I’m a Political Science major, international politics minor. I obviously need a foreign language to take, and I had always planned on Spanish because of its usefulness and also because I enjoy it, but I’ve recently come to realize that unless I specifically plan to do Latin American politics, Spanish may not be as useful as I had thought. My school only offers four foreign languages (Spanish, French, German and Italian) and I’m not sure which of these would be best. I know German is good for business, and Spanish is good for Latin American politics, but which is best for European? I’m still unsure which section of the world to which I’d like to commit, and therefore am second guessing Spanish.
English
I was going to recommend one of the critical foreign languages, but it appears your college doesn’t offer them.
If you’re still unsure about what geographic region you want to commit to, going with the most broadly useful language (and the one you like the best) is probably the best bet. So if you like Spanish, go for it! In some contexts Spanish is considered a “critical language” because of its importance in Latin America, but only at a high level of proficiency.
If you really thought you wanted go the European route, either German or French would probably be useful, although it may vary by field. French has the added bonus of also being spoken in Francophone Africa (West African nations), so if you decided you wanted to do some development work in low-income countries French could transfer easily there. German might be slightly more useful in international business work like banking.
However, the thing about Western European languages is that there are many college-educated native speakers of those languages who also speak English fluently, and those languages are widely taught in high schools and colleges in the U.S. So jobs that require language proficiency in those languages will always be super competitive.
I was going to say Arabic if you were focusing on Middle Eastern politics like I am. I would say French or German if you were doing Europe. Spanish isn’t really spoken in Europe, yes I know Spain is there but Spain’s dialect is different from Latinn American. German for business and French for basically everything else. Overall, I would say French because it is one of the UN’s official languages.
If you want to do European politics I’d take either French (traditional lingua franca) or German (language of current hegemon). French is good for Africa as well.
It’s pretty simple.
Spanish and Italian are primarily for specializing in Spain and Italy respectively. If you do not have interest in working in those markets, then it is probably best to skip those.
Between French and German I would go with what ever one you think you might like more.
TBH, learning another language is hard if your heart is not in it. You need to have some real curiosity to really grasp hold of a language and enjoy it. Think about which of those languages would you like to learn if it wasn’t related to your career.
Business wise I would go with French though, as many people in Germany can speak very good English already.