<p>Is this language requirement true for all PhD programmes? I’m interested in doing a physics program at an American university and I’m quite surprised that the math program needs you to learn russian french or german.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say if it’s true for all university PhD programs, but it’s quite possible. The purpose would be so that the student can read research in one of these other important language.</p>
<p>I think one big difference–if I am recalling correctly–between British and American universities is, in addition to the fact that British BAs take three years and American BAs take four, that in Britain, students are very focused on their particular course of study from the beginning, while in the U.S., that very often is not true. In most US universities, there are a number of general requirements, such as language, science, history, English, that everyone has to take in their first two years before they move on to concentrating on their own specialties. So it would be normal for American students to have several years of language as a university requirement.</p>
<p>I’m not attending an American university and i doubt if my university will teach any language. So what should I do? Take a french course from an external org? And how proficient do you need to be? I know someone mentioned it should be just enough to translate research papers using a dictionary but I’m not sure how difficult that would be having never seen a foreign research paper</p>
<p>There are a lot of books such as “French for Reading” by Sandberg that would probably suffice. You don’t really need to speak the language, only understand it when reading it. So self-study is probably your best option.</p>
<p>You could also contact some of the admissions or departmental people at schools you will consider attending, and get someone to give you the low-down.
You could start by just emailing the departmental secretary and explain your situation and they would be able to direct you to someone who knows.
Departmental secretaries names and emails will be on websites for the departments of schools you want to apply to.</p>
<p>Once again, these are generally exit requirements, <em>not</em> entrance requirements. You’ve got 5 years to pick it up, and the bar is generally low enough to do it in 1 or 2.</p>
<p>Oh that really makes a big difference… I thought it was an entrance requirement. I’m cool with learning it while doing a PhD, but its harrowing to think i’d need to do it to get into a PhD program</p>