Who took a language class in high school? Do you still use that language today?

4 years of French in HS, a year or two of German in college. Spanish would have been 110x more useful but those had value. 

I didn't use the French for 20 years but even a basic ability was enough to get me into a 6 month relo to Paris for work. The German came in handy when I worked at VW, if only just to make basic phone conversation when calling the mother ship and getting someone's assistant. Learned some basics of Japanese when working on a Japanese operating system.

Most important is learning any other language, in order to understand how to at least try to learn a language. Moving to the Netherlands in January and it's not easy to get my 59yo brain wrapped around a new language but I'll do it.

For me, the best way to learn to listen are slow news podcasts. You already know the context so can focus on what they're saying 

French and Spanish in high school. I've never really used the French, and I can read it better than I can speak/understand it. I learned way more and more useful Spanish working in various kitchens. I may not be able to hold a conversation, but I can generally ask questions and understand the answers with context. 

We had to take 5 years of foreign language, starting in 7th grade.  I would have taken Latin or German, but the guy who taught Latin and German retired when I was in 6th grade.

So I had a choice of French or Spanish.  I chose French because I don't know why.

Spanish would have been 1000% more useful, but unfortunately since it was grade-level based, there was no ability for me to switch once I had made a random decision at 12 years old.

I can still parle un peu de Francais, but it has not been very useful at all.  And French literature mostly sucks.

I, like most Canadians had Quebcois gutter French forced upon me from grade 6 through 8.

I've never used it. I don't remember anything beyond Tabernac Cigarrette.

From grade 8 to grade 11 I took Spanish which, because of the Canadian school system was Mexican spanish. I don't remember or use any of that either.

I sat next to a woman from Barcelona on a 9 hour flight. I could have listened to her read the dictionary...

4 years of Latin in high school paid dividends on a number of levels.  It means I can cipher thru all the romance languages, at least in written format.  It was also helpful to my technical English.  As you were generally translating history books it was a helpful grounding in the start of Western civilization.

Middle School, German, no.

I grew up in Quebec, so I had French from grade 3 through grade 10. Never got proficient with it, partly because it was real french, not the Quebecois dialect, and partly because I was self-conscious and didn't use it enough. I left Quebec 45 years ago and what little I did know is all but gone now. However, I can still swear.

I took Spanish in high school and did not retain a single thing. Now, I have been a project manager over crews that are 95% Hispanic with very minimal English.

I have learned much more at work then I ever did in school.

I took Spanish in high school and did not retain a single thing. Now, I have been a project manager over crews that are 95% Hispanic with very minimal English.

I have learned much more at work then I ever did in school.

I took Spanish from 7th to 11th grade. Nope, don't remember much of it, don't ever use it.

My grade school offered German after school for an hour a week with a professor/class members dad - maybe he was paying off a tuition debt?

Learned some German, sung O' Tannebaum at some Catholic Christmas mass that made a bunch of old people cry and learned to count and my colors.

Later in life I'd see Professor Koehler walking home from the Chicago commuter train and I'd give him a ride.  Guten Tag Mr. Koehler....old guy was thrilled someone remembered. 

I had to take two foreign languages in high school, chose French and English. 
 

The language I use most these days is my third language (English). 

I was disappointed to learn that German has gendered nouns for inanimate objects.  That is one of my principal complaints about both French and Spanish.

I would have figured that people who pride themselves on logic wouldn't waste time with that nonsense.

In reply to Duke :

Don't try to apply logic to the German language. That way, madness lies..

I took some French and Swahili, neither of which I have spoken since. I wish I had put effort into Spanish.

2 years of Spanish in HS. Had a bunch of AP tests scheduled within the same week, AP Spanish was the sacrificial lamb, didn't study and did poorly.

Had to take a year of Spanish again in community college. For some reason that was the one class where credits didn't transfer, so when I got to university I got to take ANOTHER year of entry level Spanish. I read and write much better than I speak

Grew-up bilingual in Puerto Rico then moved to Canada so took 5 years of French in HS and one summer immersion course in France.  FYI the French taught in Canadian HS works fine in France and Africa, but is of little use in Quebec. Quebec french is to French what Jamaican patois is to English.

I was hired by a company that was desperate for Spanish and/or French language skills and sent to English speaking Nigeria? Hence my language skills were useful for communicating that corporate america is often run by morons. 

Still consider myself fluent in Spanish and my French is good enough to get me around France. I keep the radio in my DD glued to the French channel because it is more fun listening to breaking news and only understand about half of it! I am done with travel, so no need for any of them going forward.

My advice to kids is to dive into spanish in a big way.  A year of immersion/exchange-student is mandatory for fluency. The US and Mexico are going to be doing a lot of work together in the future and if you can speak tech and spanish you are going to be in the right lane for success.

I find Quebec French to have a Texan drawl. Or maybe the frFrenchench equivalent of the Newfoundland accent, which is appropriate because they're both relics of an older language left to simmer in isolation. But I didn't have that much trouble communicating in Quebec with my Canadian school French - probably because I lived right on the border with Quebec, so I was exposed to both "book" French and the Quebec variant. When I was living in France, the locals thought my accent was Swiss. Which was not a compliment but we could definitely communicate!

I also learned when living in Europe that French is only useful if you're actually in France :) Nobody else speaks it. A European second language is most likely going to be English. That was a surprise after growing up in Canada where having both English and French meant you could talk to just about anyone you met. I was once on a Miata tour that started in Belgium. We stopped in France for lunch and I was the only one amongst a bunch of Germans and Dutch and Brits who could speak the local lingo. Which meant I had to translate everything to English so we could all communicate.

If you're only taking a second language in high school, one hour a day for a year or two, you're going to struggle mightily. Languages are best learned very young and they're definitely best learned with as much immersion as possible.

How bad is google translate if you want to know how to pronounce simple "car parts" names.......

tires , rims , fender,  hood etc ....at least its a start :)

3 years of French in hi skool, but je ne sais pas very much of it...

High school:
ita latin, minime

College:
oui français, non

Our only choice was Spanish.  I did take two years of it, but that was 50+ years ago so I haven't retained very much.  I can read some, but speaking is down to a few standard phrases.

In seventh grade we did a tour of languages: Spanish, Italian, French and Latin. I did three years of Spanish between middle school and high school. Oddly enough, I didn't take a language in college.

Nevertheless, I learned more after school through apps like Duolingo, going places that speak the language, and from people who speak it.

I can speak some Spanish and certainly understand a bit.

My French has gotten rusty.

I know how to say hello and do basic greetings in Italian, German, Czech and Mandarin.

Saying hello in another language to someone goes a long way. I did that on a shuttle bus at SFO and by saying hello in Mandarin to the driver it changed the vibes between me and him dramatically. It made his day.

Ultimately, I love learning foreign languages. I feel it helps my first language, English.

One year of German in HS.  I should have taken Spanish but I thought I would be smart and take German since we lived there for 4 years and it would be easier.  I very rarely use it and when I do its usually just messing around with my brother.

Toyman! said:

I told my kids to take Spanish. 

I told my daughter the same but she insisted on taking French in HS.  She learned some of both in middle school.  It's her least favorite class - I'm sure Spanish would be too but at least it would be useful.