<p>I'll be starting my freshmen year for undergrad this year and I'm planning to major in History. I'd like to eventually go onto getting a PhD in History but you're required to have reading knowledge with several languages. So I'd like to kind of like to study some languages throughout undergrad but I'm not sure what languages it would be best for me to know. My interest is more along the lines of ancient history of the Mediterranean area and near east. So would it be best for me to just study German and French as my languages for undergrad or maybe German/French and Ancient Greek/Latin or just study Ancient Latin and Ancient Greek?</p>
<p>While you wait for someone who knows more than I do, do a search of this forum on the conversations here regarding the daunting language requirements you should be starting on right away in order to be accepted to PhD programs in such areas.</p>
<p>You’ll need Greek, Latin, French, and German for a PhD in this subspecialty. For admission, you probably only need two languages, but you’ll have to pick up the others during your grad studies.</p>
<p>For French and German, you only need a reading knowledge to read the scholarly literature. For Greek and Latin, you need to be able to work with primary sources. Since this is a bit more involved than just a reading knowledge, you probably should start with Greek and Latin. </p>
<p>You can major in History or in Classics. If you major in Classics, of course, you would be doing Greek and Latin. If you major in History, you’ll get more exposure to other periods of history, so you might get by without both Greek and Latin, but once you go to grad school, you’ll pretty much be expected to know both of them for this subspecialty.</p>
<p>If you do the Ancient Near East, you’ll probably be in a Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, where you’ll be expected to learn the relevant ancient Near Eastern languages (which might include Greek and/or Latin) as well as French and German. </p>
<p>Some grad schools have an interdisciplinary specialty that takes in both the Graeco-Roman world and the Ancient Near East, so you’d be a member of that interdisciplinary group, but you might have a home dept. as well.</p>
<p>It’s a smart move to anticipate these language requirements early.</p>
<p>What if I were to have a change of interest for my area of study, would it be best to go with French and German? It seems like they’re needed for most anything involving Europe and areas close to it. It seems like it could make stuff more “open” as to what I may end up studying to just do French and German.</p>
<p>Although it is good to anticipate these language requirements now, I would suggest to keep an open mind, especially since you are a freshmen. When I went into undergrad, I knew I was going to do history, but I thought I would be focusing on US history. Turns out that after I became exposed to other courses that my true interests were in Middle Eastern history, so I’m doing a PhD in that right now. Who knows, your interests might change too.</p>
<p>I suggest that you start with French or German, not both, and one of the classic languages. Get those two under your belt as you take history courses to determine whether you are truly interested in the ancient Near East. By the time you enter your junior year, you should have an academic advisor who can then help you hone your preparation for graduate school. This will probably mean starting a third language, depending on where your interests lie at that time.</p>
<p>By covering your bases with one modern and one classic language, you’ll have more flexibility.</p>
<p>Well, I came in a little late… being one of the representative of history PhD programs :p</p>
<p>I would suggest you choose French or German. For several reasons:</p>
<p>A) Think about where would you like to study abroad. Yes, I said “study abroad” because if study abroad IS on your mind, you’re going to want to get to the language ASAP. Besides, if you can make it work, you can use your study abroad time to conduct primary source research in Europe. And, of course, if you go to the museums in France, Germany, Switzerland, or Austria, you’ll indefinitely increase your reading knowledge if you keep your eyes on German/French texts rather than English. When I was in Spain for a week, I kept my eyes on the Spanish texts even though I hadn’t taken Spanish in over a year, I was AMAZED how much my Spanish improved by the end of my trip!</p>
<p>B) Be open to various periods and geographical areas. Your professors are going to challenge you to appreciate their interests. I started college wanting to do Eastern European history. Two years later, after two amazing courses in US history, I decided that I wanted to go for that. Now, six years later from my freshman year, as I am preparing MY PhD applications, I realize that I’m more interested in world history based on a certain population’s migration patterns and changing identities. So I appeal to both US historians AND European historians. History is quite limitless if you can use your imagination and ask provoking questions. That said, you’re going to want to use broadly used languages. Thus, French and German. Even if you wind up, say, studying Indochina, you’re going to need French anyway since it was a French colony.</p>
<p>C) Classics/Ancient history is a very, very difficult field and is not in high demand. My friend’s PhD program at Michigan, in Classics, encourages all of its students to think beyond academia for career prospects such as archaeological digs and museum work. Do more research on this particular field before committing yourself to Greek and Latin.</p>
<p>That said, go with either German or French. There are several excellent intensive summer programs that you can take in Greek and Latin (my friend at Harvard is teaching elementary Greek this summer there and was amazed by the quality of her students- mostly underclassmen).</p>
<p>Know that if you’re interested in ancient history/Classics, plan on taking several years to polish your application before your actual application period because languages will be the #1 thing that these particular adcoms will use to make the first cut (Usually about 50% of people don’t have “enough” languages).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m in Egyptology but studied classics as an undergrad and am slowly branching out into Near Eastern studies. I’ll put in my $0.02.</p>
<p>Languages
[ul][<em>]German is the more important of the two modern research languages, so go with it if you can only take one. For your second language, either French (most of the Mediterranean) or Italian (for Anatolia).
