<p>Overwhelming, right? I have a similar goal, and my research on the topic has shown me that there are two crucial questions someone in our situation should ask themselves:</p>
<p>What do I want to do?
You don’t need specifics, but you should have a field in mind (eg chemistry). Why know this? Because a double major is a fantastic idea! But not in two languages. If one major teaches you about something with more practical applications (a branch of science, engineering, etc) you will have far better job prospects than someone who knows several languages but has no job skills or technical vocabularies. Skills are required, multilingualism is what will set you apart in an international corporation. So rather than looking at schools with a good language program, look for a school with an excellent program for a field of study you are interested in, has a top-notch study abroad program, and has beginner level courses in languages you are interested in.
State flagships or other Large Unis are excellent places to start, I’ve found a lot of really promising ones. For example, VTech has really excellent study-abroads (even internships) in addition to it’s excellent science/engineering programs.</p>
<p>Where do I want to do it?
You will really only need to narrow this down to a region. With the languages you are interested in, you would be able to live in Latin America, Southwestern Europe, parts of Africa and the Middle East (although Arabic would also be advisable for that route), and South East Asia.</p>
<p>This question will decide which languages to learn, or at least to focus on, because if you are going to attempt to learn multiple languages during a four-year span, you better narrow it down to facilitate intensive study. Eliminate any languages you don’t have a non-economical reason to learn (by the looks of it, French). If you aren’t interested at a personal level, true fluency isn’t going to happen.
You may want to choose one particular family of languages to focus on. For example, written fluency in Chinese will make written fluency in Japanese a piece of cake (the Japanese borrowed the majority of their written language from the Chinese, so there are a HUGE number of written cognates), and make Korean (borrowed the same characters, but the Koreans make more extensive of their native alphabet) far easier, as well. Romance languages similarly tend to be gateway drugs, with a solid understanding of French leading to Spanish, which then leads to Portuguese, etc.</p>
<p>By the way, don’t believe the hype, Chinese isn’t impossible. Just be sure to spend as much time as you can watching Chinese shows, listening to Chinese music, etc. Also, look into the book “Remembering the Hanzi”, and its Japanese equivalent, “Remembering the Kanji”. </p>
<p>For someone as motivated as yourself, the most important thing to realize is that language classes are only really useful for learning the basics, grammar, and getting feedback from an expert. Once you are past a beginner level, native media (or time spent in a native country, both have the same effect) will teach you far more than your textbook. This means you will be able to double major (in one language, one academic interest), and take a few intro-level courses for other languages. Google “AJATT” and go to the Table of Contents for a basic rundown. The website author focuses on Japanese, takes the method to an extreme (achieved fluency in 18 months), and rambles about motivation, but the core info is priceless and applicable to any language. “Spanish-Only” applies the same method to Spanish, and is also worth a read. Following this philosophy, there’s no reason to wait until college to start learning.</p>
<p>IMO, it would be more beneficial to major in a language you haven’t had several years of classes in. Your Spanish and French are probably at levels where you already know enough that you can end your formal study of the languages and begin the fun part, expanding your vocabulary via native materials!</p>
<p>Now you are ready to start looking for colleges.</p>