TRENDY TONGUE: In a county where a...

TRENDY TONGUE: In a county where a quarter of the population is Latino, it’s no surprise that more high school students study Spanish than any other language. But Japanese is making inroads in Moorpark and Conejo Valley schools. “Most of my students want to go into international business,” said Darlene Watson, who teaches Japanese at Moorpark High. . . . Among her 72 students, boys outnumber girls 4-to-1.

LONELY LINGUIST: Speaking of languages, nobody speaks the one that Father John Glynn teaches: Latin. Nor is Latin taught at public schools in Ventura County any more. . . . But at Villanova Prep in Ojai--the county’s only Roman Catholic school still teaching Latin--Glynn has 35 students studying declensions, conjugations and ablative absolutes. “I can’t make it easy,” Glynn said. “It requires hard study.” The payoff: “Other languages come easier.”

HEAT WAVE: Angela Garcia doesn’t need a weatherman to tell her which way the mercury is heading. She can tell by the calls she gets at Temp-CO Air Systems in Santa Paula. “It’s the busiest day of the year so far,” Garcia said Thursday as temperatures hit the 90s (B1). . . . Nobody checks their air conditioners until it gets hot, she said. Her crews are backed up for days--”a nice problem,” Garcia said.

REBUTTAL: Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who released the Pentagon Papers 22 years ago this month, addresses the Ventura County World Affairs Council on Saturday on his latest cause: arms control. . . . Ellsberg, 62, will provide a counterpoint to Edward Teller, the nuclear physicist and Star Wars advocate who addressed the group last summer.

TOUGH CHOICE: Ventura High School athlete Derek Swafford faced a dilemma: accept a football scholarship at Northwestern or sign a $150,000 contract offered by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He took the money. (C12)

Numero Uno!

Spanish is the most popular language course among Ventura County high school students.

Spanish: 10,701

French: 2,263

German: 348

Japanese: 120

Russian: 56

Source: School districts