Latin or a Modern Language?

[Matt from Philly]

Hello everyone!

I am a student of French, and I plan on continuing my studies at the graduate level.

Currently, I have a 3.93 GPA and a 4.0 major GPA. I finished my sophomore year this past May.

I have yet to take the GRE. I have been studying for it throughout the summer. I have also been brushing up on my Latin.

The question I wish to ask concerns the foreign language requirements of various graduate programs in French Studies.

In addition to my French major, I take classes in Italian. I also know some Latin, and I would like to take elective courses in both Italian and Latin.

I was wondering, though, should I have to choose between the two, would it be more beneficial for me to be proficient in Latin or Italian?

My reason for asking this is that I may not be able to take both, and I am unsure which of the two would help me out the most in my academic career.

Thank you in advance for any advice you may give!

Edited June 24, 2010 by Matt from Philly

[American in Beijing]

Hello everyone!

I am a student of French, and I plan on continuing my studies at the graduate level.

Currently, I have a 3.93 GPA and a 4.0 major GPA. I finished my sophomore year this past May.

I have yet to take the GRE. I have been studying for it throughout the summer. I have also been brushing up on my Latin.

The question I wish to ask concerns the foreign language requirements of various graduate programs in French Studies.

In addition to my French major, I take classes in Italian. I also know some Latin, and I would like to take elective courses in both Italian and Latin.

I was wondering, though, should I have to choose between the two, would it be more beneficial for me to be proficient in Latin or Italian?

My reason for asking this is that I may not be able to take both, and I am unsure which of the two would help me out the most in my academic career.

Thank you in advance for any advice you may give!

I'm not a French major, but we do have our fair share of language requirements in History (in my field I have 4). Normally the whole point of having the extra language requirement is so that scholars will be able to read either secondary or primary literature in another language. In other words, it's supposed to help you do your research. So if you're really into Medieval stuff, then Latin would probably be the best way to go. Otherwise, I would stick to Italian.

[Matt from Philly]

Thank you for the advice, American in Beijing.

It makes sense that schools would prefer a modern language over Latin if the applicant were not interested in medieval French literature.

Curiously, though, there are some programs that prefer the applicant for French Studies be proficient in Latin (sometimes as much as 4 college semesters), regardless of his or her academic interests.

Perhaps they wish the student to better understand the origins of the French language. I don't know...

I am interested in 18th century literature--I have no idea if Italian would really be useful or not.

Thank you, again, for the advice. I hope it didn't seem like a stupid question.

I work Monday through Friday, and when I come home I read and study. I was trying to decide whether I should focus my energies on Latin or Italian. I could just casually do both and see what happens.

Have a nice evening.

[American in Beijing]

Thank you for the advice, American in Beijing.

It makes sense that schools would prefer a modern language over Latin if the applicant were not interested in medieval French literature.

Curiously, though, there are some programs that prefer the applicant for French Studies be proficient in Latin (sometimes as much as 4 college semesters), regardless of his or her academic interests.

Perhaps they wish the student to better understand the origins of the French language. I don't know...

I am interested in 18th century literature--I have no idea if Italian would really be useful or not.

Thank you, again, for the advice. I hope it didn't seem like a stupid question.

I work Monday through Friday, and when I come home I read and study. I was trying to decide whether I should focus my energies on Latin or Italian. I could just casually do both and see what happens.

Have a nice evening.

Interesting that they would require Latin. In my mind, Italian would be more useful for your specialty, because you could access a broader range of secondary literature, or perhaps even do some primary work in comparative analysis. Maybe they think that if you learn Latin, all the other European languages will be a breeze, lol.

It's definitely not a stupid question. Language requirements are very important, and the more informed you are, the better you can prepare. I was struggling with language issues myself during the application process (which languages to do, what order to do them in, etc.). In the end, I'm going into my History PhD with 3 of 4 language requirements met. However, I did have to do extra language work after undergrad in order to accomplish this. I highly doubt I could have seriously finished all three in 4 years, even if I had known from day one that I wanted to do a PhD in History. But I know from this experience that studying two languages at the same time can be very confusing and in the end might not be as beneficial as you'd like. You might have to drop one of the languages next semester if it doesn't fit your schedule, and in the course of 4 months - 1 year, you could easily forget all you ever learned and have to just retake it all over again (happened to me).

My (albeit uninformed) advice would be that If a lot of French Studies programs that you're looking into require both Latin and another European language, pick whichever one you feel is harder to do first. In grad school you might not have as much time as you'd like to focus on an external language.

Good luck! It's great to see that you're getting such an early start!

[katerinaver84]

As far as I know all the top schools require Latin, at least 1, 2 semesters. I am currently in France studying abroad and in the French departments here it is the same - latin is required, even for License students.

[Alyanumbers]

Latin will mark you as a serious student, as it's much harder than Italian. I find Italian pretty easy (I can understand it, having never studied it, but knowing French, Spanish and Latin).

Thank you for the advice, American in Beijing.

It makes sense that schools would prefer a modern language over Latin if the applicant were not interested in medieval French literature.

Curiously, though, there are some programs that prefer the applicant for French Studies be proficient in Latin (sometimes as much as 4 college semesters), regardless of his or her academic interests.

Perhaps they wish the student to better understand the origins of the French language. I don't know...

I am interested in 18th century literature--I have no idea if Italian would really be useful or not.

Thank you, again, for the advice. I hope it didn't seem like a stupid question.

I work Monday through Friday, and when I come home I read and study. I was trying to decide whether I should focus my energies on Latin or Italian. I could just casually do both and see what happens.

Have a nice evening.

[sevillano1121]

Latin will mark you as a serious student, as it's much harder than Italian. I find Italian pretty easy (I can understand it, having never studied it, but knowing French, Spanish and Latin).

I did my MA in Spanish and French (Langs & Lits) and if you are doing 18th in French I would think Italian would be very useful. I'm thinking in particular of all of the influences of la Commedia dell'Arte (sp?) in much of 18th century French literature (theater - Marivaux, philosophy - Rousseau, Diderot, etc.). Latin would still be useful though - I would try to do both since many PhD programs seem to require 2 or even 3 additional languages.