Language for Americanists

[Josh J.]

Hello all,

I am planning on spending the next year doing some language acquisition. I took French in high school (which was 20 years ago), and don't remember any of it (and didn't learn much anyway since I was a slacker in high school).

I don't need the language for research as far as I can see, and am applying to programs that only need one language. I will be applying to some programs that focus on the American West, so Spanish seems to make the most sense, but again, I don't plan on working on projects needing the language. I'll also apply to some programs not related to the West. My dissertation field will probably be American Religion.

So, what languages would you all recommend? Why? And most important of all, what self study resources would you recommend for reading comprehension?

[ToomuchLes]

Thank you for starting this thread! I've actually been thinking about my language requirement for grad school. Considering the fact that my focus is on 19th century slavery, I dont really know which language to study. Maybe Portuguese, but I still have some meditating/studying to do before I make a formal decision. 

 

For you, I would definitely pick Spanish. The Spanish language is deeply ingrained into the American West, so the likelihood of reading a Spanish text is higher that any other language. I used Rosetta Stone for a number of years to polish my Spanish, and I'd highly recommend their service. They are rather pricey, and I'm very confident that you can have a cheaper substitute. When I used it their service was $99, but now its $299 which is a big difference X.X

 

Also, I think Spanish would be beneficial for you outside of academia. 

[Chiqui74]

I'm a native Spanish speaker and I'm using that for my requirement, but I've been thinking about taking the summer after my first year to take an intensive French course.

[ToomuchLes]

If my native language is Hungarian, would that fulfill a language requirement even though its not relevant to my area?

[Chiqui74]

I would think so. Ask your advisor or dgs.

[Chiqui74]

And in most schools even if you are a native speaker of a language you still have to take the exam.

[ashiepoo72]

LeventeL--if you're an Americanist who won't be using languages in your research, your language is sort of a hoop you need to jump through, so Hungarian is totally an option. Useful languages are always better than not useful, though. How early are you looking? And are you trying to do a transnational approach? Portuguese would be useful in that regard. You could also look at American indigenous languages, since there was a good amount of interaction between slaves and Native Americans in certain parts of the US. I have no idea how difficult those would be to learn, though. Spanish could also be useful.

Josh--Spanish is probably most logical for you. It's probably better if you can mention in the SOP that the language is a potential tool for your research. Are there other non-English speaking populations you think may come up in your research?

[wacyeah]

 

well i guess this is way too straightforward but the best way to tackle lang. req. is to learn the one that's directly related to your focus and helps your research (I think even for the Americanists, having another lang. skills will do you no harm and it will open up the potential for transnational perspective). For me, the funny thing is even though my native tongue is Japanese and English is my 2nd lang, I can't use English as my foreign lang and use my native lang as my primary foreign lang (coz my focus is on Pacific War memory). I took French a bit in my high school period and the first semester of my freshman undergrad year but I don't think that's relevant to my work so Im thinkin about learning German so, it's gonna be my 4th lang lol

[Sigaba]

There are previous threads on this topic that may be useful to interested parties.

Keep in mind that different programs and professors are going to have different views on language requirements. Make sure that the information you use to inform your language choices is accurate.

More generally, in the coming months be very careful about the advice you offer and the guidance you accept.

[kotov]

Spanish and French are both really easy and there are all kinds of resources, plus you don't have to travel too far to practice your speaking, especially with Spanish. Or, you could be cool and learn a certain other Romance language...

[kotov]

If my native language is Hungarian, would that fulfill a language requirement even though its not relevant to my area?

 

Hungarian ಠ_ಠ

 

I tried, I really did.

 

It's not happening. I feel bad but barring a miracle I'm going to be depending on Romanian/German/French sources for the rest of my life.

[dr. t]

Both French and German would be useful for reading books in the theory and history of religion, as many such works do not exist in translation. 

 

More languages are more better, though!

[kotov]

Yeah, I guess that is one thing you have to consider, especially if you're doing some sort of intellectual or earlier political history. If you know there's some author or a certain book or two that's important in your field that hasn't been translated, then your decision is probably made for you. I think French and German are both good options, but German is definitely one you don't take on lightly. It's not a super-difficult language, like another mentioned in this thread, but it's also not nearly as easy or intuitive as French or Spanish, and it does take a while to learn it and master the grammar. Plus, if you're going mostly for reading knowledge for a competency exam, you can get thrown for a loop even if you get to speaking it nearly fluently, since there's always a new compound word you've never seen before (trust me on this). If you're not going to have the time/money to invest in language classes or a professional tutor, then I'd definitely suggest one of the Western Romance languages, most likely French in your case.

 

If you happen to get super interested in Orthodox religion, there are always the summer Slavic language programs at Indiana and Pitt (which are both excellent). I think IU also teaches Arabic and Turkish if you end up going that route.

[ToomuchLes]

Hungarian ಠ_ಠ

 

I tried, I really did.

 

It's not happening. I feel bad but barring a miracle I'm going to be depending on Romanian/German/French sources for the rest of my life.

 

Yeah, the Hungarian language is like the black sheep in Europe. Unless you have some relations to the country or people, the struggle to learn the language is not worth the benefit (Im condemning my language xD). Romanian on the other hand, isnt too difficult to learn, but I have a lot of difficulties reading/writing it. 

 

Does fluency in multiple (relevant) languages help out in finding an academic position? 

[kotov]

As far as general tips for reading comprehension go, I would say one of the easiest things to do is just to start reading newspapers, magazines, etc. in your target language. You can get this stuff on line for free and they're generally written at like a high school reading level or so, so you'll get practice with the grammatical constructions and basic vocabulary without having to reach for the dictionary or grammar book every few lines.

 

That said, get yourself a good dictionary and (preferably) a good grammar of the language. I studied linguistics as an undergrad so I think reading grammar books is fun in and of itself, but even if you don't, it's helpful, especially if you want to do something like German where there are substantial differences from English grammar. Probably not so necessary for French or Spanish.

[kotov]

Yeah, the Hungarian language is like the black sheep in Europe. Unless you have some relations to the country or people, the struggle to learn the language is not worth the benefit (Im condemning my language xD). Romanian on the other hand, isnt too difficult to learn, but I have a lot of difficulties reading/writing it. 

 

Does fluency in multiple (relevant) languages help out in finding an academic position? 

 

As far as getting a job? I have no idea. I'm sure if you're applying for a job in someplace like Florida/Texas/California it'd be good to say "oh and I happen to speak Spanish at a C2 level," but other than that, it's mostly just "do you have the tools to do the research you say you're planning to do?"

 

I haven't found Romanian all that difficult, but I've been studying it for several years now. I'm still not great at speaking it, just because I don't get a lot of chance to practice (as you might imagine), but I can read through texts in it pretty quickly, since basically all of my dissertation sources are in Romanian, with maybe like one or two percent in German and a tiny bit in French. Romanian is probably another one of those that there's no reason to learn if you aren't going to travel to or study the country though, since there's not a lot of practical use for it otherwise. It probably wouldn't be hard for most people with a background in French though, since there are lots of cognates. The grammar is a lot more difficult though. Knowing how to decline nouns from Romanian really helped me with German, as did being used to three genders.

 

I'm still jealous that you started with Hungarian as your native language, since I feel like that's almost the only way anyone would ever become fluent in it. I know a few words from having travelled in Transylvania and then staying in Budapest for a weekend, but other than that, I'm lost.