Foreign Language Requirement

[iolol]

Hello, I'm an undergraduate and I am absolutely atrocious, for whatever reason, in foreign languages. From my understanding, it seems like there's somewhat of an emphasis on this in most graduate level philosophy. How important is it to have a mastery of a relevant language?

[Shelley Burian]

I am an art history student, but I sympathize with you (I have to know two and only really have a passion for one of them) and have done some work in philosophy, so I'll share my opinion. This seems to be one of the most fluid and ill-defined areas of grad school requirements. I would say that the importance of language is fairly high, at least regarding reading comprehension, because they want you to have these languages so you read scholarly publications in other languages and primary sources. I do research in French almost every day. For art history, the standard is that you need to know at least two, and perhaps more depending on what you study. They expect you to have what they term a "reading knowledge" and very very few will actually require that you pass a test for anything other than reading comprehension. I suspect that the most important for you will be French and German (these are the most common pair in art history and its mainly because of the philosophy). However, the format of the language test is different at every single school, and at mine I have been told that the level they expect you to have even varies from professor to professor! However, some schools will allow a student who has taken a certain number of classes in a particular language with a B grade to skip the test. I would try to ask some of your philosophy professors, and particularly grad students in your department what they would recommend. If its only the spoken part you really have trouble with, don't worry, you will be in good company among many academics, because very few in my experience can speak ALL of their languages as well as they read them.

I would tentatively recommend, if it is the speaking and listening you have trouble with, to eschew regular classes all together and do self-study combined with a private tutor who can help guide you. Many grad students elect to teach themselves at least one of their languages, because that way they can focus on the written part exclusively if they need to. You will be expected to read fairly advanced texts and have a thorough knowledge of grammar, so sometimes it isn't in your best interests to enroll in general classes as most focus on speaking in daily living situations and only introduce you to those texts after three years of study, during which you will spend a lot of time on things you don't really need to master. You can also always pick up the conversational later, if you decide you want it.

I will go out on a limb (which other philo folks PLEASE contradict if its incorrect) and say that while languages are important and you HAVE to have at least one squarely under your belt, most schools and professors, if they are genuinely interested in you, are not going to worry about you having all of them done when you start. In art history, my experience is that they are looked upon as a teachable skill, which isn't nearly as important as your statement of purpose and the innovation and quality you show in your written work.

[euthuphron]

From the research I've done, which is anything but comprehensive at this point, it depends on what area of philosophy you plan on studying. Although I'd advise having both under one's belt, proficiency in languages besides English is generally more useful in the continental/historical vein and competency in logic for the more analytical side of things. But then again this is a gross generalization and that whole analytic/continental distinction is getting blurrier and blurrier, if not already nonexistent. For languages, French and German, as the above poster mentioned, would be very useful. If you had to choose just one, I would choose the one most related to your research, obviously, but some knowledge of the other wouldn't hurt. I would also add Latin and Greek to the list, especially if your research interests happen to involve Greek and Roman philosophy. But then again, I would recommend learning those two languages regardless of what area you study since they are part of so much of English vocabulary.