What language to take?

[firefly85]

I'm starting grad school in International Communications at American University in the fall. I'm most interested in international education and international journalism. I want to take a language class, but I'm not sure what to take. I took Italian in college and studied abroad there. I love it, but I know its not the most useful language. Does anyone have any suggestions on what European language I should take? I'm looking mostly at French or Spanish (took Spanish in high school but have forgotten a lot, probably would come back if I studied), but I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

[LingGrad2009]

Well, French and Italian have a really high degree of lexical and grammatical similarity, so if you take French you'll have an advantage in vocab and structure, and will just need work on the wildly different sound patterns. I had the opposite experience when I traveled in Italy; because I speak French, I could read Italian with little difficulty, but understanding it (I was only there for a week) was out of the question. Spanish and Italian are much closer in terms of pronunciation, but the grammar and lexicon have more signicantly diverged.

[kaybee]

I would have to agree with LingGrad. I speak French fluently, and I can get by reading Spanish and Italian because of the similarities. It is difficult to understand it orally, but I can handle reading it. Since you already know Italian, you could go with either French or Spanish. I'm no expert here, but based on personal experience I say you have an advantage. I would stick with French or Spanish.

[TKassis]

Really depends on what you want to do in the future. Spanish and French are both very useful. Have you thought about other languages like Arabic for example?

[firefly85]

I have thought about other languages, but I figured that since I already know Italian (and have taken Spanish and French before, albeit a loooong time ago), those would be the easiest to pick up, as well as two of the most useful. I think I'm leaning toward Spanish since it seems its more widely spoken than French and a bit easier. But I'm still open to suggestions.

[frankdux]

followup question:

is it common for PhD programs to allow someone to option or petition out of the foreign language requirement? although i'm not fluent in any particular language, I have taken one difficult language at the college level and have lived abroad in the country speaking this language. I'd much rather learn an additional computer programming language instead of putting even more time and energy either in mastering this particular foreign language or starting a simpler one from the beginning.

[firefly85]

I'm not sure if a PhD program would let you opt out of a language requirement, but I don't know your field or department. They may have ways to test out of it or show that you have the necessary experience and waive it. For my program we don't have space in our schedules to take language as part of our course load so you either have to take it on your own and document it, have done a major (or minor I think) in a foreign language, or take a placement test. Check with your advisor to see if you have any of those options. I really wish I could just show my transcripts instead of a test because I've taken a ton of Italian classes, I just didn't major/minor in it.

[belowthree]

How frequent is it for grad programs to have a foreign language requirement?

Requirements like that always seemed like undergrad bullshit to me...

[TKassis]

belowthree; foreign language requirements are usually only for PhD students in fields like history, theology, international affairs... science and engineering PhD's never have a language requirement.

[belowthree]

belowthree; foreign language requirements are usually only for PhD students in fields like history, theology, international affairs... science and engineering PhD's never have a language requirement.

Yeah I would think so... but still, wouldn't you just take a foreign lang if your research required one anyways? Is it really necessary to have a rigid requirement? Couldn't the department just have an expectation that "students should be doing research that requires them to learn another language and their advisors should make it impossible for them to not have that knowledge?" Then if students prefer to learn it in the field instead of in a classroom it would serve just as well...

I guess I see the point I'm just surprised to hear of a blanket requirement like that. Though I guess it's the same with our core courses in sci/eng.

[frankdux]

belowthree; foreign language requirements are usually only for PhD students in fields like history, theology, international affairs... science and engineering PhD's never have a language requirement.

see, that's just it. i'm going into math and my program DOES have a foreign language requirement. and as far as math programs go, it seemed that about half the schools i applied to had one. it definitely makes more sense for programs in history, international affairs, etc, but for math and science it seems like a bit of a stretch.

[TKassis]

I agree, that doesn't really make sense. I mean, knowing another language is good, but I don't think it should be a requirement for a PhD in Math!!!