Spanish minor.. worth it?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Indiana University - Bloomington
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<p>Hello,
I'm an incoming freshman to IU, have had 4 years of spanish in highschool, tested into 250 level for spanish this year. I'm also in kelley. I'm planning on taking 250 and then applying for back credit to get my 6 credits needed for kelleys international dimension requirement. </p>

<p>What I can't decide is whether I want a spanish minor or if I want to leave room in my schedule for a different and maybe more useful minor like technology management or communications or something. I think my major will be marketing or management or maybe both. </p>

<p>I know that the world is becoming more and more of a global economy, and learning a language can help you advance in certain jobs. However, i'm not sure I would want one of those jobs.. and I don't particularly like spanish, although i've already had four years of it and know the language decently well through a good teacher and small classes. I knew enough to make it around Spain talking to locals.</p>

<p>My main question is; do you think i'll be at a disadvantage in the future for not having a minor in a language?? I'm thinking that most people who don't use that language in their immediate jobs will forget it over the years. Also, does anyone know how many additional classes it would take after 250 to get a minor? If its not many, i may just get it because it wouldnt take much effort. Also, i'm looking to keep my grades up, and the grade distributions werent very good for any of the spanish classes I looked at, with a majority of C's and only a few A's.</p>

<p>Any advice is appreciated, sorry it's so long.</p>

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<p>You would have to take five classes (including S250) to get the minor.</p>

<hr>

<p>Did you know that after S250 you would only need 4 more classes to receive your minor?

<p>That’s a lot if you don’t like Spanish. </p>

<p>You actually would be three credits more than necessary to fulfill the International Dimension requirement by taking S250 (and S250 won’t apply to the distribution option), when you could take two “area studies” classes (probably in the S&H distribution) that also double count for the 27 credit hour distribution option. The problem with that, in you case, is that there probably are not any area studies classes that would apply to the minors you are interested in. So if you are going to pursue minor like technology management or communications, it is probably better to just take S250 and get the international dimension out of the way.
[Kelley</a> School of Business Undergraduate 2008-2010 Online Bulletin: Bachelor of Science in Business](<a href=“http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/business/2008-2010/bachelor.shtml#intl]Kelley”>http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/business/2008-2010/bachelor.shtml#intl)</p>

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<p>I agree, that’s a lot of Spanish if you don’t like it. I would’ve thought about it except I hate it too, so I think I’m going to take S200 (which is where I tested; I took 4 years but didn’t do that well) and then double major in international business (which is only available as a comajor). If your concerned about getting a job in the global economy, I would think international business would help more than a spanish minor.</p>

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<p>TBH, Spanish is only worth knowing if you can speak it fluently and you stick with it after college. If you graduate from kelley with a degree you probably won’t have a job where you have to communicate directly with someone who only speaks spanish so it’s not necessary at all.</p>

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<p>That is a lot of spanish. I just want to leave more room in my schedule for classes i need to take as opposed to a minor I most likely won’t use. Thanks for the advice. I just feel like everyone I know is trying to do a minor or double major in a language and was becoming afraid that it would put me at a disadvantage for not knowing it. But like outsidesmoke said, it porbably won’t be useful and i’ll forget it.
Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Very, very few Kelley students do a double major in a foreign language, as that requires getting a BA, which is at least 50 credits beyond the Kelley BBS requirements.</p>

<p>Many do a foreign language minor, because if you test into high enough semester, you can do the minor and do the field specialization option in “Global Studies and Languages” with a lot fewer classes than it takes to the the distribution option. Say you test into HISP S280, take the class and pass it. That gives you 13 Spanish credits (4 for freshman year; six for S200 and S250, and three for S280). Then you just need to take five more three credit Spanish classes to be done with the 27 credit hour requirement. So that is six three-credit classes at IU to get the minor AND fulfill the distribution option, instead of nine three-credit classes at IU to fulfill the 27 credit hour core taking A&H, S&H, and N&M classes. And you also fulfill the International Dimension at the same time. </p>

<p>If you co-major in international business you have to do overseas study and a lot of other stuff. A lot of people with the international business co-major actually do minor in a foreign language, as they take language classes abroad instead of at IU in order to meet the minimum six study abroad credit hours.</p>

<p>International Business Co-Major Requirements: D301, D302, required foreign language study (minimum of six credit hours at 200 level or higher), required overseas study (approved program, minimum of six credit hours), six elective credit hours from D490, D496, F494 (Finance majors only), G494, L411, M401 (Marketing majors only), and X480, as well as an additional three elective credit hours from the above list or from ECON-E 303, ECON-E 309, ECON-E 331, ECON-E 332, ECON-E 337, EALC-E 393 and EALC-E 394. If EALC courses are used for the International Business Co-Major, they may not double-count for the 27-hour Core or for Supplemental General Education credit.</p>

<p>You said you tested into S250, then said it was S200.</p>

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<p>My son is minoring in Spanish following the scenario bthomp outlined above in paragraph 2. It was an efficient way to get Kelley’s gen ed requirement completed.</p>

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<p>“You said you tested into S250, then said it was S200”</p>

<p>I tested into S200, OP tested into 250</p>

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<p>O.K., S200. If you are doing the international co-major, then you definitely need S200 and S250. But if you are not, then it would be easier (six fewer credits to take) to get the International Dimension fulfilled by taking two S&H classes that “double count” for the International Dimension and the distribution option. The 200-level foreign language classes don’t apply at all to the distribution option’s 27 credit hours. Most people at Kelley who don’t take a foreign language use the “double counting” classes, and there are a lot of people at Kelley that don’t do a foreign language.</p>

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<p>bthomp,</p>

<p>Is that based off of new information you found? Because earlier you told me (here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/indiana-university-bloomington/939210-schedule-question-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/indiana-university-bloomington/939210-schedule-question-2.html&lt;/a&gt;) that I need six language credits in general. (not at 200 or above)</p>

<p>So will I have to take S200 or S200 and S250?</p>

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<p>Your question back then was . . . </p>

<p>“And for languages, if I test out of 2nd-3rd semester Spanish, I do not need to take a language class for international business right?”</p>

<p>It is confusing to talk about which semester you test into. It is less confusing to talk about 200-level, which for Spanish means S200 and S250 to get the six credits required for the International Business co-major (and the International Dimension requirement if you are using Spanish for that). </p>

<p>If you tested out of S200 that would mean you tested into S250. If you tested into S250, then, yes, you would only have to take S250 to get the six credits fulfilled. You would get three credits for S250 and three credits for S200 after you applied for the S200 credit.</p>

<p>But since you actually tested into S200 (instead of out of it), you now would have to take S200 and S250 to get the six credits for the International Business co-major and/or International Dimension if you just used the six Spanish credits for the International Dimension and skipped doing the co-major.</p>

<p>Alternately, if you did not do the co-major, you could not take any foreign language classes and still get the International Dimension fulfilled. You could take two A&H or S&H area studies classes (like History of Latin America I and History of Latin America II) that double count for the A&H or S&H requirements and can be applied to fulfill the International Dimension.</p>

<p>Sorry I mistated about only taking one three-credit class if you test into S200; I should have said only taking three hours if you test into S250. Talking about semesters is confusing, because you can do the first year of Spanish by taking two four-credit semesters (S100 and S150) or one four-credit semester (S105).</p>

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<p>Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I think I’m going to pass on international business as of now.</p>

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<p>If you are looking at taking one of the “double count” A&H and S&H classes instead of a foreign language, you can call Kelley advising to find out what classes qualify. tel. 812 855-0611</p>