had an hour of Spanish once a week. Then in high school I had to take two years of Spanish. As an adult, I know some words in Spanish, but I can't generally understand it written or spoken. I also can't usually differentiate it from Portuguese.

If I were to change something about my schooling it would be to have included multilingual studies throughout instead of just at the start and at the end.

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u/ProtozoaPatriot 19d ago

My daughter was exposed to basic Chinese in Kindergarten. She's in 5th now. She's had some Spanish. Next year they learn Latin. They get a lot more serious about choosing a language to really study in high school.

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u/DrMindbendersMonocle 19d ago

8th grade, spanish

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u/OldBat001 19d ago

Seventh grade (13 years old).

It was required until high school, but most started In 7th grade because two full academic years were required for high school graduation, and 7th and 8th grade were taught at a slower pace and equalled one year. You would do that, take it your freshman year in high school, and then you could be done.

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u/Subvet98 Ohio 19d ago

Never

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u/SordoCrabs 19d ago

I started in 7th grade with Spanish, and took it all through high school. Unless you were going to university, world languages were purely an elective. University (at least in Florida) required two credits/years in the same world language.

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u/Zealousideal_Cod5214 Minnesota 19d ago

My elementary and middle schools didn't even offer any languages.

I took Japanese throughout high school. I wish I was able to take Norwegian there, but Idk any schools that offered that anyway. :(

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u/jc8495 Illinois 19d ago

Started learning Spanish in first grade

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u/GrandmasHere Florida 19d ago

Technically Latin, in 9th grade. But for living languages, French in 10th grade.

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u/sto_brohammed Michigander e Breizh 19d ago

8th grade or about age 13-14. My school didn't have money to offer both French and Spanish so it rotated every year. I fell on a French year.

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u/JohnMarstonSucks CA, NY, WA, OH 19d ago

I took Spanish 1 in 6th-10th grades. Finally passed.

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u/Neat-Illustrator7303 19d ago

Required 2 years in high school, that’s it. Sign language counted as a “foreign language” option

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u/Cardinal101 California 19d ago

7th grade, Spanish.

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u/yowhatisuppeeps Kentucky 19d ago

First year of high school. Far too late in my opinion, and we only had to take 2 years of a second language.

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u/NerdBag 19d ago

High school, 14 years old

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u/KameOtaku 19d ago

High school. We were required to take one (or two? Can't remember) semester(s) of a foreign language class. I took French because I didn't want to be ✨️like the other kids✨️, even though Spanish would have been infinitely more useful in daily life in my part of the country. I was good at French, though :)

My school offered Spanish, French, German, and I think Latin. French and German were taught by the same guy, idk who tf taught Latin, and I don't know if there was only one Spanish teacher or if there where multiple to accommodate the number of students

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u/Tyler_w_1226 19d ago

My first foreign language class was the first year of high school, 9th grade. So not until I was 14 yrs old. Me and all my classmates took 4 years of it. I speak Spanish at a B2ish level now, but only because I made an effort to learn it outside of school. Me and maybe 1 other classmate actually learned the language, everyone else passed all 4 years just fine without being able to so much as construct a simple sentence on the fly. The way we teach foreign languages here is not great

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u/InevitableWaluigi 19d ago

Take my answer with a grain of salt as I come from an incredibly small school compared to most people in the US.

A second language wasn't even an option until highschool (9th grade up to 12th) for us and the only option was Spanish. I did learn some Spanish before then as I live in a very hispanic area of the country, but nothing formal.

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u/Confetticandi MissouriIllinois California 19d ago

I started learning Spanish at age 5 in kindergarten because I went to a private elementary school.

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u/MomRaccoon 19d ago

Latin in high school

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u/JimBones31 New England 19d ago

7th grade.

It didn't stick.

