A-Levels University, doing a Language at GCSE Level?

IronSpider

IronSpider

IronSpider

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My son is choosing his options at for his GCSEs. He likes pretty much everything and is higher ability for every subject including languages, which he hates with a passion despite not struggling.

He has picked separate sciences, Drama, and then History as his humanities. It was choice between History and Geography. The school has a policy that they 'prefer' you to do a language unless you have a learning issue like dyslexia. He wants to drop French and do both History and Geography, both of which he loves. The school are stating this will impact him for better Uni and 6th form choices later on as they look more fondly on having done a language. As someone who didn't go to university, is this actually true?

Looking at the school academy he's in it seems to me they are themselves marked higher for having more students do a language so it's in their interests to play this card. On one hand they are saying pick subjects you love, but on the other hand they seem to want to lock you into a language lesson you really despise.
 
Lacking a Modern Language at GCSE is only going to be an issue if he decides to do languages at A-level and/or Uni. If he is an able student why not see if he can do an extra one, to keep all options open?
 
There seems to be very little point studying a subject you despise. I really don't know the answer, but I did study a language (German) at GCSE level (over 30 years ago) and I'd say it has had an exactly zero effect on my career.
 
I think doing a language would be likely to open up better future opportunities these days. It's something I wish I had concentrated more on, but it wasn't pushed in the 90s.

Is french the only option? I wouldn't pick french.

Drama is pretty useless, drop that and do geography and a language.
 
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No, it isn't true unless of course his Uni course would involve languages. However, the part about potentially affecting 6th Form applications could be true as it is the school who select who does and does not get to go - sounds like blackmail to me!

Drama - nah. History and Geography are sound choices.
 
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danlightbulb said:
I think doing a language would be likely to open up better future opportunities these days. It's something I wish I had concentrated more on, but it wasn't pushed in the 90s.

Is french the only option? I wouldn't pick french.

Drama is pretty useless, drop that and do geography and a language.
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I would have felt the same way about drama, useless. But I've seen the confidence it's given him over his mates that want the world to swallow them up rather than even read out loud in front of people. So many kids this days are locked up in a bedroom never going out that I think this is a worthy skill to have confidence later for public speaking and even interviews.

There's no way at A-Level he will do a language so I do feel this is more in the schools interests than his.
 
IronSpider said:
I would have felt the same way about drama, useless. But I've seen the confidence it's given him over his mates that want the world to swallow them up rather than even read out loud in front of people. So many kids this days are locked up in a bedroom never going out that I think this is a worthy skill to have confidence later for public speaking and even interviews.

There's no way at A-Level he will do a language so I do feel this is more in the schools interests than his.
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After school clubs for the drama benefits rather than doing a GCSE in it?

Why no language at A-level? What path does he want to follow for career?
 
IronSpider said:
The school are stating this will impact him for better Uni and 6th form choices later on as they look more fondly on having done a language. As someone who didn't go to university, is this actually true?
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Personally I don't think so. The school might have its own reason why they want students to do a language.

Personally I think the most important thing is to be studying what you like and are actually interested in. This is more important than anything else. Therefore, I would say if he can he should do what he wants to.
 
esmozz said:
There seems to be very little point studying a subject you despise. I really don't know the answer, but I did study a language (German) at GCSE level (over 30 years ago) and I'd say it has had an exactly zero effect on my career.
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Funny. I found the opposite. I did French for a long time and it's only ever enhanced what I was doing.
 
I don't think it will make any difference to university applications (unless he actually wanted to study a language at uni), would be better off just doing the subjects he wants to - will enjoy school more and be more likely to get good grades. Some people say it's good for variety and to make you a 'well rounded' candidate, but realistically I doubt it will have any impact.

For college / 6th form not sure as I guess they could have quite variable opinions, you could probably have a look at websites of all the ones in your area / ask them to see if they have a strong preference. I would be a bit surprised if it made much difference though...

