<p>I'm a IR MA student in Washington DC. </p>
<p>What do you all speak, or how have you approached this?</p>
<p>The thing is, for UN system, they want French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic or Russian.</p>
<p>My interest is Italian. I've taken French to intermediate level in college....it's in my brain somewhere but has atrophied over time. I could pick it up pretty fast. There's a chance to learn French for free at work, and my best friend and his family are french BUT I'm not as excited about the langauge as I am about Italian.</p>
<p>Italian I've taught myself to a pretty decent level. I'm excited about the language and enjoy studying it. All self-taught, but not easy to find opportunities to SPEAK Italian. </p>
<p>I hear Italian is useless in terms of bolstering one's IR credentials though, and also taht French is becoming saturated with an overabundance, and that Arabic and Chinese are where it's at. </p>
<p>For a Masters, i don't need fluency, but I need to be able to skim/read articles and hold basic conversations in a modern langauge.</p>
<p>Well, do you have any particular interest for dealing with stuff in Italy? Learning a language is more than just being able to read articles and hold simple conversations, it’s about the culture as well. You will get so much more out of the language if you have some appreciation for its literature and culture. If you have zero interest in French literature/culture/politics, then don’t bother continuing French. But if you have to pass a language exam just to get the MA, go with French. You can always improve on your Italian on the side and put it in your resume that you have a working knowledge of Italian.</p>
<p>You can always take an intensive summer program or an internship in Italy to help your Italian. The Italian embassy must have some events going on that you can attend so you have an excuse to practice your Italian and network.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yes, i am interested in Italy, and plan to travel there several times over my lifetime. </p></li>
<li><p>The simple conversations and reading articles was in the context of passing the langauge competency for the MA. </p></li>
<li><p>Is Italian, or any language outside of Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and French a disadvantage, and IGNORED within IR professons?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>In terms of taking the language exam, go with what’s easiest for you. </li>
<li>In terms of Italian being useful, well it’s an issue of volume. It’s only prevalent in one country (and spoken in a couple of micro-states and part of Switzerland). And frankly, the regions that have a lot of need are those that have bad political or economic problems within them. Hence Chinese/Arabic/Spanish/French are useful, and even then the latter two are inundated with fluent speakers. Honestly though, I’m torn on how much language ability matters in IR. I think there are some instances where it’s obviously useful (i.e. if you’re actually living in a particular country or if you are dealing with people in another country on a regular basis), but if you’re working from more of a policy side then I don’t think you end up using it much in all reality.</li>
</ol>
<p>Due to technology and because of English now being taught to kids in many schools around the world basically seems like one might as well go with whatever language they like/want?</p>
<p>In North America as you say there is an overabundance of French and Spanish (native) speakers. </p>
<p>FWIW, I speak Swahili, but I’d need a “modern major langauge” for the MA. </p>
<p>How strict is the UN on knowing at least 2 of the big five? And is it the UN <em>only</em> or any International Organization?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/912961-what-kind-job-would-i-able-get-un.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/912961-what-kind-job-would-i-able-get-un.html</a></p>
<p>Point is. Don’t worry about what UN thinks. It’s a very, very long shot to get in. Do what you are comfortable doing at the moment which seems like Italian. For now, use whatever language you’re most comfortable with to take your MA exam and then work on Italian should you want to do something with it for a career.</p>