<p>D is a incoming freshman and is having a hard time making a decision about what language to take. She intends to major in International Studies and Development but is unsure about which area of the world she wants to focus on. She has four yrs of HS Spanish so continuing that makes sense but at the same time she is interested in maybe doing study abroad in Africa and is curious about learning French. It seems like picking a language locks you into certain geographic tracks. How have others made that decision?</p>
<p>I am a HS senior~ Still waiting to hear from AU actually~ But I speak four languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Tetum). I was raised speaking English and my mom used to live in Mexico. She speaks fluent Spanish and didn’t really teach me growing up but freshman year I did a Spanish Intensive course in Peru. I learned Tetum because I volunteered in a children’s refugee camp in East Timor in 8th grade (it’s the official language of ET). I learned Chinese because I am obsessed with Asia and I have an Aunt from HK. If I get accepted to AU I am going to continue my Chinese and Spanish, but I also want to jump into Arabic and Russian. I would definitely say that she should learn the language of the region she is interested in. For me, Chinese for China, and Arabic for the Middle East. What’s nice about with French and Spanish is that they don’t necessarily lock you in~ They are spoken on almost every continent. I have an affinity for languages and want to learn as many as I can-- I don’t know that your daughter does as well, but if I were her I wouldn’t limit myself to only taking one language. Especially going to school in DC uses for every language will be found somewhere :)</p>
<p>Just because your D picks a language to fulfill the 2 year (or equivalent) language requirement does not mean she needs to choose her area specialization in a similar field. However, it would be quite illogical to do so. Unfortunately, it is likely that school advisers will tell you differently.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I would advise your D to not continue in Spanish if it has no practical use for her or if she doesn’t want to use it in the future. I did 4 years of high school Spanish too but I did Korean because I knew I wanted a focus on East Asia. These things are logical paths to specialization geographically and linguistically in an area of choice. </p>
<p>I would tell your daughter to do some soul searching on what she REALLY wants to do. Also, her ideas will likely change once she gets to AU. Plus, she will be taking gen eds and other courses in her first year so she won’t have to take language courses immediately. If I were your D, I would hold off and wait until I have a good idea.</p>
<p>Like the post above, there are people from all over the world who attend SIS who are bilingual, trilingual, and so forth. I would not suggest your D to take two languages because that may take away from her ability to do a possible double major, a minor, other concentration classes, etc… Unless your D is really into languages.</p>