<p>i would think that arabic would be essential if u wanted to get involved with business in India (which of course is a huge partner in trading now), or chinese for china (duh...). </p>
<p>In school i took French, and would consider takign that for Tufts. But is French that useful on the global scale in terms of finding a good job for IR?</p>
<p>what do u guys think, and prospective IR students, which do u think ur gonna take?</p>
<p>I'm not entirely sure why you think Arabic would be helpful for business in India. As far as I know, most people there speak Hindi, unless Arabic is the language for business or something.</p>
<p>I would think Chinese or Japenese would be helpful, but other than that I'm not sure.</p>
<p>Yeah Arabic is not widely spoken in India. Hindi and English (remember it used to be British) will be much more helpful to you. Urdu uses the same alphabet as Arabic and is spoken in Pakistan, but the two languages are completely unrelated otherwise. </p>
<p>French may be important for some aspects of IR, but since the 1950s it's steadily been replaced by English as the global lingua franca.</p>
<p>Chinese will be helpful for business in China and elsewhere in East Asia, as many other countries have influential Chinese minorities and many people learn at least some Chinese.</p>
<p>I have a question as well.</p>
<p>If I am looking to go into a career in the U.N., Amnesty Intl, WHO, State Dept, etc...which language would be most beneficial?</p>
<p>I'm not sure Duffman. I'd like to know the answer to that.</p>
<p>I have 12 years of Hebrew and wanted to learn Arabic, possibly major in middle eastern studies.</p>
<p>The language that will be most useful is one you know well. I would concentrate on mastering fluency -- real fluency -- in one foreign language, unless you are certain that starting a new language completely from scratch will be benefitial.</p>
<p>Well, I have absolutely no background in any language other than english, so I will be starting from scratch. I took two years of Spanish, but I really didn't care and really disliked it, so I would never take it again.</p>
<p>For work in the U.N., consider French. Although English has rapidly become the lingua franca of international diplomacy, French is still important for international organizations. For Amnesty International, State Dept., etc., Spanish is a huge asset, as well as for any type of governmental work in this country.</p>
<p>Wouldn't Chinese be more useful though in reality. I mean, French has really just about died out as the language of any diplomacy, and by the time I graduate, I sincerely think it will be dead, as for Spanish, I don't plan on working in South America really, more likely Africa, India, Asia, and even still from what I've heard, the dialects of small groups in S. America are so vaguely spanish, that you need to relearn a new language with the people anyway. </p>
<p>I don't know, I think I might go with Chinese, I wish I could take Hindi, but no one offers it.</p>
<p>I think Farsi will prove to be a huge asset in the future, but I'm reasonably sure that's not offered at Tufts. Anyways, the languages that the State Dept defines as critical needs languages:</p>
<p>Arabic; Chinese (Cantonese and Standard/Mandarin); Indic languages (e.g.,Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Bengali, Punjabi); Iranian languages (e.g. Farsi/Persian, Dari, Tajiki, Pashto); Korean; Russian; and Turkic Languages (e.g. Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek</p>
<p>As far as specializing in the Romance languages, I'd have to agree that'd be a waste of time. Tons of people speak those languages, and its relatively easy to become fluent. I think taking the time to learn a more difficult language will pay off in the end; the State Dept for example awards extra "points" in the application process to those who are fluent in a critical needs language.</p>
<p>The kids I've talked to who opted for Chinese somewhat regret it. Just a note of warning. They think it's ridiculously hard and spend tons of time studying for it.</p>
<p>I'm in Spanish and I love love love it. I think, because I was already bilingual, it was easy to pick up another language, but I was largely bored with Spanish in high school. It was at Tufts that I truly started loving the language because the program here is excellent. However, I'm sure that each language program is just as good, just that Spanish has many similarities to English, whereas Chinese is a whole different ballgame. The kids who take it all laud their professors but think it's insanely difficult.</p>
<p>Also, this may be helpful - some departments offer "Intensive" language courses, in which you essentially take two semesters' worth of language within one semester. My roommate does this for Chinese, so she covered Chinese 1 AND 2 last semester and 3 AND 4 this semester. It means you finish the language requirement way earlier, but it's basically two classes' worth of the same language every semester, which gets tedious.</p>
<p>Here's another thing to take into consideration - do you plan on studying abroad? I know that it's ironic now that we realize we have to study abroad based on the language we decided to study in 7th grade. Meaning, I'll prob. end up in Chile while many of my friends go to France. (Not that that's a bad thing, I REALLY want to go to Chile.) If you wanted to go to a particular place to study, choose the language of that place b/c you have to be up to level 22 to go there, aka finish levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 21 and 22.</p>
<p>^ I thought about that, but I plan on studying abroad in Geneva, Africa, or China...and the first two don't really have "official" languages other than English...</p>
<p>What if I'm already fluent in Mandarin and want to take a new language (Farsi/Arabic)? Would that be advisable?</p>
<p>Tufts offers Arabic, but not Farsi. Sure, you can take a new language if you're fluent in another -- I'm fluent in three, and I kept taking languages just because I enjoy learning them. I would advise, however, that when you get to Tufts you just take the Mandarin placement exam and place out of the language requirement. Then you can decide to take a language or not, but you won't be bound by the 6 semesters that everyone else is. I found that passing out of the requirement allows you much more flexibility with other courses, and you can even try to graduate early if you'd like.</p>
<p>I honestly think that Hindi will not be as useful as other languages in business. Sure, India is a growing power in the world economy, but it's also a former British colony where people are very likely to know English. I hear that Chinese (Mandarin, I guess) is more useful because it's spoken among people who are less likely to know English than Indians. I personally also think Arabic is an extremely relevant language to learn.</p>
<p>All these people bashing French - French <em>is</em> useful in today's world. My mother works with a French company through her work and often has language problems. French is the official language of a number of former African colonies. French is also one of the (admittedly many) official languages in Geneva, which I believe someone mentioned. Okay, so I'm obviously I biased francophile, but French is not nearly as obsolete as some of you are making it out to be.</p>
<p>(Disclaimer: I recognize that I am not an expert in these matters and I apologize for any incorrect generalizations I might have made)</p>