fried_eggs

Thanks for the input! That's just my wish list of languages, I don't necessarily need to work in all of them. You can take off French (the only reason I have intermediate skills is because of its resemblance to Spanish). I'm interested in East Asia, so I guess as you say Chinese + Japanese for now. I kind of wish I didn't do Latin American studies for undergrad, but I spent so much time learning Spanish it would seem like a waste if I didn't continue. So if I followed your advice and for now just stick to Chinese + Japanese, what would be a good trajectory to take? I'm probably around 50% fluent in Chinese, and am going to continue with Spanish on my own since I've done it for so long and am more or less fluent to a degree. I'll keep the fulbright in mind!

Hello all, long time lurker here, first time poster. A little about myself: got a B.A. in Latin American Studies at a top 20 university, and currently a masters student at my state university in poli sci. very interested in things like I.R., politics, refugee problems, immigration. What I would really like to do is become an interpreter/translator for high-level politics. Like when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Brazil, to communicate he had to have an interpreter right? Or when Shinzo Abe and Park Geun-Hye meet, they need to speak through interpreters. I would like to do that as well as translate official documents (memos, articles, press releases etc.) Currently, the only language I am 100% fluent in is English, although after learning Spanish for so long I would say I am fluent in Spanish but not to a college-educated level native speaker. Maybe more like a high school student. I am conversant in mandarin Chinese (half Chinese, so I guess heritage speaker but nowhere near totally fluent), and intermediate level French as well as beginning Korean. I would also like to pick up Japanese if possible. Other than reading and using these languages everyday (I do that already, for the ones that I can at least), what do you think I should do to prepare? Are there grad programs specifically tailored to this? Should I even bother with a grad program? If not, are there other non-degree programs I could do? I am only 21 years old, soon to be 22, so I have the time. But I am not sure about money . Please help! Thank you in advance.