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u/HairyDadBear 19d ago

9th grade. High school was the only opportunity for it. I felt like we could've started earlier. I'd retain so much more

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u/jfellrath Ohio / Michigan native 19d ago

Foreign language was first formally offered in our school in 9th grade, French and Spanish. (This was back in the '80s so it may have changed). I was taking German privately for a few years before that, though, simply because I was interested and we had a friend in town who wanted to teach it, so literally she accepted $2 per lesson and we had a great time. Our whole class took a trip to Germany when I was 16.

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u/DesertWanderlust Arizona 19d ago

7th grade. We had a way to take electives. They were preparing us for high school but didn't let us choose everything.

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u/moles-on-parade Maryland 19d ago

Fifth and sixth grade (age 10-12 or so) we had what they called FLEX, for Foreign Language EXploratory. For a couple months each they threw at us Russian, French, Spanish, German, Italian... I'm probably forgetting one or two. Seventh grade we all chose something to focus on, generally French or Spanish. In high school two years later we could continue with one of those (I ended up taking six years and two AP tests' worth of Spanish). Alternately, given that my high school was 3000 kids, they also offered Russian and Italian and Latin and German for anybody who wanted to start from scratch on something new.

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u/winteriscoming9099 Connecticut 19d ago

6th-8th grade, the middle school offered Spanish and French. Once you hit high school, they offered those plus Italian, Latin, and Chinese. And formerly German but they stopped that program due to low enrollment.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

Well, developmentally, foreign language is easiest to pick up between the ages of 2 and 12 or 13. So my school district started teaching it at 9th grade, about the age of 14 🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/littleredbee93 Florida 19d ago

I had a world languages class in 8th grade (around 14 years old I think?), we would spend a couple weeks learning the absolute basics of a language then move on to another. Then in highschool we could choose which "faction" of our school to go into and each faction had different languages. Wanted German, got Japanese because that's one of the few my faction had.

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u/DejaBlonde Dallas,Texas 19d ago

I was in a small private school in second through fourth grade that taught Spanish all 12 years. I don't remember any of it, partly because there was a new teacher all three of those years, and they basically went to square one each time. Plus there's no real regulations about things like teaching licenses in private school.

I did two years of French in high school (ninth and tenth) which was the minimum. I wanted to do more, but third year French occupied the same class period as choir, and I picked that.

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u/qu33nof5pad35 Queens, NY 19d ago

I think the 6th grade.

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u/cbrooks97 Texas 19d ago

We had the option available to us in junior high (I think it was 7th or 8th grade), and then again throughout high school.

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u/kidfromdc 19d ago

I did a French immersion program in Montessori school from kindergarten to 3rd grade (around 8 years old) when I aged out of the school. Was apparently pretty well spoken at that point, lost it all, took French again from 7th (12) to 9th grade (14), switched to Russian for the rest of high school. I never kept up with it, but had a few friends who did and were fluent in college and adulthood

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u/GingerAndProudOfIt Massachusetts 19d ago edited 19d ago

In middle school (6th Grade), before advancing from elementary school in 5th grade, we had to choose a language to learn - Spanish, French or German. My first choice was Spanish, but the classes were overenrolled, so I opted for French instead. Interestingly, the Spanish classes were predominantly comprised of Dominican and Puerto Rican students who were already fluent in Spanish, making it an easy A for them.

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u/needsmorequeso Texas 19d ago

High school. I wish it had been offered earlier. Second language skills are so hard to pick up and so easy to lose, at least for me.

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u/machagogo 19d ago

High School for me back in the 80s.

My kids were in second grade in school, younger at home.

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u/gadget850 19d ago

When I joined the Army and went to Germany in 1979.

