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Foreign Languages Department

Chelsea High School has an exciting and modern foreign language program that offers a broad range of languages (French, German, Latin, Spanish and Spanish for Spanish Speakers) as well as state of the art facilities. Chelsea High School is one of the few schools in Massachusetts to have its own computer language laboratory, where students can hone their skills using modern computer software and digital audio and video encoding devices.

With millions of native speakers in the US and around the world, Spanish is undeniably one of the world's most important languages today. Learning Spanish not only increases one's professional opportunities, but also allows students to partake in the exciting cultures of the different Spanishspeaking peoples.

A highlight of our offerings here at CHS is our special program for so-called "heritage speakers". The Spanish for Spanish Speakers program is aimed at students with a Spanish background but who often have wide-ranging skill levels. This ranges from fluent speakers, readers and writers of Spanish all the way to students, who understand Spanish when it is spoken to them, but who rarely, if ever, speak Spanish themselves (so-called "passive listeners"). Our Spanish speakers program is designed to help all of these students develop a high level of language proficiency in their native tongue and to prepare them for careers demanding bilingual abilities.

French is not only a beautiful language, but it also opens the door to the rich cultural heritage of the French-speaking world. The French are famous for their wonderful cuisine, art, literature, architecture and fashion design.

German is the most widely spoken native language in Europe and of all the languages taught at Chelsea High School, it is the one closest to English, which makes learning vocabulary easy. German is the language of philosophy and science and it is very important for international business and commerce. Colleges look very favorably on students who choose a less traditional language such as German.

Latin is the root of all romance languages (which include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and others). Learning Latin will not only teach students about ancient history and literature, it helps build vocabulary in English. Students of Latin consistently score higher on college-board exams such as the SAT.

Learned all the SAT words already, you snicker? No problem, overus achieverus.
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