mvlindsey

^^ re: the last two posts especially, I love an excuse to talk about the importance of languages, but the OP's made it clear they're not interested in pursuing a Ph.D (which leads me to believe academia is a firm "no") so I don't really think it's a "requirement" per se.

That being said, OP languages are exceptionally difficult and while they may not be required for your line of work, any work or comfort you can show in them will do miles for your career. Especially in the digital age; while people are converging on the use of English, there are rich conversations that are being held in all sorts of spaces through pretty accessible languages: Spanish, French, Italian and so on. I'd really really think about trying it over a longer period of time. 

I thought I would do American history for a quite some time because I basically sucked at foreign languages.  I could never make As, let alone any grade above a B-.  Confidence had a lot to do with my desire to avoid foreign languages even though I really did like learning about other cultures.
Then I had a supervisor who told me flat out that I would not get a job in my dream field of work without German.  Having already struggled through three languages by that point, I had to think pretty hard about how badly I wanted to do that kind of work.  Eventually, I buckled down and learned German (and even lived in Germany for a bit).  I do mostly international history now and German is required for my research.  I also did at summer at Middlebury for another language and it boosted my confidence big time.
I still work with American history; now i can't imagine my work without my foreign language skills.
Language teachers have told me that the biggest kick for any language learner is having the confidence to work at it.  It's an underrated humbling experience.

I'm not sure I love this new layout...

Here's a question: why are you so disinterested in taking language courses? Anybody who's vaguely familiar with history programs knows that foreign language training is usually par for the course among History PhDs, so I'm curious to know why you're trying to get around this requirement.