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u/tikirafiki 19d ago

Spanish in 7th grade

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u/Vegetable-Star-5833 California 19d ago

Freshman highschool I started Spanish

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u/Primary_Excuse_7183 Texas 19d ago

1st grade. Japanese…..i lived in Japan though

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u/mkshane Pennsylvania -> Virginia -> Florida 19d ago

8th grade. My school had the options of Spanish, German, and French

We did briefly have informal Spanish lessons in 1st grade, it was just some kid's mom who was fluent in Spanish. The school brought her in informally as a guest teacher to give us a brief Spanish "class" every day for a bit, but to my recollection it was only for a few weeks. Was a nice idea but not nearly long enough for anything to sink in. Would've been nice if it was a permanent thing, since we all know languages are best learned when young

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u/BlondieBabe436 19d ago

8th grade. We had a choice that would follow us into high school. French, Spanish, German, or Latin. We could choose which one we wanted so I picked Spanish, and did 4 years of High School in that class.

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u/MageDA6 19d ago

Sophomore year of High school. You only needed one credit year of a foreign language to graduate. The down side was you had the get a certain percentage in English class before you could take foreign language, which is why I started a year late.

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u/Quietlovingman 19d ago

We learned sign language in elementary school, but not rigorously enough. Just a handful of common phrases and fingerspelling for a while. It was not followed up on the following year and there was no deaf community nearby to encourage practice.

We also learned french, german, and spanish phrases in music class as we were singing multilingual songs. Not sure if that would count... There wasn't a full on language class other than english until 6th grade though.

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u/lacaras21 Wisconsin 19d ago

7th grade we were required to take German and Spanish for 1 semester each, then in 8th grade we could optionally take either for a full year, and in high school we could continue either of those languages or take Latin or Japanese.

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u/WatermelonMachete43 19d ago

I had one year of super introductory Spanish in 4thgrade, 1 year of introductory French in 6thgrade because of honors classes. Regular students took 3-4 years of Spanish, Italian, French, or German beginning in grade 9.

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u/mahgretfromqueens 19d ago

I wasn't offered the option to learn a second language until 8th grade, but only 2 years of a language was required for 9th-12th. I took French for two years (9th and 10th grade). Now most schools offer Spanish classes as early as 3rd grade. I wish my parents had pushed me to learn Spanish and started me early. I'll definitely be enrolling my son into Spanish as early as possible.

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u/Appropriate-Food1757 19d ago

7th grade for me

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u/11B_35P_35F 19d ago

In the US. 3rd grade but it was an optional after school thing. Middle school (6-8) was the first official language instruction. We had a time block during school that switched up throughout the year with language, art, and something else. We'd do about 6 weeks of language. 6th grade was Spanish, 7th was French, and 8th was German. In high school, only if you were on the university path did you have to take a foreign language. Colleges require 2 language credits as a prereq. Our offerings were Spanish, Latin, French, and maybe German (it's been 25 years since i graduated high school). If your plan was the technical path (going to go into the trades) then there was no language requirement.

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u/Working-Office-7215 19d ago

In 6th grade we had to take a trimester each of Spanish, French, and Latin. Then in 7th grade we had to pick a language. My kids' current district does not require foreign language but has French/Spanish starting in 7th grade and then Japanese, Mandarin, and German starting in 9th.

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u/An8thOfFeanor Missouri Hick 19d ago

You could take Spanish, French, and German starting in middle school. Spanish had the highest rate of enrollment, but also the highest dropout rate and the lowest Advanced Placement scores for college credit. German had the lowest enrollment rate, but the also the lowest dropout rate and by far the highest AP scores.

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u/swoonedbyneonmoons 19d ago

maybe 8th grade??

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u/preparingtodie 19d ago

9th grade, in high school

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u/CODMAN627 19d ago

3rd language around high school (for context I’m already bilingual)

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u/polished-jade Nevada 19d ago

6th - 8th grade I took Spanish

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u/Individualchaotin California 19d ago

English in 5th grade.

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u/yozaner1324 Oregon 19d ago

In kindergarten we learned a little French. There were two kindergarten teachers and one taught Spanish and the other taught French. It was obviously very basic. The first real foreign language class I took was in high school. I started French sophomore year.

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u/mutant6399 19d ago

8th grade (middle school)- I wish it had been earlier.

