<p>I'm majoring in Language and International Trade at SUNY Oswego and I wasn't sure what I should do. I have the choice of continuing my French to become fluent or should I take Chinese classes but not become as fluent in French. What would be my best option?</p>
<p>Is there anyone out their with experience, knowledge, or an opinion on this? Help would be greatly appreciated. </p>
Languages are always good assets. It demonstrates cultural literacy.
It depends on whether you are interested in Africa and Europe or whether you are interested in China.
For Chinese, it also depends on whether you are able and willing to commit to a more difficult language that requires a longer period of time to develop proficiency (including study abroad for a year in China).
IMO, fluency in French is better than minimal proficiency or less in Chinese, unless you can make the necessary commitment.
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French is more widely spoken. It was the lingo de franc in the UN before English. English is taught to most chinease in college and is a requirement to graduate at many chinease schools in fact. The sheer volume of dirt poor chinease and English speaking people in various china towns around the US should give you an indication of how this chinease translating white guy earning a 6 digit figure salary doesn’t really exist, it is really a myth. My experience comes as I am a linguist in the military. I have an AA in Tagalog from the Army. My experience has been this, being totally fluent in a foreign language is super useful and fun/impressive to others. It helped me land a job as a police officer as a matter of a fact and now I am about to study Spanish for my undergrad degree. My advice is this, study a language you can use in your personal life so you become fluent, like me I married a Filipina so learning tagalog just made sense and Spanish well for a cop in California I’ll get lots of practice. If I studied French or chinease lets say well unless I move to Quebec or china town or married a chinease girl I would probably forget everything in less than a year after graduation. For government jobs like what I have had your major doesn’t matter just that you have a degree, but I would rather be a master than a jack of all trades, because being able to reserve a hotel and order food in a language is cool as a tourist, but pointless for a professional. It isn’t till you can talk about complex issues or have this conversation in say foreign language to where it really affects your ability to do a job any better than pointing.
Most people who speak French also speak English. Most people who speak Chinese do not.