Worth noting a language may open other doors, such as being able to work abroad or do an exchange year etc, and could be useful for some jobs in future. By no means vital for the vast majority of people though. I did GCSE German and have never used it except on holiday & as a base for trying to learn more German independently (which I've kind of abandoned now :p)
 
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danlightbulb said:
What path does he want to follow for career?
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No idea, he's 13 and not discovered girls yet. Let alone choosing a career path! Then again i'm in my 40's and still have no idea!
radderfire said:
Personally I think the most important thing is to be studying what you like and are actually interested in. This is more important than anything else. Therefore, I would say if he can he should do what he wants to.
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Yeah that's what I think, but everyone keeps throwing the threat of not doing a language hampering his future schooling. So I was curious if anyone else had uni problems because of not doing a language even if you aren't studying a language.


This is what the schools in my area follow:

www.gov.uk

English Baccalaureate (EBacc)

www.gov.uk www.gov.uk

As you can see the schools are scored on these core subjects, so it's in their interests rather than my childs to do a language.
 
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IronSpider said:
My son is choosing his options at for his GCSEs. He likes pretty much everything and is higher ability for every subject including languages, which he hates with a passion despite not struggling.

He has picked separate sciences, Drama, and then History as his humanities. It was choice between History and Geography. The school has a policy that they 'prefer' you to do a language unless you have a learning issue like dyslexia. He wants to drop French and do both History and Geography, both of which he loves. The school are stating this will impact him for better Uni and 6th form choices later on as they look more fondly on having done a language. As someone who didn't go to university, is this actually true?

Looking at the school academy he's in it seems to me they are themselves marked higher for having more students do a language so it's in their interests to play this card. On one hand they are saying pick subjects you love, but on the other hand they seem to want to lock you into a language lesson you really despise.
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Sounds like BS to me. I went to university and I can't even trade blows in English! I am dreadful with languages and dropped French as soon as possible.
Don't let him aimlessly wander through school doing subjects that are of no use later on. I can not stress enough how important it is to understand what all the various jobs are and where his interest lies. There are a ton of really good jobs out there but only if you know what you want to do. Without that, it's like having a bag of different size spanners but no clue what they are for. Most people don't know and let the jobs lead them through life. The happy people of this world do the exact opposite. How much better is it to love your chosen career rather than just do something to pay the mortgage?
 
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No institution gives a toss about languages anymore unless you’re actually going to study a language. It’s actually embarrassing that the school thinks it would. More likely it’ll be difficult for them to timetable.

Having gone through life being forced into such decisions with little discernible effect on my prospects, I say do what makes you happy, I certainly wish I hadn’t chosen the subjects that were expected of me. I’d still be in exactly the same place now.
 
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A University won't care unless you're doing languages. Personally I'd drop it as soon as possible also.

I presume he's already doing maths/English.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
No institution gives a toss about languages anymore unless you’re actually going to study a language. It’s actually embarrassing that the school thinks it would. More likely it’ll be difficult for them to timetable.

Having gone through life being forced into such decisions with little discernible effect on my prospects, I say do what makes you happy, I certainly wish I hadn’t chosen the subjects that were expected of me. I’d still be in exactly the same place now.
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I think this unfortunately is the embarrassing fate of English natives. I would love to be able to fluently speak another language, but it's pushed too late in our curriculum, and after leaving secondary school most people give it up anyway.

Compare that to a lot of countries, where they start to learn English at a very young age and all the way through school.

We're lucky enough that we can get by as a good proportion of the world can speak some level of English, but it's just a shame that we're reliant on it working that way round.
 
The only universities that care whether you have foreign languages are Oxford and Cambridge (and even there I'm not sure whether they still do) other universities won't care. There's no value in studying languages if you're really bad at them and hate studying them, it's just time you could spend doing something better.

30 years ago when I was in High School we had to study a language to GCSE, I took German. I was terrible at it, ended up with the lowest mark of anyone in the school, and it was my worst GCSE result - that just does no one any good.
 
My daughter has been doing Piano since she was 8 years old and is now 15. Very similar to a language. I have always been under the impression that it is something that would stand out when everyone is applying for a job inevitably all have the same degrees. She is currently at GSCE level. I hope she will do it to A level standard but she is recently being distracted by boys :o .

She has focused her choices to more academic ones. The one thing I wasn't happy about is that she had to take RE but they call it something else now.
 
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