Skratch Publishing Children's Books - Reading InspirationSkratch Publishing

As some of you already know, my husband and I just had our first child! We've spoken about what they should learn in school (and what they'll be when they grow up, of course) and language is a big choice. We've considered Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish and German, to name a few. We'd love to hear opinions on what would be a good language to learn so our boy can do well in whatever the future has in store for him!

Thanks!

So much of this seems to require trying to predict the future! If he stays in Canada, French is a big deal for the foreseeable future - but a career in business anywhere would be best served by Cantonese (or Mandarin!). I think a big help is if one of the parents speaks a different language, to make the decision to teach that language to the child from the start. My father never spoke his native language at home, and now I feel like I'm really missing out!

Cantonese if you think your child want to stay in Vancouver

First, excuse my bad English. I'm German.

Here in Germany the kids learn German and English at school. When they are 12 they learn one language more. They could learn Latin, Italian, French, Spanish.

From my job I know that chinese market will be open for the western countries, but the chinese, which I spoke, learned English and many learned German.

I think my kid should learn French or Spanish as a added language.

At home and in addition to English, we study Latin, Arabic and Spanish. We study Latin for its overall usefulness in the acquisition of English and other Romance language comprehension, Arabic out of the convenience of having a native speaking relative willing to teach and Spanish simply to communicate more effectively with a large population of speakers in our community in the States. I have one son who also speaks Italian, which he acquired through immersion and practices with his opera troupe.

Multilingualism has been proven to have significant benefits to brain development and health. In the research I have come across, there seems to be little importance as to which languages are learned, so I'd suggest you find what is most enjoyable or most useful.