<p>I am a native english speaker and have only spoken english for almost all of my life. I know a little mix of indian language from my background but I can only understand and process, I cannot read, write or speak. </p>
<p>However, recently I've picked up basic conversational fluency in Spanish and Portuguese. Portuguese I practice a little however I do not really care for the language that much and plan on later developing my vocabulary. However, where I live in the US, many spanish speakers reside and therefore I have committed myself to getting a good grasp of the language. </p>
<p>My real question comes in, how much do colleges care if someone that comes from Asia can speak different languages that they never were immersed in from a different part of the world? Also will it change anything if I'm looking at a law/finance/business plan? </p>
<p>The wealthiest person I know combined a study of French and business subjects for her undergraduate degree, and now she’s a CFO of an international company making $3 million a year. One of her first jobs was traveling to France auditing financial records of companies in Paris, and she moved up from there. Another very successful friend is an Associate General Counsel (attorney) for an international bank, and he regularly travels to other countries (including India) working on big financing contracts, and I’m sure his fluency in four languages comes in handy. Are languages important to your business or law career? Absolutely. Are they important to a university? If you pursue related studies in college, or if you make the case that you are going to be better prepared for your international career with the languages, then yes. Many young people nowadays are multilingual and well traveled, and that will be your competition for jobs one day. It’s great you are preparing to compete well against them. I think if a university does not recognize or appreciate the significance and relevance of your language studies, then you probably don’t want to attend that university. Most universities pride themselves on offering study abroad programs to enhance their students’ abilities in languages and cultures, and you would be a good candidate for a study abroad program, or for participation in a university’s many cultural clubs and events. Make a case for why languages will matter in your college experience and thereafter, and the colleges will care about your efforts to learn these languages and cultures that are very different from your heritage. </p>