French Supremacy: Learning French at the high school level, specifically at SME, is more beneficial than Spanish

It’s common knowledge that Spanish is the clear winner at East when it comes to the most commonly taken language class, but as someone in their fifth year of learning French,  I can confidently say one thing — French is superior.

Yes, French is definitely harder because of the notoriously complex grammar and pronunciation but the work pays off. When traveling to Europe on the school trip last summer, most of my French peers were able to keep up conversations with French kids we found in the airports and in restaurants, yet when we landed in Madrid, the Spanish students could hardly order a meal — resorting to English in most cases.

This level of proficiency may be attributed to having a French native as a teacher. French teacher Laure Losey has taught all levels of French during her teaching career and talks about everything from appropriate French slang to her adventures sneaking cooking mushrooms onto planes. Losey gives the French classes a mix of language as well as culture — creating an immersive classroom experience.

I rarely have conversations with Spanish students that don’t end in them saying they wish they were as fluent as the French students. While French students are busy analyzing a passage about the economic state in the Republic of Congo, Spanish students work on VHL assignments that cover vocabulary they learned years ago. Spanish students are always complaining about the lack of real world knowledge they’re gaining. After all, learning the term for “economy” in Spanish isn’t very useful if you can’t talk about the actual economy.

As a French 5 class, we’ve gone on a field trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum to look at art and even made an Instagram account, @smehonorsfrench, showcasing all of our hilarious endeavors. We’ve had multiple parties, one being a bûche de noël, or a Christmasl roll cake competition (which I’m proud to say that I won.) But Spanish classes seem to cut their activities off at el Dia de los Muertos and Cinco de Mayo celebrations

French is simply more fun. We’ve learned more and have first-hand experience speaking and interacting with French culture. I’ve never met a Spanish student who can say that.