I’m a journalism student. I took 4 years of Honors Spanish in high school. The first year or two in high school, I wasn’t very engaged. Then, I got better. I’m taking my second the equivalent of the fourth semester of college Spanish at the conversational level. Next fall, I’m studying abroad in Spain. My goal is to be able to be completely proficient, to use it professionally; speaking, reading, and writing. Right now, I don’t know every word but can find a way to articulate my thoughts and can read most things.
I’m just not sure what to do in the spring. My original plan was to do a political communication internship through my school’s Washington semester program. I’ve always been interested in being a reporter but also passionate about politics so I’m thinking that field might offer more money and stability, and be something I’d enjoy. And, I’d get an early shot at an internship which would look good on my resume regardless of which field I enter.
I kind of thought it’d be cool to learn French and study abroad in France for a semester. But this is my fifth year of Spanish and from what I’ve experienced, French will be even harder to learn and not possible to learn with only 2 years of French. And I don’t think professionally the return on investment would be very high.
If I do the politics internship in the spring, I won’t be able to take any more Spanish courses when I come back and complete my degree requirements and graduate on time. I could be proficient in Spanish when I’m back from study abroad but if I’m not, I can practice through the Spanish club, independent practice and study, but I won’t have the room for more classes.
So my choice is go to Washington in the spring, stay at my university and continue taking Spanish courses, or stay and start practicing French. What should I do? Every time I go to an advisor, they just say it’s up to me.
Obviously it’s up to you. But the semester in France doesn’t seem to offer you any benefits besides the fact that it would be cool. You would be better off spending the spring semester in Spain if you wanted to stay in Europe during that time. The internship in Washington also sounds like a great opportunity and will probably be more helpful to you than staying at your university for another Spanish class.
I would do the semester abroad in Spanish in the fall, and then do the internship in Washington.
You can always ask to audit a spanish class so you can keep up with it.
Don’t worry about graduating “on time” if that does not involve extra $$.
Mine might be a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I don’t think everything you do in college has to be for immediate gain or professional enhancement or with concern for the return on investment. Sometimes you should do things just because they are interesting and you want to do them. This is especially true of things that are difficult to do post-college; it’s difficult to arrange to spend four months in a foreign country unless you’re working in a job or a field that allows for that.
The internship would be great, and honestly if you have no other internship experience and no other way to get it over the summers or during the academic year, I’d say that might be a better idea - you do need SOME internship experience.
But who cares if the only thing the French semester offers you is that it is cool? It’s okay to do things just because they are cool and interesting.
I was also going to suggest maybe doing the second semester in a Spanish-speaking Latin American country. You get to continue to practice your Spanish, perhaps learn a different dialect of Spanish, and honestly with interests in either journalism or politics Latin America is pretty important.
Personally, I studied abroad in Amsterdam in a program focused on gender and sexuality studies. I took Dutch. I don’t speak anything more than very basic phrases in Dutch. But I cherish that semester there, even though Amsterdam was not my first choice - because I learned so much and I studied something I really loved. And the gender and sexuality studies focus turned up in unexpected places - first in my PhD program (having a grasp on the theory ended up being really important in my social sciences-based health-related PhD) and then, more indirectly, in my current job in the tech industry (I’m involved in some work that applies it in interesting ways). My only regret is that I wish I had studied abroad more time - I would’ve spent two semesters in two different places.
You never know when something you study comes in handy later on. And even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t make it not worthwhile.