How’s Spanish instruction at King & Berkeley High for an average student?
My kids don’t have any foreign language background but I’d LOVE them to have a solid background in Spanish by the end of high school.
Were the yesrs of Spanish at King & Berkeley High, time well spent? My impression of mandatory high school Spanish 101 is bad..
In hindsight, would you have done things differently for your child in middle or high school? (Too late for immersion preschool!) t’s an extra expense, but there are many language learning options nowadays.
Jan 31, 2018
Parent Replies
My experience is that it is up to the kid on whether they love it and practice or not. Whether a good or bad teacher, so much of it is on the kid to practice and at least watch videos in Spanish outside of class, go to Mexican markets, etc. Maybe starting at a younger age than middle school would help. My daughter had good and bad teachers for three years in high school, didn't really retain anything due to her own lack of commitment, and now as a senior is wishing her Spanish were better and plans to start over with Spanish I in college.
I'm not sure about King because my kids went to Willard, but in my experience not many kids take Spanish in middle school because it requires two years, and it uses up the one elective they have, so no art or drama or coding or etc. But two of my kids took Spanish at Berkeley High with no prior training and they had a good experience. My oldest son took it for 2 years, and his conversation was good enough to make basic small talk with Spanish speakers. However he flaked on the grammar and writing - he was a C student - so when he got to college he had to take another year to fulfill the graduation requirement. OTOH he was able to converse with the locals when he vacationed in Mexico after college. The youngest took one year at BHS before transferring to a private school as a sophomore, where he was way ahead of the other Spanish 2 students because of his excellent teacher at BHS, who stressed conversation and spoke to the kids only in Spanish, and really stressed pronunciation. So I would say wait until high school, BHS has some good Spanish teachers. They can take 3 years (maybe 4? not sure.) and then if they want, there are all sorts of Spanish language summer programs for high schoolers, and of course college after that.