The Language Requirement

[Hartley]

So, I'm preparing to enter a PhD program this fall, from my BA.  There is a language requirement, stating that by my second year I must have demonstrated fluency in two languages.  I have Latin down, and I think my undergraduate coursework there should suffice to demonstrate fluency in one language.  But, I'm wondering about the second.  How do/did you all go about fulfilling this? Was it hard, or taxing? I think, of all the coming requirements, successfully fulfilling this requirement is what I am most anxious about.  Will there be exams? What does the exam look like, generally? What are different ways of demonstrating proficiency? 

I enjoyed Latin but struggled at times, and I'm not getting any younger.   This language thing gets more difficult with age, it seems. 

[shoestofollow]

I am wondering about this too! I have Arabic and basic French, so I think I could be exempt from the requirement, but I wonder if that's in my best interest? Like maybe I should take some French courses to become able to read comfortably again. But would that be too much coursework? Who knows ( I am hoping some of you folks)

Sorry to reply to your thread with not-an-answer!!

[Silabus]

This might be cheating...but, I'll tell you what I did!

For my MA we have to meet a language requirement and there's two ways to do it:

1.) Pass a Foreign Language Test through the Master's Program in the language of your choosing, translating 3 pages of a critical article in that foreign language.

2.) Make a B in the second semester course of a second year language class.

I chose option 2 and I took it my second semester in grad school. I thought to myself: I could take a foreign language course every semester and take the one I need to take my last semester in my MA...but...I don't really have time. So I just decided to go ahead and go for the course I needed, thinking if I didn't do well enough I could just take it again the next year. However! Living in the southwest most of my life, I'm surprisingly good at Spanish! I made an A in the course!

So you could try something like that. If you just need to make a B or higher in some foreign lit class or something like the language course I took, just keep trying to take the same class over and over until you make the right grade.

I mean that's probably not the "correct" answer to give...but it's an option.

[urbanfarmer]

A lot of universities also offer summer-intensive language courses specifically for graduate students. You just have to get the required grade (whatever it may be for your institution) in order to satisfy these requirements. Many of those summer programs work on teaching specifically to language for graduate study, so much more emphasis on reading and translation than speaking.

You can often also choose to take those courses at schools that DO offer them, if yours doesn't. I know UChicago, for example, has a big summer language program. 

[orphic_mel528]

Important thing to remember about the summer language programs is that sometimes you are not funded for them, so make sure to check on that if you're considering that route.

[cloudofunknowing]

Is it fluency in the sense of being able not only to read in the language but also converse in it? Or is it a matter of being able to read primary/secondary texts in the language? I ask because these requirements - which do differ from program to program - tend to stress proficiency over fluency. With Latin being your primary language, picking up any other Romance language - especially re: being able to read in it - will be vastly easier than one from an entirely different language family. But, in truth, it really depends upon what other language would potentially be the most useful to your current and future research. Along with this: are you going into an English program, a Comparative Literature program? If you see a lot of important scholarship written in another language cited in a lot of the scholarship written in English that's important to your work, for example, then that'd be an obvious choice. Alternatively, if there's a language you've always wanted to learn for the sake of learning it, you could always choose that too. Many who work on early modern England, for example, will pick up Italian or perhaps French in addition to Latin; medievalists who specialize in the later Middle Ages in England often need facility in French and/or German (because of the scholarship written in those languages, for one) in addition to Latin. Etc. But it really boils down to the kind of work you intend to do and what having a facility in a certain language might enable you to imagine because of the encounter with that language.    

[gyeum]

Lol my program requires reading proficiency four languages and essential fluency in three.

~~~fucked~~~

[orphic_mel528]

9 minutes ago, gyeum said:

Lol my program requires reading proficiency four languages and essential fluency in three.

~~~fucked~~~

Comp Lit programs are beasts about language reqs, but I guess it makes sense. I'm sure you'll be fine  

[steve3020]

1 hour ago, gyeum said:

Lol my program requires reading proficiency four languages and essential fluency in three.

~~~fucked~~~

Which programme is this? Usually they (comp.lit) ask for reading proficiency in two other than English, don't they? (Although that's the minimum and I'm sure many, especially international students, come with more preparation than that.) 

[gyeum]

7 minutes ago, steve3020 said:

Which programme is this? Usually they (comp.lit) ask for reading proficiency in two other than English, don't they? (Although that's the minimum and I'm sure many, especially international students, come with more preparation than that.) 

I shouldn't say *my program* because I'm not committed yet, but I'm likely going lol.

It's Yale's comp lit program. We have to learn a classic or medieval language and three modern languages. I think one can be English, though. So I need to learn two more langs. I'm thinking German and Latin, according to what my professors told me, but I'm gonna wait until I get there to make any decisions.

[steve3020]

5 minutes ago, gyeum said:

I shouldn't say *my program* because I'm not committed yet, but I'm likely going lol.

It's Yale's comp lit program. We have to learn a classic or medieval language and three modern languages. I think one can be English, though. So I need to learn two more langs. I'm thinking German and Latin, according to what my professors told me, but I'm gonna wait until I get there to make any decisions.

Ah I remember now. I think I saw that requirement two years ago when I was first applying and got put off by it. Anyway in my research area I don't think a mediaeval language would be necessary although it may help, who knows. BTW were you waitlisted by Cornell too? I saw another post on the board so I'm wondering who... (forgot to congrats you for getting into Yale!)

Edited February 28, 2017 by steve3020

[Yanaka]

4 hours ago, gyeum said:

I shouldn't say *my program* because I'm not committed yet, but I'm likely going lol.

It's Yale's comp lit program. We have to learn a classic or medieval language and three modern languages. I think one can be English, though. So I need to learn two more langs. I'm thinking German and Latin, according to what my professors told me, but I'm gonna wait until I get there to make any decisions.

Ha! When I read your previous messages, I KNEW you were talking about Yale.  

I mean I could take German and Latin again, and I'm planing on picking up Spanish again, too, for other programs-- but that's the kind of requirement that makes me think: this would never be a good fit for me!

Edited February 28, 2017 by Yanaka

[Glasperlenspieler]

6 hours ago, gyeum said:

It's Yale's comp lit program. We have to learn a classic or medieval language and three modern languages. I think one can be English, though. So I need to learn two more langs. I'm thinking German and Latin, according to what my professors told me, but I'm gonna wait until I get there to make any decisions.

Wait, does that mean you got accepted with only one language in addition to English? Or am I misreading this?

[ThousandsHardships]

If English is one of the languages, it makes things much easier! I'd probably have to learn a new language for my PhD too. My programs require fluency in English and French (which all admitted students have) and reading knowledge of a third language. I sort of took the easy way out during my M.A. by testing out with Chinese (my mother tongue), but for my PhD, I would likely not be able to do so. Chinese is totally irrelevant to my degree and research and is not on the pre-approved list of languages for my potential program anyway. I intend to specialize in 17th century French literature and therefore think that Italian might be the most useful new language to learn, though I've been teaching myself German for a while and think it would be a pity if I didn't develop my German skills to at least a practical level of competency. Latin and ancient Greek are other possibilities. Ah! Decisions! I love learning languages though, so I'm not complaining.

Edited February 28, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[gyeum]

On 2/28/2017 at 6:18 AM, Glasperlenspieler said:

Wait, does that mean you got accepted with only one language in addition to English? Or am I misreading this?

Yes, that's right. But my research (African and African-American comparative literatures) are only really written in English and French, so maybe I'm a special case.