I thought it would be a good idea since some of us have already registered for classes and may be tweaking our course over the next few months!
I have a question about foreign language. I have taken 6 years of Spanish starting in the 7th grade, and I realize that it only makes sense to continue my study of Spanish in college. Part of me, however, wants to completely start over with a new language (French possibly?) I do not know if this is entirely ridiculous or a smart idea… Opinions??
IMO, not ridiculous to start a second language at all, but very smart. My D started French even younger than you did Spanish and started Chinese at Tulane. Of course one of her majors was China Studies, so that was a given, but still. She also kept up her French by taking a course every other semester and ended up with a minor in French, besides her two majors. Getting the minor wasn’t important to her at all, but keeping up her skills was. So you could certainly take that path, depending on your major(s) and schedule demands. Of course the nice thing about Spanish is that it is the easiest language to find opportunities to practice outside of the academic setting.
If you are like her and just enjoy learning languages (she also took a couple semesters of Arabic), by all means expand your horizons. I should add that which language to choose could be coupled to your main major and your career goals. Not saying it has to be, if you just think that learning French would be cool and/or sexy, then by all means go for it. That’s a perfectly valid reason(s) to learn a language. Just saying that some career paths might benefit from one language more than another. Or not.
I am planning on working in the political spectrum with a concentration in environmental concerns or educational policy… I’m having trouble choosing a language based on this. I feel like I’m spanished out. I didn’t have the best instruction in high school and starting fresh with a language whose culture I find more appealing seems ideal
Yeah, I don’t think that probably lends itself to a particular language. I don’t follow this any more than someone who reads the news regularly, but the two countries that come to mind for big environmental concerns in the present and near future are China (Mandarin) and Brazil (Portuguese). Of course Portuguese would be a fairly easy transition since it is so similar to Spanish, and Mandarin would be far more difficult, for most people anyway.
But I probably wouldn’t let that dictate your new choice, since like I said that major/career path doesn’t really make any particular language stand out beyond what I just outlined. I know everyone is learning English anyway, but it is still a nice thing to be able to talk to others in their native language.
I would talk to your professors and academic adviser and see if they thought a particular language would be more useful over the others. I see a lot of jobs that are looking for applicants fluent in Mandarin or Arabic. We had some of our Environment and Env. Eng students go to India for a few months to work on a water project and they had learned a bit of Hindi.
Danman1022, studying an additional language is always nice, however, it is my understanding that in to order fulfill the language requirement at Tulane you must complete the 2030 course level. Starting at the beginning of a new language you will need study that language for several semesters to complete the requirement.
I was placed into the 2040 level Spanish class, does this mean anything?
It means you would only have to take one semester of Spanish to fulfill your language requirement. If you choose to start a new language you will start at the introductory and have to take it each semester until you reach to the 2030 level. Which would probably be 3-4 semesters.
You could always take the one semester of Spanish to fulfill your language requirement and take a few semesters of a different language as a minor or just as electives.
My daughter was also placed in Span 2040. She was happy to complete her language requirement in one semester. FYI, if the Span 2040 is too high a level for you when you start the class, you can move down to Span 2030 and still complete the requirement in one semester. The tricky part is that Span 2030 meets 4 days per week.
Okay, I will stick with Spanish to meet my requirement, but would your recommend staying and spanish 2040 and switching once the semester begins, or switch down to spanish 2030 before I start? I noticed the 2040 level is a seminar class while the 2030 class seems more instruction based (which I think would be a good option for me)…
My understanding is that they will not let you move down without trying the placement that was assigned to you.
Contact your adviser. My son was placed in a higher level Spanish than he was comfortable with (his HS Spanish classes were abysmal) and his adviser told him he could drop down to a lower level. he ended up sticking through the higher level and did fine.