How to Make German Language Skills Benefit Your Child in High School and College
Families of students starting high school in California and the USA overall often ask me if their child’s German language skills will be helpful and could get them any credit during high school.
While not many high schools in California offer German as a foreign language course option anymore, there are still various ways to make this language skill impact your child’s high school and, more importantly, college career.
Firstly, if you are a native German-speaking parent, I urge you to speak German to your children while raising them. This will have countless benefits throughout their life. This, of course, applies to any language that you as a parent can share with your child! Being able to speak another language is like opening a window to that particular culture, something so important in our globally connected world. But growing up bilingual has many other benefits too, as explained in this article.
Putting your child’s German Language skills to good use during high school and beyond.
Here are FIVE ways how speaking German can benefit your child’s high school education and impact their college applications in the USA and internationally.
1 – AP German class plus exam offered at high school
If your child speaks, reads, and understands German already pretty well and your high school offers an AP German course as an option for a foreign language course, go for it. Make sure your child is doing the AP exam at the end of the AP German course. This will enable them to get credit at a university in the USA when applying to college.
2 – Taking the AP exam at another high school
In case your high school is not offering the above mentioned AP German course and therefor doesn’t offer the AP exam either, no reason to despair. You can actually do the AP exam at another school that is offering the particular test. Only caveat, it’s on you to research high schools that offer this AP course and exam. Contact them, and ask them if it is possible for your child to sit the exam at their school.
3 – Dual Enrollment during high school
If your high school doesn’t offer many AP classes and for sure none in German, then there is still another way for your child to use their German skills and get credit for them. This option is called Dual Enrollment. It allows students to take a college course while still in high school and get college credit.
So, find out if your local community college has a German course and contact your high school to make arrangements for your child to be able to attend via Dual Enrollement. Attending and passing a college community course in German will allow your child not only to get college credit at a university in the U.S. later on but will look pretty good on a college application too,be it in the US or internationally!
4 – German courses at a German language school like GASA (German American School Assocation)
Depending on where you live it could happen that neither your high school nor a close community college offer any courses in German. It could also be the case that your child is not ready to attend a more challenging AP course or Community College course in German, yet.
In this case, there are many German language schools in California that offer German courses for any level like the German American School Association (GASA) with headquarters in Los Angeles.
- They prepare your child for the AP German exam as well as the DSD, Deutsche Sprach Diplom, which comes in handy if a child decides they want to study at a German university instead of a US College.
- Students often take the German National Exam (offered by AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) while preparing for these above-mentioned tests. It’s a great way to test your knowledge before taking the more challenging DSD Sprach Diplom exams or a higher level Goethe Zertifikat Exam, which we will address next.
5 – Goethe Zertifikat Courses and Exams
Another option for your child to get proper accreditation for their German language skills is contacting the Goethe Institut. There are two in California: Los Angeles and San Francisco.
You can chose from regular language courses, even online, to specific preparation courses for any of the Goethe Zertifikate. They range from levels A1 and A2, all the way to the highest certificate, C2. Passing at a B2 level is often a pre-requisite if applying for a Studienkolleg in Germany. If you want to study at a German university in German (Yes, it’s possible to study also in English), you will most likely need German language skills at a C1 or C2 level.
In summary, I’d like to highlight that if your goal is to receive college credit at a U.S. college, AP exams with passed scores of 3-5 and a passed courses via Dual Enrollment will be best. Besides, having passed the AP exam in a foreign language is one of the requirements for studenst to receive the The High School State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB).
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Article Contribution – Global College Advisers, LLC
Global College Advisers, LLC is an educational consulting firm that helps students to get into college in the USA and abroad. Global College Advisers (GCA) offers full college application support, including college research, college list building, application strategy, essay/personal statement support, and more. Find out more about how GCA can help you with the College Application process in the United States or abroad at http://www.globalcollegeadvisers.com
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