Last year Matthew’s grade had a full year of Mandarin. This year he has taken French, Spanish and now Mandarin for the rest of the year. He chose Spanish for grades 7-12. His second choice is Mandarin.

Mandarin is honestly a good choice in part due to its logical structure. My little one is being raised in a trilingual environment (Mandarin is one of the languages) but only communicates in English (he's mostly nonverbal).

My son wasn’t offered foreign language in high school because he was in special ed. I’m thinking he could learn on his own with my help. He still remembers the very little Tagalog I taught him when he was 5 or 6 years old.

I took German in middle and high school :) Ich spreche ein wenig Deutsch ;)

That's great that your son wants to study a foreign language. Both of my kids because they were in special ed weren't offered foreign language. I was offered foreign language while in school but my teachers told my parents I shouldn't take it because they were afraid I'd fail. So my daughter and I both took a foreign language when we went to college.