<p>Okay, so what does Caltech require of students in terms of language credits and all that. Are they necessary to graduate?</p>
<p>Also, I speak Chinese at home, but I barely read it and don't write it at all. I know a lot of people in a similar situation who take Chinese at college instead of their high school language (for me, Spanish). Is this common at Caltech?</p>
<p>Hmm... as far as I know, and do understand that I'm not a current student, language is not required. However, I am curious if language courses can fulfill humanities requirement??</p>
<p>Vanita - yes, up to six of the twelve required courses in humanities and social sciences.</p>
<p>going off that, i was looking in the course catalog, and for most foreign languages there are only 3 courses....and having taken 5 years of spanish in high school, i'd test out of at least the first one....so it kinda seems like there's not that many options/classes which stinks...</p>
<p>Genius freezertennis! They did spend 3 bucks sending that cute little fat bk to me for a reason... </p>
<p>You're right, there's not a lot of offerings in foreign languages, though it doesn't bother me at all...</p>
<p>Freezertennis, it's true that if you have only studied one language, you might not be able to fill your humanities requirements with those courses. However, in French at least, the third year of courses (including Literature, Civilization, and Film) are themed, and so if you take French Literature one year it might cover something completely different from French Literature the next year, possibly allowing you to take the course twice. There are also some "___ Literature in Translation" classes, and the untranslated books are available in our library or on Project Gutenberg - these courses are taught by language profs (generally) who would be more than willing to accommodate you if you read/wrote in the foreign language.</p>
<p>Finally, since you took Spanish, remember that the LA area is full of opportunities to interact with fluent speakers. If you enjoy volunteering and can get transportation, obviously there are a lot of opportunities available for you to work bilingually with families, children, and/or the elderly. For festivals and holidays, you can get to Olvera Street along the Gold line, which runs through Pasadena (and can easily be reached from campus by bus or walking). You can even take trips down to Mexico over breaks. This is great if you're looking to transition from AP Spanish to speaking the language in real life.</p>
<p>thank you!</p>