<p>I'm Prelaw, Econ/Sociology major and need a foreign language to graduate. I'm debating between finishing Japanese, because I started learning it in while in high school through joint enrollment, but still have 2 semester left, or starting new and learning French. I have no interest in learning Spanish.</p>
<p>Is there a language besides the obvious Spanish that will really make you marketable as a lawyer?</p>
<p>It depends on what sort of law you are interested in and where you want to work.</p>
<p>I’m interested in corporate law. I want to work in the Atlanta or New York area. Haven’t really gave to much thought above work oversees.</p>
<p>I’d think that Spanish, Arabic, Russian, or Mandarin would all do the trick.</p>
<p>But you will have to be so completely fluent in them to have a significant impact on your career that it really doesn’t matter what you take for a year in college. Do what you’re interested in, and if there’s a tie pick the one in which you’ll get the better grade.</p>
<p>For foreign language skills to matter to legal employers, you would have to be extremely proficient–imagine explaining a statute to a client, drafting a will (where, for example, there is a huge difference in meaning between the phrases “so long as” and “but if”), or interviewing a witness in another language. Not to mention the fact that you’d be expected to understand the culture very well. I have a friend who’s been recruited to work in the Japanese offices of major firms, but she’s studied the language for many years, has a master’s in Japanese literature from a Japanese university, and is getting a second masters in East Asian Studies along with her law degree. She is among the first non-ethnically-Japanese applicants most of the firms have considered. </p>
<p>All this is not to say that taking another language is useless or futile (I definitely wish my Spanish and ASL were better for my upcoming job–a public interest one in a city where those are the 2 most frequently used foreign languages among my clients) but that it probably doesn’t much matter between Japanese and French.</p>
<p>Apologies. Stacy is right and I’m wrong on this one.</p>
<p>thanks! But I think I’d agree with BDM’s list as being good ones to become fluent in–with Japanese, German, and French added in if you’re interested in corporate, and Amharic, Hmong, or ASL perhaps more helpful for working with individuals/ community groups.</p>
<p>I am fluent in German, English and Serbo-Croatian (I lived in all countries for a majority of my life) and as everyone above said, it is VERY IMPORTANT to know them fluently and also to be able to read and write (not just speak). I plan on learning Spanish, but for now I am leaning on my German.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with Stacy here.</p>
<p>Speaking an Asian language was enormously important to my career, although I never reached the stage where I could explain a statute, or draft a will, or interview anyone in the language I studied. I was able to socialize with my clients who spoke that language, and demonstrate to them that I was intelligent enough to get to that level of proficiency. I had a partner who could explain statutes and interview witnesses. (Wills are generally drafted in the language of the courts where they’ll be probated.)</p>
<p>I think that stacy and greybeard are making different points.</p>
<p>If you want to note a foreign language on your resume (and it is always a good idea to qualify your knowledge and understanding by your level of proficiency on your resume) for purposes of working in a foreign country or using that foreign language on a day-to-day basis as part of your legal practice, than stacy is correct. You will need to be completely fluent in that language, including legal terminology, and you will need to understand the culture of the target country as well.</p>
<p>However, greybeard is also correct, that general foreign language knowledge and a relatively high level of proficiency in a foreign language can help with client relations, for example, when your practice will be conducted primarily in english yet you are working with clients who speak a foreign language as their first language.</p>
<p>It can never hurt you to speak, understand and write a foreign language. Your level of fluency will determine whether your foreign language skills actually open any doors for you.</p>