I’m a sophomore in college now, and as a freshman I entered with the thought that I want to major in Biomedical Engineering and minor in Spanish. I really mainly wanted to minor in spanish because 1) I am interested in the language and want to become fluent and 2) people who go farther in Spanish get better opportunities to study abroad. Well, the time has come and I’ve been accepted into a more advanced study abroad program (Spain) for the spring. I have been making progress on my Spanish minor, however, realistically with my highly-demanding BME major (I’ve heard junior and senior year are going to be brutal), I am not so sure that my minor is worth it anymore. I’ve already gotten the program that I wanted, and what better way to become fluent than to spend 6 months in Spain?
Obviously, if I can, I would want to hold onto the minor, but since I have my personal goals/reasonings will already be completed after studying abroad, I want to look at it from a career standpoint. In the eyes of an employer, is a Spanish minor THAT significant? I feel like other than the fact that it will help me become bilingual (which I will be anyway), it wouldn’t really be that helpful in terms of getting a job, right? If that’s the case, then I don’t really want to stress myself with the 4 additional classes I will need to take junior/senior year. However, if it actually would be significant, I can look into trying to take summer courses (although they are pricey, so I don’t want to “just do it anyway”). If I can make the right analogy here, it would be like if a doctor got a minor in music… I’m feeling like that wouldn’t really advance him/her in their own workforce (but props to them for doing what they love)…
P. S. If you’re thinking that I have it in my head that I will go from 0 to 100 in my spanish-speaking abilities in just 6 months, I know that’s not how it works. However, I am not expecting to get to 100%, I think 75 would be fine, and I am also not starting out at 0, as I have already been taking spanish for about 8 years now.
Definitely go to Spain, but I agree that the benefit of the minor will be small, perhaps not worth the cost. You will list your semester abroad on your resume as part of your education so employers will be aware of your Spanish interests and abilities.
If you want to pursue Spanish take the classes that fit in your schedule comfortably. Having a minor is not important. You can include your level of fluency in the language on your resume with or without a minor.
My daughter went to Spain for an internship and was shocked at the variety of Spanish in Spain.
There are multiple, worldly influences on the rate and combination of languages/accents involved, when conducting everyday tasks in different cities. DD is almost a native speaker, and was surprised that she, as well as native speakers who traveled with her, had trouble understanding some of Spanish varieties.
I met her while she was in Spain, and I’m a bilingual speaker (read and write in Spanish), so although I could speak it with a latin-american Spanish accent, I also had difficulty with the rate and colloquial terms, especially with the Catalan in Barcelona.
Going to Spain for 6 months will help you develop an “ear” for the flow, but you won’t be coming back fully fluent.
If you plan on using your BME degree to work in a Latin country, then you may want to continue the minor.
Being a fluent Spanish speaker/writer might be helpful on some job applications. As explained by others, it’s probably not critical to have the minor (which can get tricky for scheduling etc).
Learning other languages is great, and if you enjoy Spanish, you should absolutely do it. The minor itself doesn’t matter–you don’t need a minor to learn a language, but if it helps you learn Spanish, then there’s nothing wrong with the minor. As to how significant Spanish will be, that depends on the job. If you intend to become a medical professional or a medical researcher, there’s a relatively large Spanish-speaking population in the US, and that might be a very useful asset, depending on the exact nature or location of the job.
On the other hand, if you want to become an engineer, I can’t imagine Spanish will be helpful from a career standpoint. While I cannot speak for all companies, I will say that the medical device company I work for has a lot of suppliers in Europe–primarily Germany, Sweden, and Poland–and in East Asia–mainly China, and also Korea. I know of other engineering companies where speaking French is also an asset. But I would say Chinese is the best language to know in the engineering industry right now, followed by other East Asian languages (Japanese, Korean), followed by something like German.
If you just want to be able to communicate/converse with the Spanish speaking persons then you do not need a minor degree in such language. Just sign up with Rosseta and buy their tapes (DVD), books, etc or just sign up with any Community Colleges for Adult Development Programs. Lots of business people when they have to travel overseas or Spanish speaking countries, they just buy the books (dictionary and Spanish 101 for dummies), etc. Those business people do not have time to sit in any classroom.