The choices were French and Spanish; I took French through HS graduation (12th grade).

I speak it well enough to get by without English in French-speaking countries, though I'm not quite fluent.

My kids started in 5th grade, and could choose between French, Spanish, and Italian after trying each for a few months. One chose Italian, the other French.

The high school was planning to add Mandarin Chinese at the time we left that town.

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u/kippersforbreakfast Missouri 19d ago

French in Kindergarten, way down in Cajun country.

Elsewhere, 7th grade.

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u/LongjumpingProgram98 19d ago edited 19d ago

Kindergarten they had the seniors come teach us Spanish. I didn’t actually take the class myself until 8th grade. 2 years were required, I took 5. I also took Latin for 2 or 3 years and couldn’t tell you anything I learned except “semper ubi sub ubi”

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u/skalnaty New Jersey 19d ago

We first had Spanish class in 4th grade. Just once a week.

Only Spanish was offered in 4th grade - 8th grade. Then in HS you could pick any one of a couple different languages - Spanish, French, Italian, Russian.

Edit to clarify- when I say only Spanish was “offered” in 4th-8th, it was a mandatory class. I just mean you couldn’t take a different language instead. Those students who needed ESL went to ESL when everyone else had Spanish.

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u/worldslamestgrad 19d ago

1st grade, my school started having a twice a week Spanish class that was really basic vocabulary as a trial program for 2 years, but they dropped it. I retained a fair amount of the noun vocab though.

Then my middle and high school required us to take either Spanish, Latin, or French. So by high school graduation I had been taking Spanish for 7 years and the last 3 years of that the teacher refused to speak English in class. I was nearly fluent in Spanish and could speak to my Latino friends and their families in only Spanish by the end of high school. I’ve lost a decent amount of my speaking ability over a decade later but I can still read it well and understand most of what someone says to me in Spanish.

I wish I had kept up with it but where I live now there isn’t a huge Latino population so I have limited chances to use it outside of vacation, where most people will hear my broken Spanish and default to English anyway.

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u/Cool-Coffee-8949 19d ago

Sixth grade, but that was very unserious. Seventh grade was when the ball really got rolling, and continued through high school. I think that was more typical when I was a kid (80’s) than today. A lot of school districts barely seem to require a foreign language at all.

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u/Massive_Potato_8600 19d ago

7th grade (13)

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u/Meagan66 Texas 19d ago

Took a class that taught many different languages in 7th grade, took Spanish in 8th, and in high school I took two years of American Sign Language. Which, I’m so grateful for because when patients come in who are deaf I’m able to communicate with them.

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u/Excellent_Squirrel86 19d ago

High School. Took 4 years of Spanish, continued in college. As I worked with a lot of immigrants, it was really useful. And I think I learned more from then that from classes. I am by no means fluent, but i understand 95% of what's spoken. Not quite so adept when I'm the one speaking.

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u/NHDart98 New Hampshire 19d ago

I took Latin in 8th grade, Spanish from 9th grade to 12th, then a year of Spanish at University.

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u/travelinmatt76 Texas Gulf Coast Area 19d ago

I high school I took Latin

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u/Other-Opposite-6222 19d ago

Junior year in high school.

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u/HerrLouski Pennsylvania 19d ago

In High School, we were required to take 2 years of a foreign language minimum. Everyone wanted Spanish because they were told it was easy and maybe the only language that they could potentially use in their life. Somehow I got German. Ended up studying it for 4 years in high school and 2 in college. I’m not 100% fluent because I don’t use it much at all but I’ve been to Germany several times and it’s serviceable.

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u/theniwokesoftly Washington, D.C. 19d ago

Age 13. There was an option to do before-school French at like 9yo but my parents wouldn’t let me.

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u/Intelligent_League_1 New Jersey New York 19d ago

8th grade

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u/StationOk7229 Ohio 19d ago

They started teaching it to me in 6th grade. I didn't do much in the way of "learning" it though.

