I'd like DD1 (aged 5) to learn a foreign language and believe the earlier the better.

Today I saw a flier for lessons in our local area - French, Italian, Spanish or Mandarin.

I'm torn.

I know French quite well and have a smattering of Italian and Spanish (but feel confident I could pick it up pretty quickly). So the advantage is that we could have conversations at home in those languages and/or I could give her a hand if she had questions. But really, they'd be of limited use to her apart from travelling.

I don't know any Mandarin. I'm not sure I could 'pick it up' unless I had lessons myself (whereas with the European languages, I could teach myself because I have the foundations). I think Mandarin could possibly be useful to her in the future given China's increasing role in the world economy.

But, I also feel silly for choosing a language based on increasing her employment prospects. She's FIVE for goodness sake.

The other thing is that our area is not at all multicultural. It would be awesome if she learnt some Mandarin and then struck up some conversations with Mandarin-speakers when we visit the city (she's very, very outgoing).

So I guess what I'm saying is that I think she 'should' learn Mandarin but learning a European language would be much easier from my point of view and something we could share.

I've no idea what languages the local schools offer.

Your thoughts?