[</em>]Greek is the more important of the two classical languages. It was the lingua franca in the eastern Mediterranean even in Roman times, and it’s related to some of the cuneiform languages in Turkey as well.
[li]My advice would be to take German, as much Greek as you can fit in (3+ years), and two years of Latin (for classical history) or biblical Hebrew (for Near Eastern history). Time permitting, add French/Italian (possibly over a summer).[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Study abroad
Ticklemepink is right; plan ahead. Oxford and Cambridge expect you to apply nearly a year in advance of when you plan to study abroad, and some of the others are nearly as bad. For classical studies, consider College Year in Athens or the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. </p>
<p>Excavation experience
Participating in a dig is not necessary or very popular among history students, but it’s terribly fun and would be a great experience. Most people either love it or hate it, so one summer would be enough to make up your mind.</p>
<p>ticklemepink, you said that
</p>
<p>You mean study abroad in European Universities? I’m quite doubt whether this is really worthy to study in Continental Europe like Germany or France for us students who majored in Humanities.</p>
<p>Clearly, studying in non-english speaking countries require good command of a foreign language, and for us who study Humanities, the language requirements are even higher. Otherwise we only need reading skills and it can save lots of time if we don’t need to enhance our foreign language skills to proficiency level (especially in speaking and writing).</p>
<p>Languages, including foreign, are part of humanities so I don’t know where your logical is coming from.</p>
<p>It’s not just for direct-enrollment in European universities but there are also excellent programs that do require at least 2 college years (4 semesters) of language study, which is why I urged the OP to think ahead. Most American run study abroad programs do have this stipulation.</p>
<p>It can make a difference if one learns to speak/hear the language while learning to read it. You just get the “feel” for how the language is used and put together. I just returned from 4 months in Germany and I can tell you that German now makes much, much more sense than when I started to learn how to read it.</p>
<p>I just wanted to agree with ticklemepink-- learning languages (well) is absolutely necessary for anyone wishing to pursue history in grad school. Reading knowledge classes can work in a pinch, but they are simply not a replacement for actually knowing the language. Especially for German. </p>
<p>It is, I think, easier for an English-speaker to learn the romance languages through “reading knowledge” classes, but in my personal experience, comfortably reading dense academic prose in German simply requires more fluency. </p>
<p>So, if you think you want to pursue a history track, best to start with that straight away. And, if you want to pursue ancient history, you really do need to start the relevant ancient languages as soon as possible. They are simply critical for grad school, both in order to be admitted, and to in order to succeed.</p>
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<p>Yes, you are right, foreign languages are part of humanities. And for students who want to study a particular country or a foreign language (e.g. German Studies), it’s quite necessary to study abroad in that country (e.g. Germany).</p>
<p>But we are talking about History in this thread, and OP says that,
So the case is much different from studying history of a paricular country.</p>
<p>Also, at present, worldly top-notch universities are mostly American or British ones. And Continental European universities do quite poorly in various World University Rankings, although many of them are most prestigious and excellent universities in the world before WWII. This is another reason which makes studying in Continental Europe not worthy.</p>
<p>Theopolis, I don’t think that TMP was talking about getting a degree abroad but rather about study abroad during undergraduate college. Are you American? If not, I want to clarify what this means: a majority of US undergraduates do a semester or a year (usually during junior year) abroad to add to their education. They can study anything from biology to economics to history to languages. These programs can be independent (that is, run by a US university for US students only) or can involve taking courses at foreign university alongside matriculated students. They can be taught in English or in another language. I think TMP was suggesting that the OP pick this location and the individual program with care so that it strengthened the application. It is rare for a US humanities major NOT to study abroad sometime during undergraduate education, especially one at a top university. The ones who don’t go are usually science majors who cannot fit it into their schedule. </p>
<p>If you are from the US, I apologize for spelling this out.</p>