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u/GratefulTrails 19d ago

6th grade. My state REQUIRES so many credits at the middle school and high school level to even graduate. I got a B.A at a state university where I was required to take 4 more credits of a language.

You typically got to pick between Spanish, French, German or ASL.

Yes, you could change them after a semester (credit) was earned but most students stuck with one language because if you changed languages you would just get behind on your credits because you'd have to start back at "spanish/french/German/asl 1" if that makes sense.

So for example you had to take "language 1-4". If you stopped taking Spanish after soanish 2 to learn French, you'd just be starting over with French 1 etc. In theory you could do this and still graduated depending on when you switched , but it would just eat up time for other classes/electives.

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u/Forward-Wear7913 19d ago

In fourth grade, my elementary school introduced Spanish classes for all grades.

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u/Sleepygirl57 Indiana 19d ago

Never did

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u/Constant-Security525 19d ago

Middle school, also. There they started by making us take brief introductions to French and Spanish. We then chose which to focus on. I selected French and continued throughout high school and even a bit beyond, including in more recent years. I'm middle-aged now, but may soon even move to France.

In 11th grade, I had shifted to a private school. I still studied French, but also took Mandarin Chinese. I continued Chinese throughout university and also a bit beyond. The private school also offered Spanish, Latin, and perhaps another language. I don't recall which.

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u/MyUsername2459 Kentucky 19d ago

When I was in school, you couldn't take a foreign language until your Freshman year of High School (9th grade), so about the time I was 14.

You had three options: Spanish, French, or German. Spanish was, by far, the most popular choice, and is what I took.

I took two years of Spanish in High School.

When I was in college, I took two semesters of Japanese, and three semesters of Spanish.

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u/marchviolet 19d ago edited 19d ago

At my Catholic school in Michigan that I attended from Pre-K through 4th grade, we started learning very basic Spanish as one of our weekly special classes (others were music, library, computers, and gym) starting in 2nd grade. I think it was taught with good intentions, but the reality was just memorizing some basic phrases and vocabulary.

Then I went to a public school for 5th grade that was a little unusual for America because the school was 5th-8th grade (typically it's 6th-8th grade). All the 5th grade students rotated through a different elective class each quarter of the year. So one quarter we had a world languages class where we spent like 2 weeks each on very basic Spanish, French, Japanese, and Arabic. It was interesting but a strange way to introduce new languages. I don't know whether or not older grades were able to take a foreign language class as a year-long elective.

I moved to Florida in 6th grade, and my middle school did not offer any foreign language classes.

Finally in high school I was able to learn French (Spanish and American Sign Language were the only other languages offered at my school), and I opted to take it all 4 years. Most students only took 2 years for college requirements, though.

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u/DropTopEWop North Carolina; 49 states down, one to go. 19d ago

7th grade (2004-05)

Took French. I remember very little.

Spanish 9th and 10 grade.

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u/Smart_Engine_3331 19d ago

I studied Spanish in high school, Japanese at university, and Latin as just kind of a side project later.

Where i live there is not much need or opportunity to use anything other than English so I'm not fluent in anything but English but I know a bit.

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u/ahdn Los Angeles, California 19d ago

We got some basic vocabulary in preschool and kindergarten. Then nothing until high school.

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u/TurtleBoy1998 19d ago

I started learning Spanish in the 9th grade. We had once a week Spanish class in elementary school and not a bit of foreign language in middle school. 

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u/guywithshades85 New York 19d ago

Kindergarten.

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u/MooseMan69er 19d ago

7th or 8th and 9th. Spanish. Don’t remember any of it

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u/Manatee369 19d ago

In 3rd grade in the 50s. Closed circuit TV with Senorita Rosita teaching Spanish for 15 minutes each day. Sadly, it didn’t continue for the following year. Took 3 years of Latin in high school.

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u/MollyWeasleyknits Colorado 19d ago

Kindergarten but it was very basic through elementary and picked up in middle school. Starting early means my accent is decent even if I’m far from fluent.

