Our middle school offers French, Italian, and Spanish starting in 7th grade, with the same language being taken in 8th grade. Selective colleges expect several years of study of the same language, so a student is likely to persist with the same language in high school. The majority of students take Spanish, with the remainder about equally divided between French and Italian. An obvious reason for an American to learn Spanish is the large number of Spanish speakers in the country. What arguments could one make for studying French or Italian instead?
I studied French in school and could help him practice if he studied it. I wonder if this outweighs the practical advantages of Spanish. There are "language and culture" AP exams in all three languages, but only Spanish has an additional "literature and culture" exam.
Mandarin and Latin are offered only in high school.
