Best foreign language for Children's Literature

[wabell]

Currently, I possess a BA in Literature and am finishing up a post-graduate teaching certification. While I will hopefully be teaching come May, my eventual plan is to enter into a low-residency MFA in Writing for Children and Adolescents and/or a MA in Children's Literature. If I were to follow this course, I hope to continue on to a PhD in Children's Literature. Most PhD programs I've looked at require a foreign language proficiency. With my focus on Literature of Children and Young Adults, I'm wondering what language would be most helpful in the course of study.

[yank in the M20]

I think the language requirement is mostly just a box-ticker. Choose a core language unless you have a research reason to choose something more obscure. I'd say ideally French or German as so much theory and philosophy is in one or the other.

[lolopixie]

I would probably agree with German or French, but you may not wind up picking the language for your language requirement. Some schools state that your committee will choose the language best suited based upon your area of study. I would assume you would have some sort of say so, but who knows. That isn't every school though.

[Origin=Goal]

I third the French/German recommendation (especially the former), but seen important fairy tales/fables that fall under the category of "Chiildren's Lit" in Arabic, Japanese, Farsi, Danish (a la Hans Christian Anderson)...