Schools for studying languages

<p>I love studying languages. In fact, I would love to study "languages" as a whole. I sat for the AP French exam this past spring. I have been studying Gaelic for a year now through the community center and also, Japanese. I was shocked to realize that Berkeley has a Gaelic major. (so does Harvard, but I am not interested in Harvard). I am not stuck on studying Gaelic at all, but would definitely like to continue the Japanese and go further with the French. </p>

<p>Does anyone have suggestions of schools that are great for studying languages? I would prefer to not limit myself to NE schools too, but am open to them. </p>

<p>I have some schools on my list, but I am suspecting these are ones that no one would consider really for language study....Rice, TAMU, Austin College (which has a Japanese house and an amazing Japanese instructor), Trinity (doesn't have Japanese so not a likely at all), UT Austin, OU, ...those are area schools on my list. </p>

<p>I have schools much further away on my "possibles" list, but I would like to know what is really worth looking at closer. Thank you!</p>

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<p>Middlebury College in Vermont is one of the most renowned language schools in the nation. I’d add that to the list, but be prepared as their sticker price is pretty scary. </p>

<p>I’d also add that if you really want to study a language, don’t rule out joining the military and going into the Defense Language Institute. I happen to be a graduate of that program in Russian and can assure you that they are probably the best language school in the nation - You will graduate with an Associates degree but also will be a better linguist after the 2-3 years of work after that.</p>

<p>I know the military isn’t for everyone…but wanted to throw it out there.</p>

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<p>Willamette University has an outstanding Japenese program but a poor French program for advanced speakers. </p>

<p>OU has an excellent international house option where students get to live with internationals (many of whom are brilliant and came to OU on a free ride). A guy in my friend’s frat did this and loved it.</p>

<p>Earlham College is known for Japanese but I’m not sure how appropriate its French department is for someone who’s already taken AP French.</p>

<p>If you can afford to go to Canada, McGill seems like a great choice. My friend spent a summer researching at another university in Quebec and came back fully fluent. </p>

<p>IU’s French and Japanese programs are quite strong and it has an outstanding summer language program
[Home</a> | Indiana University Summer Language Workshop](<a href=“Indiana University Bloomington”>Indiana University Bloomington)</p>

<p>Emory has an outstanding French program and a solid Japanese one. </p>

<p>If you do study the two languages, you’ll probably want to take a couple semesters abroad. OU is excellent at arranging these things and minimizing the hassle (one of my apartment mates studied abroad in both Italy and Wales), and I’m sure that other universities are also good at making the study abroad experience as easy as possible.</p>

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