International Relations Languages : Regional Focus or International Reach Better

College Majors Foreign Language & Culture Majors
1

Hi, I apologize in advance if this is written in the wrong area for this topic. I’m currently a student in high school interested in going into International Affairs/Relations or International Economics career choice. I’m currently learning French, Spanish, and Chinese, at school since languages are something that interests me a lot and is something that I spend a lot of time on. I was wondering that in order to increase my employment prospects I should focus on a region of the world and the cultures and languages there rather than “spreading myself out” to languages that might not be concentrated to one area.

For example, East Asia and the cultures/languages there interest me a lot in comparison to other parts of the world. Should I focus my study on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, cultures and languages before French and Spanish in order to give myself a sense of “specialization” or rather focus on learning French and Spanish that have a more global outreach, to a more advanced level.

Would it be more attractive in the future to say to an employer in government-related or intelligence-related job that I specialize in East Asia and speak high level Chinese, Japanese, Korean or rather that I speak high level French, Spanish, and Chinese? Also if I were to go with specialization or the more “inter-regional” route what would a possible set up or my majors be? Does it look better to do a double major with international relations and an area studies/economics?

2

Have you looked at the different universities you are interested in and how their programs are set up? For example, the Croft Institute is divided into regions: http://www.croft.olemiss.edu/home/ The major is also categorized by either politics, economics, cultural concentrations.

Start investigating different schools and the different approaches/courses to determine what most appeals to you.

3

If you major in IR/IS, you usually have to choose a thematic option (e.g., national security, development, etc.) and a regional focus (e.g., East Asia). Often, international economics is one of the thematic options, or you can focus to some extent on international economics via an economics major.

As for spreading yourself out vs. focusing on a region, in part, this will be determined by your primary regional interest and any requirement to choose a regional focus as part of an iR/IS major. Also, it would be desirable (if not required) that you spend at least an academic year studying in a country in which your chosen language is spoken in order to acquire an adequate level of proficiency. This will limit opportunities to acquire the same level of proficiency in more than one language. If you choose an East Asian language, you should be prepared to commit to studying it for more than the typical two or three years that many IR/IS or area studies programs require. You should also consider why you’re picking a particular language and what you expect from that----is it just to read scholarly literature or media in that language? is it to interact and do business with political and business leaders in the country/region of interest? Is it to interact with locals or work “in the field” in a particular country/region? Is it to analyze documents or other media? Is it to interpret/translate? Is it to deal with speakers or media in a particular technical area? Also, don’t study a language just because you think it will improve employment prospects. The interest in the language and culture should be there, too. You’ll find that in many countries, international business will be conducted in English, and your counterparts will speak it almost as well as or better than a native speaker.

As for French and Spanish giving you “more global reach,” that’s true in the sense that they are more geographically widespread, but consider what types of jobs you might do. You mentioned government or intelligence-related work. OK, specifically, what kinds of work in those areas might you realistically do. For intelligence analysis, you might need expertise in a region, too, so if you did French, what region? Africa? North Africa? France? With Spanish, you’re limited to either Spain or Latin America. It’s less unlikely that you’d have regional expertise in both French and Spanish-speaking areas. Even in the Foreign Service, you won’t necessarily be posted in an area where you speak the language. Again, for these languages, the same considerations apply as noted above in terms of the purpose for which you might use the language.

So, in answer to your questions about French and Spanish vs. East Asian languages and regional specialization vs. global reach, you really can’t answer those without consideration of what your intended use is for the language and what types of work you realistically see yourself doing.

You mentioned that you’re already learning French, Spanish and Chinese. Those are all good, but lots of people are studying those. What about some of the other critical languages----Portuguese, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, Russian? The Language Flagship programs might interest you. http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/

As for IR/IS vs. Economics/Area Studies, imo, economics seems to be viewed as a more solid and serious, and thus, “respected” discipline. It’s also a quantitative field and offers additional opportunities in business careers. If by any chance, you attend a public landgrant university, don’t overlook coursework (or, even a major) in ag and resource economics. The field covers many areas relevant to international affairs—trade, development, environmental economics, etc. As another option, think about how many international issues intersect with environmental issues—natural disasters, climate change, water resources, famines, etc.—and think about pairing economics with environmental studies (or, even, in geology or geography).

Also, see my posts in these threads:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/749245-undergraduate-foreign-policy-schools.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/902677-political-science-vs-international-relations.html

4

A good combination would be French + Arabic, or French + Turkish, or French + Wolof/Susu/Yoruba/Pulaar, or French+Spanish + Portuguese.
In any case, the foreign service will expect you to have fluency and experience in one critical language, while fluency/mastery of a global language is certainly helpful.