French or Spanish as a Second Language?

I would also have to say Spanish. It will be more useful in the long run. Even better? Mandarin or Arabic. But, please, please, get her English skills mastered as well. There are too many people in this country whose first language is English and yet say things like "irregardless" or "supposably" or "she gave the book to Sally and I" instead of "Sally and me". Yikes, I'm ranting here! Back to the topic...definitely Spanish.

I highly recommend spanish. If she learns spanish now and would like to learn french later in life, it will come easy to her.

There's no doubt Spanish is the most beneficial language to learn long-term in this country. I started it myself in fourth grade, continued throughout middle and high school, minored in it in college and today am fluent and have three times as many job offers from friends due to my ability to communicate in Spanish. It also helps me greatly in my everyday life with my gardener, cleaning lady, nanny. I love the language and culture.

I would say French. Once she picks that up, you can introduce Spanish which will be easy to pick up after the French. I learned French in High school and also just 1 year of Spanish. I learned Jananese and Mandarin in college. I now remember the French better than the others. I did use the French while in Europe as well as in Canada. But, with any language, if you don't use it, you loose it.

I also homeschool and I am teaching them Latin. They want to do German next.
I took 4 years of Latin in HS, two years French and a year of Greek. Once you learn Latin, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese come really easy. The French have very different endings and phonetics in their words.
Most of the science and math terms are Greek adn Latin. Mine are in 3rd adn 6th. My 3rd grader is lovign it and now finds Latin derivatives everywhere and points them out.

I'd say Spanish since you live in AZ. But based on personal experience, I'd want to say French. French was my first language and English my second. I could NEVER get the concept of Spanish. I don't know why I found it so hard (my sister did too) but I was able to learn German and Russian just fine. There are a lot of French speaking people here in addition to the Spanish....but no, I think I'll say go with French. (I plan on teaching my son French too)

Well, my husband and I both took a foreign language other than Spanish (we took German) and now wish we'd taken Spanish because this is something we could use! German we rarely, if ever, see and speak and have forgotten most all of it.

What about learning American Sign Language?? It is a highly beneficial language to learn as it develops BOTH sides of the brain (the linguistic and the spatial parts) AND, other language speakers can learn to speak the language of the country they're in, but Deaf people cannot learn to hear.

I would suggest the language she is going to actually use more often and will help her in real life. Being bilingual or trilingual, will open a totally different world for her with the passing of time. Think more ahead of time: traveling, careers, promotions, etc.
Both, Spanish and French are pretty similar in grammar and structure. You can teach both at the same time little by little at different days. I am sure she will learn them easily. Go to the library and start from there; they have useful material for each language.
Good luck!

I think Spanish would be much more useful. However, I couldn't grasp it. I studied Spanish, German, and Japanese, and went on to get my B.A. and my M.A. in Japanese - but I couldn't get the gist of Spanish. Still, I have had many days that I have wished I could speak it.

SPANISH!
if you plan to do more you might look into latin. thats how they teach multiple languages in europe.

Spanish is the most practical. Practical and reasonable rule my world, so Spanish would be the obvious answer for me. Every family is different though-- have you asked your daughter for input? At 7 at 8 years old, it might help if she got to pick in order to keep her interest up. That being said, Spanish as a second language may actually help her land a better job in the future-- I know, long way off... but you've got to think...

Updated

Spanish is the most practical. Practical and reasonable rule my world, so Spanish would be the obvious answer for me. Every family is different though-- have you asked your daughter for input? At 7 at 8 years old, it might help if she got to pick in order to keep her interest up. That being said, Spanish as a second language may actually help her land a better job in the future-- I know, long way off... but you've got to think...

Updated

Spanish is the most practical. Practical and reasonable rule my world, so Spanish would be the obvious answer for me. Every family is different though-- have you asked your daughter for input? At 7 at 8 years old, it might help if she got to pick in order to keep her interest up. That being said, Spanish as a second language may actually help her land a better job in the future-- I know, long way off... but you've got to think...

I would suggest Spanish. She will use it more often...and if she has to learn French as a 3rd language, it will be easier since they are both Latin based languages.

