Will it appear bad if I drop foreign language?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi</p>

<p>I'm currently a Sophomore and I have been In Japanese class this year and last. I absolutely positively without a doubt despise that class. Uggh, It's eating so much of my time up and I work on Japanese homework more than any other class, and I still am super bad at it! I didn't want to be placed in Japanese and they put me into that class becasue apparently Spanish, Latin, and french were all full..... I really don't want to take it a third year, so do you think it would be acceptable to the top colleges if I simply dropped it and replaced it with classes that actually interest me? I'm also already fluent in my parents language..... </p>

<p>Also do you think I should ask that the counselor attach a letter to my application saying that the school forced me into taking Japanese class? And are there any colleges which mandate that you take 3/4 years rather than just encourage it? </p>

<p>Thanks.....</p>

2

<p>I don’t know of any colleges the REQUIRE 3/4 years of a language, but it may disadvantage you greatly in the admissions process when most applicants have taken 3 or 4 years of the same foreign language and you have not. However, you did say that you speak your parents’ language at home, so that may help you a little. What kind of classes would you take instead? If you take challenging and perhaps unique classes in place of Japanese, you may be alright. Talk about it with your counselor.</p>

3

<p>Thank-you for your thoughtful answer.</p>

4

<p>Your question has been asked several times in the past few weeks on CC. I encourage you to do a search on “foreign language” for the replies.</p>

<p>In brief many selective colleges strongly encourage you to take 4 years of one foreign language. You can do this by starting the language at level 1 in high school, or by placing into a higher level of the language in high school, as for example if you’ve taken the language in middle school, and then completing the language through level 4.</p>

<p>You can find the suggested curriculum for applicants at many college web sites. The example of Harvard’s recommendation regarding language is often quoted on this site.</p>

<p>Perhaps you are not thinking of a very selective college. If not, then perhaps these recommendations for selective colleges don’t apply to you. Make sure you’re not closing a door by dropping it early.</p>

5

<p>I don’t understand why taking 4 years of a FA is so important. After high school I won’t ever take Japanese again, nor do I have any interest in ever going to Japan… And I know it will never benefit me in my future career because I would need near-native level fluency to do anything meaningful with it. I’m URM so I hope that will balance out the lack of a FA.</p>

6

<p>The simple answer: Yes. It will put you at a significant disadvantage in competitive admissions pools. If you’re looking at very selective colleges, suck it up and stick with Japanese.</p>

<p>For the long answer, search for one of the innumerable threads which have previously answered this question.</p>

7

<p>Would It be better to drop Japanese or deal with B’s?<br>
Honestly I have a choice between jumping ship and saving my GPA or dealing a year or two more of B’s…</p>

8

<p>Unequivocally, just deal with Bs. Two Bs is not a huge issue. Don’t focus so much on grades.</p>

<p>Even though I do poorly, I chose to stick with French through the AP level. You just have to suck it up.</p>

<p>Not having a consistent foreign language is a big issue and would raise red flags.</p>

9

<p>Why is it necessary to learn another language? I already speak two fluently. Even If I go through 4 years of this Japanese b.s I’ll still be no where near proficiency and I’d sacrifice my GPA!</p>

10

<p>What language do you speak fluently?</p>

<p>As for why, the simple answer is that colleges like to see it. Don’t ask me, ask them. Just understand that if you don’t take another year, you’ll be undermining your chances.</p>

11

<p>I speak Kiswahili and English (obviously) fluently. I also have a working knowledge of Arabic.</p>

12

<p>I was going to suggest you could take an SAT subject test to demonstrate proficiency, but unfortunately there isn’t one for either Arabic or Kiswahili.</p>

<p>Barring some other way to demonstrate fluency, I definitely recommend you take 2 more years of Japanese.</p>

13

<p>Wow. Hundreds of millions of people speak Arabic yet they don’t have a test for it? Look at how terrible the system truly is! I can’t believe they have one for Korean… </p>

<p>I think it would be just as acceptable to replace Japanese with other, just as hard, classes that actually interest me. Now ask yourself this, why would colleges want me to stay in a language I have no interest in and will not peruse in UG?</p>

14

<p>I cannot explain the motivations of the College Board and colleges.</p>

<p>All I can tell you is that top colleges expect 3+ years of a single foreign language. So long as you’re meeting all your other core curricular requirements, you should really take Japanese, as much as you hate it. Or, decide to settle for one of the less selective but fine institutions in this nation. That’s your call: do you want to work hard, even when you don’t want to, to get what you want?</p>

15

<p>Romulus,</p>

<p>You are asking a question about how <em>adcoms</em> at highly selective colleges would look at you only taking 2 years of foreign languages (when these kinds of schools clearly ask for and prefer students to doso) and then <em>answering</em> the question from <em>your</em> pov. That makes no sense. You can think what you want aka “I think it would be acceptable to XYZ” – yes, of course what you think is what you think, that’s circular logic and if you just want to ask yourself questions and answer them, lock yourself in a darkened bathroom and talk to yourself in different voices and listen to your own echo.</p>

<p>What do actual <em>adcoms</em> think? Why is this a requirement? There are probably a few thousand readily available articles online that talk about both A) the weeding out process at highly selective colleges B) the merits of academically studying a foreign language for 4 full years not to mention C) the problems of verifying that yokel-applicant Sam Smith <em>really</em> speaks a random foreign language fluently… at some point it is just not worth the time or money to have these tests readily available in unlimited amount of language choices.</p>

<p>In brief, if you want to go to a highly selective college, then you are better off jumping through the hoops. You can shout “But I’m an individual!!” and buck the requirements, but you may well be doing it from your 2nd tier choices of schools instead. Maybe you’ll luck out, just make sure it is worth it in case it doesn’t work out, because admissions are fickle enough to begin with.</p>

