My D is an incoming freshman. She took 3 years of Latin in HS with the last year being junior year (when the teacher retired and was not replaced). She doesn’t want to continue with Latin. So she intends to start a new foreign language at Pomona to satisfy the foreign language requirement. She doesn’t have a strong inclination toward any particular language. She is tentatively going to be a chemistry major with possibly a later goal of law school or maybe some public policy type of field. But in terms of career or post graduate plans, she’s not committed to anything in particular yet.
Any tips or recommendations on choice of a new foreign language? Any to avoid at Pomona and/or the Consortium?
She should take what ever language intrigues her the most. College is a time to branch out and be daring. I told my just finished freshman daughter as she left for school to stop worrying about grades and become an educated person. It was the best year of her life.
Your daughter and my son are in the same boat. (Latin 3+ years through junior year / Chem major, etc.)
For what it’s worth, he’s going to take freshman Spanish. He didn’t love Spanish in 7/8th grade, but is hoping that after taking 3 years of Latin that it will come easier this time around (and he’s counting on having a better teacher, too).
That said, I’m encouraging him to at least consider German. As a Chem major, German is actually very useful and even used to be, until 20 years ago, actually required, as so much of the foundational to semi modern research was actually being done in Germany. But I don’t think that’s the case any more.
When D went to Admitted Students Day, a German professor was on the faculty panel that spoke to the parents. I was impressed by him and I also encouraged D to at least consider German. We’ll see what she and her advisor decide. She has so many friends going to the local state university and they’ve all had their classes selected and roommate and dorms assigned for months. She’s not complaining since she picked Pomona for the small school, individualized attention. But the suspense is killing her. At least roommate assignments finally came out.
FWIW, D continued with her HS language (French) freshman year so that she could just get the FL requirement out of the way. However, after interning the past year or so in local hospitals, she wishes she had used that time to actually learn Spanish (which she will now do on her own).
German is one of the least useful foreign languages though, because the Germans all speak fluent English and will switch in a heartbeat if your German isn’t perfectly fluent.
I went through Spanish at Pomona and to be honest it wasn’t significantly different then what you would learn at a community college, although I suspect the advanced courses probably differentiate quite a bit. I had a few friends who went through Chinese and enjoyed it though
