Foreign Language Requirements

[elementarie]

I've been looking into grad school lateley, and what I'm going to need to do to get it, and something that's come up quite frequently is the foreign language proficiency requirement. Since I'm only a first-semester Junior in my undergrad work right now, this isn't the most pressing issue, but I was just wondering how important it is to study a language related to your interests in English.

My research interests lie more in the pop culture/literature relations area, and I don't really see how any foreign language could benifit me more than another in this field. For the Fall 2012 semester, I'll be taking my third semester of Japanese, which I'm hoping to minor in if I have enough space for the required classes, but if there's another language that I should take that would better suit my interests in English Lit., then I'd love to know what that language is.

So, the real question here is this: in my field of research (how literature effects pop culture and vice versa), does the foreign language (or languages) that I study matter, or just the fact that I've studied a certain number of languages?

Thanks for your time!

[rems]

The two languages they always suggest for literature are German and French unless you're going old school in which some schools suggest Greek, Latin, and/or Old English. From what I was told, when they say that a language is selected because it helps your "studies" as a student it's more redtape bullshit than it is actually studying a language that will help you in your field. Like I study Irish literature so I'd need to know English..? So I studied French and no one said anything about it. Also, if you minor in a language -- no matter what that language is -- some schools will automatically give you language credit for it no matter what language it is.

[alistair0505]

French would be quite useful if you employ continental philosophy as a tool to analyze written texts and cinemas, therefore it would be at your benefit to know how to read in french. Personally both chinese and english are my native languages (or near native for my english) and french is my third and I can't see I possess any merits in entering grad schools...I think you should at least have a good verbal score in your GRE

Edited August 9, 2012 by alistair0505

[jakebarnes]

Your "field of research" is far too vague for anyone to give you any concrete advice.

[Stately Plump]

I wouldn't worry much about the language requirements. Most schools only require you translate a page or so, and you can often use a dictionary.