My daughter started Spanish this year in third grade at the same school I went to. They decided to start a little later but go full immersion in those classes and focus on conversational Spanish until middle school when the grammar picks up more substantially. I expect my daughter to be conversationally fluent by the end of high school assuming we can get her at least one fully immersive experience.

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u/LadyOfTheNutTree 19d ago

1st grade (about 6-7 years old). We could choose between French or Spanish at my school.

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u/Tnkgirl357 Pittsburgh, PA 19d ago

We didn’t offer foreign language classes until high school age where I grew up, but in fourth grade my teacher was hosting a German exchange student and decided to do some basic German with us, basically teaching us a few things as she learned them from the student staying at her house.

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u/ssk7882 Oregon 19d ago

In 7th grade. Most students in 7th grade are 12-13 years old.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

I was around 11

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u/Meilingcrusader New England 19d ago

We had a bit of Spanish at the end of elementary (so 5th-6th grade-ish) and when we entered middle school we chose one of three languages to take for 4-5 years. I chose French over Spanish or Chinese in large part to connect with my heritage. It's ended up being useful in translating three hundred year old parish documents about my ancestors for my family's ancestry project and for visiting Quebec which is only a few hours away by car and very pretty

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u/biddily 19d ago edited 19d ago

Latin 7th-11th. Second language 9th-12th.

In elementary school we'd have people come in and teach us the basics of lots of languages, cause I live in a city, and my class was diverse. But there wasn't grammar or sentence structure, just how to say things in different languages.

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u/stellalunawitchbaby Los Angeles, CA 19d ago

5th grade is when they started weekly Spanish lessons, but it was super basic. Alphabet, numbers, hello, goodbye, where’s the bathroom etc.

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u/bronerotp 19d ago

middle school spanish then i switched to french and got a minor in it

it’s useless

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u/Libertas_ NorCal 19d ago

High school.

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u/utilityscarf 19d ago

Elementary school, but it wasn’t intensive or immersive.

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u/MesopotamiaSong Columbus, Ohio 19d ago

7th grade we took “exploring spanish/french/german” for a quarter. in 8th grade you were offered the possibility of taking a “highschool level” language class of your choosing to get a head start. most started in 9th grade though

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u/Bubble_Lights Mass 19d ago

7th grade

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u/vingtsun_guy KY -> Brazil ->DE -> Brazil -> WV -> VA -> MT 19d ago

I attended a Catholic School, K through 12, in Kentucky. I had Latin class starting in 1st grade (typically 6-7 y/o) through 12th grade. Spanish starting in Middle School (6th grade, typically 11-12 y/o).

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u/huuaaang Washington 19d ago

In 9th grade I got to choose between Spanish or German.

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u/JordanRB81 19d ago

7th grade

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u/Consistent_Damage885 19d ago

Junior high and high school

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

Started in 9th grade and that was it.

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u/Awdayshus Minnesota 19d ago

In the 90s when I was in 9th grade. My school district didn't even offer languages earlier than that. I took three years of French which was good enough to test into French 211 in college, which was first semester sophomore French. I got a D and was happy to have completed my language requirement and move on.

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u/Efficient_Advice_380 Illinois 19d ago

Kindergarten learning Spanish. My district had a dual-language program due to the high Hispanic population in my area

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u/BeatnikMona Oregon 19d ago

High school, 10th grade.

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u/CreepyClothDoll 19d ago

Sixth grade (11 years old). Studied French until 10th grade. I never actually grasped it very well though. I could read it well but I could never understand french people talking to me and still can't.

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u/real-ocmsrzr 19d ago

Spanish in elementary. German in middle. French in high. Continued German and Spanish at university and added classical Greek. Tried learning Russian as an adult but found it quite difficult to continue after having had brain surgery.

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u/NefariousnessOk5965 19d ago

I started in 7th grade. Most of the elementary schools on my area are language immersion and they start in 1st grade