<p>You ask “why would colleges want me to ______” … you mistakenly think colleges are going to treat you like an individual. There will be far more hoops than 4 years of a foreign language to jump through when at college that will likely make even less sense… so be sure to check out the nitty gritty of the college degree program at your target/s schools to know what you are getting into ahead of time!</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

16

<p>Romulus, I think it’s awesome that you speak Kiswahili and Arabic. I traveled to Tanzania last summer and thought it was a really cool language…I hope to take classes in it in college. Anyways, perhaps if you integrated your being able to speak Swahili and Arabic into your college essays, then that would make up slightly for your dropping Japanese (if you do.) I think if you had some kind of creative approach, you would have the potential to really stand out.</p>

17

<p>Read the websites of the schools that you are interested in applying to. It would have been better if you had dropped Japanese after the first year and then took 3 years of spamish or french. I’d guess that if you drop Japanese you pick one of those for your next 2 years, but it’s a guess. It wasn’t right of your school to make you take an Flang that you were not interested in. And perhaps you knowing other languages will mitigate the problem. Did you discuss this with your GC yet?</p>

<p>fyi this is a partial of what is on Harvard’s site:</p>

<p>Many secondary school students take a smattering of several languages – for example, Latin for two years, French for a year, and Spanish for a year. When it is too late, they realize that they cannot read or speak any of these languages well. We urge you to try to study at least one foreign language and its literature for four years. Continuity of study is important, too, because a “year off” from a language can be a real setback.</p>

18

<p>To the idea of mentioning the Swahili in a college essay to make up the lack of foreign language - my instinct is to say that it would still lack heft, especially if the language is only spoken at home. Again, I’m attempting to view this from the perspective of an experienced adcom.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>On the plus side, some adcoms will like that kind of profile of a kid speaking a different language at home</p></li>
<li><p>On the down side, it may not be enough to offset the lack of 4 years of for. lang. study</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Just for a quick answer to the inevitable “but why?” question …</p>

<p>1) One purpose of the for. lang. requirement is to get students to analyze grammatical structure of a second language - speaking a 2nd language at home often means zero of this skill. In fact, often when students who have this kind of exposure to language take the book-class, while their comprehension and speaking skills are great, they can also at times be the worst in actual ability to handle grammar issues.</p>

<p>2) The OP is struggling in 2nd year Japanese. This might be a lack in grammar skills logic (see #1) or perhaps a second area - working in other alphabet/symbol systems. Again, 4 years of working with this is impressive.Quitting after 2 years for a lot of excuses is not.</p>

<p>3) Don’t underestimate the character/perseverance it takes to stick out 4 years of language. Adcoms like that. If nothing else, do it for the experience… HS happens only once and 4 years is a blink of an eye. You only have 2 years left…see? That was quick.</p>

<p>You also have options of self-studying this summer to get ahead. Analyze where you fall behind… do you need to read more? Memorize your vocab more thoroughly? Get familiar with the kanji (or whathave you) symbol system? Go back and restudy some section of the grammar? In 3 months you can probably get ahead of the curve. Hire a tutor - a graduating senior who did well in 4th year or a native speaker who is gifted in helping you get better at it (just because someone is a native speaker doesn’t mean they will understand the remedial study you need). Etc. How you handle this challenge in order to stay in the class is likely going to be worth more than what you gain in #1.</p>

<p>4) While you can’t see it yet, studying languages (like math) helps build mental agility… believe it or not, your HS aged brain is extremely flexible and capable of learning things rapidly and you might as well actually <em>challenge</em> it with something. You could look at Japanese as a sign that you have <em>finally</em> been challenged for the first time in your life… to shy away is to actually succumb to the urge to be average and safe (two qualities that are not impressive to adcoms).</p>

<p>Chances are adcoms will see through your excuses of why you quit Japanese at year 2, even in a clever essay.</p>

19

<p>

Amen. For my first 2 years, I was really struggling with French and was considering dropping it. Instead, I decided to perservere and kick its ass.</p>

<p>I applied for a scholarship to study in France and basically taught myself French 3 over the summer. Now I’m one of the top students in my class, from having gotten Bs.</p>

<p>So, make your decision. Either give up and realize the ramifications or decide to persevere and see how you can beat Japanese. Consider it a game.</p>

20

<p>Honestly guys I would stick with Japanese but my school is making the entire course rather difficult. Firstly we have different levels of ability in the class. There is a local magnet middle school nearby and the kids there take Japanese for 3 years (6,7,8) and are then put into SECOND level Japanese in high school…with the kids who took Japanese only last year (9th). So then the teachers have to be able to accommodate both these skill levels. And the class also has a significant group of Chinese kids who already know the Kanji (Japanese symbol system) becasue it is the same thing they learned in weekend Chinese schools for most of their lives. So if she tries to teach them, it becomes to hard for us. If she tries to teach us, it becomes crazy easy for them so they just chat away. </p>

<p>The teacher is also going to fast, we have to learn 350 Kanji this year, and I simply cannot keep up. There is three alphabets (hirigana, katakana, kanji) and many different grammar patterns that are so different from English and my home language and are very difficult for me to learn…especially since I didn’t have the benefit of going to the magnet middle school that unfortunately feeds into my school. </p>

<p>So that is my problem. A ridiculously difficult course which is completely unfair. A course I was forced into becasue my school school counselor told me there was no 4th period Spanish, Latin, or French and that he was to lazy and unwilling to switch my entire schedule around. Uggh, I hate this.</p>