<p>Why is it a requirement and not an elective?
Why do some, if not most, colleges require foreign language? </p>
<p>Yes, we live in a world with many different types of people and languages, but for those of us who want to stay ignorant towards other languages and are fine with just knowing English, why is it required?</p>
<p>I have nothing against learning foreign language, or foreign language in general. I just feel it should not be REQUIRED.</p>
<p>I have never had a good experience with foreign language, not in middle school, not in high school, and now, not in college.</p>
<p>Colleges want to have graduates who are well-educated people who can participate actively in the world… one of the best ways to do this is know another language.</p>
<p>Same reason that you have science, English, etc required classes. They don’t want to graduate students who are only competent in one area- they want to make sure you’re at least exposed to these other areas. </p>
<p>Besides, this is a global workforce and we live in a time of mass globalization and at least being able to sort of pick up things in a conversation in another language is a major boost to most any career path.</p>
<p>I agree with you in the matter that I REALLY don’t want to take a language in college, but I have to say I do understand why the colleges do it, and your first paragraph kind of worked against your point, saying that you wanted to stay ignorant lol. Then thing I don’t really understand, is why some colleges have such a large language requirements. I’ve been to college tours where people have told me that I would be required to take 6 semesters of a language at college, which sounded like a TON to me. I dislike large language requirements so much in fact that it’s starting to factor into my college decision.</p>
<p>Why do so many people completely disregard how beneficial it is to learn another language? I have seen so many job ads and being bilingual is ALWAYS a +. Don’t you want to make yourself as marketable as possible for this tough job market?</p>
<p>I find it so unfortunate that we lack foreign language in our early education. I can only dream that learning a foreign language would be as necessary here as learning English in so many places.</p>
<p>Most college language requirements probably aren’t enough to make you fluent, but learning another language is SO helpful just in terms of understanding English. Ex - I vaguely knew what a past participle was, but couldn’t really identify it until I learned it in French. French made English grammar make more sense and I’m sure it helped me become a better writer. Any language that you have to learn from the ground up will teach you so much about your own.</p>