<p>I'm applying to M.A./Ph.D. programs in medieval history, and most schools recommend a knowledge of Latin, French, and German. I've taken both French and Latin at university, but I'm slightly concerned about my German. I can speak and read it with some effort, but I learned it long enough ago that I'm sort of rusty, and I've never taken any college level classes in it. </p>
<p>I am, on the other hand, fluent in Italian. Would graduate admissions treat that as an acceptable substitute for the knowledge of German? It seems a bit tenuous since German is practically indispensable for my specific research interests (and I definitely intend to pick it up if I get into grad school), but I'm hoping that the deficiency won't be too much of a disadvantage at this point.</p>
<p>Your fluency in Italian will likely offset your lack of sustained experience with German, at least in terms of admissions.</p>
<p>However, you should mention your current basic abilities in German as well. If you can read a scholarly article in German using a dictionary, that’s actually quite good, at least in terms of admissions.</p>
<p>You should check with the departments - in most cases knowledge is advantageous beforehand but not required. Many programs have language aquisition built in to the grad study, and the requirements are not as rigorous as you might think! My wife was looking into Harvard at one point, and their two-language requirement could be fulfilled as late as the end of the second year, with each language requiring either a single “intense” course or demonstration through a dictionary-assisted translation test.</p>
<p>I agree with Professor X here - you demonstrate plenty of language aptitude, and have at least fundamental knowledge of all languages required, so I think you are much stronger than you might think.</p>
<p>Good to know. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks, both of you!</p>