I would say Spanish seems how you live in AZ and so many people are spanish speaking in the area...Also spanish is all around more common that French and I thihnk its easier to learn I took both in high school and had a harder time with French

I would just teach her Latin then she would easily be able to pick up either French or Spanish. It would also help with her English spelling as well. It really doesn't sound as useful to start, but it will be a big help in the long run.

If you live in Arizona, I would definitely recommend Spanish. It will give your daughter many benefits in the future for jobs.

I lived in Paris as a first grader, studied French in high school and college, and used it traveling abroad in college. Haven't spoken it a day since. As a physician, I use Spanish daily.

Hope that helps.

I would say French... for the following reason:

All of the conversational "sounds" in spanish are found in english. There's a nasal quality to mesoamerican spanish, but that's found in english as well. The rolled R is a tongue trick... but it's a sound readily heard by English speakers... it just takes practice to duplicate.

French, however, has sounds that are NOT in English. If the brain doesn't learn to listen to/for them she won't be able to hear them (same with japanese). What's interesting about French, is that the sounds one hears in French... "translate" to Spanish nasal sounds, but don't translate in reverse. They also translate fairly easily into the "choking on a moth" Dutch sounds... but Dutch doesn't translate back to french.

I say this as someone who (american, native english speaker) grew up in Japan (and used to be fluent in Japanese). I can hear asian sounds that most people can't ... and I also speak spanish (badly, but I can understand), Italian, German, & a little Swedish/Norweigan. But I CAN'T hear French. Not all of it. Being in France (literally, not figuratively) gives me a headache. It's like being in a badly dubbed kung-fu movie. People's mouths are moving but there's no sound coming out during certain parts. Whenever I'm in France I get tension headaches, because my brain is TRYING to hear something it doesn't have the neural pathways for. I can understand my SISTER speaking French, and therefore know there are SUPPOSED to be sounds there... because she speaks with an American accent. So she's not getting the sounds "right"... but it's better than silence.

Every language above except for French I was exposed to as a child. I've got the neural pathways. But I didn't hear French, at ALL (except for in dance class), until I was an adult. My sister lives in France. When we meet up... we instead split the difference (my brother lives in Germany) and we meet up in Switzerland. I love the french countryside and riveara, Paris is okay... but I avoid the country like the plague... because it hurts my head too much to be there.

((BTW... We're teaching kiddo Latin -Minimus http://www.minimus-etc.co.uk/, but haven't yet decided on a curriculum for spoken language... Are you using Rosetta or PowerSpeak or something else, and how do you like them?))

R. ((HS'ing our 7yo, hence the recommendation request :))

I say why not both? Why limit your daughters? Yeah, we live in AZ so Spanish is beneficial, but I have come across many, many people who know French as well- so it's not like they will never use it.

Personal experience- we lived in the French-speaking portion of Switzerland for 6 months in 2005. I took Spanish in high school, used to live in Tucson and have been to Mexico many, many times... I can decently converse in Spanish... when we arrived in Switzerland I had such a hard time with French. In fact, I never understood it... I could read it, but couldn't speak it for the life of me! (I got lucky that at the grocery store there was man who worked there and spoke Spanish... let me tell you, I made sure I shopped there while he was working! LOL OK, he spoke Spain Spanish and I spoke mainly Mexico Spanish, but at least I was able to get the point across to him.)

Besides Spanish I also speak Italian and Thai... give them the exposure while they are young... if you can handle it, so can they! Good luck!

If you are really wanting to push her in a second language, I would say spanish because of where we live, but Chinese is the up and coming. Businesses all over the world are being bought by the Chinese, and even my father works for a Chinese company....something he never thought would be possible.

As someone who studied French all the way through school and then in college, I always wish I learned Spanish. I could use it nearly every day where I live.

Unless you live near a french-speaking community, I would recommend Spanish.

My kids have gone to a Spanish/English dual immersion program since kindergarten. In 6th grade, my daughter took French and found it pretty easy to pick up French. She also dabbled in Mandarin Chinese as an after school class. Spanish probably has more real-world utility, but picking up any language at this age will stimulate brain development in the language area. Immersion programs are the best and fastest way to learn.

I say definitely Spanish since it is way more common here than French. What fun is learning a language if you never have anyone to converse with? Also, if she actually keeps up with it and becomes fluent it would be a great thing to put on her resume when she is older.