Think it’s time to brush up on your Spanish? Well, you may be right, especially if you are considering registering for an undergraduate degree program. Every post-secondary institution that offers a degree program has different requirements when it comes to second language courses, so it’s up to you to find out what those are. They are, however, necessary credits that you’ll need to complete to get that all-important piece of paper—no matter that you’ve never spoken a word outside the English lexicon. It’s a tough choice, deciding what language to study, but if you’re still in high school, you have some time to think about it. Below, you can find my advice on what to take when you hit university and are looking to diversify your language skills.
Take a Language Class in your First Year
I really think this is good advice. Taking a language class in your first year has a couple benefits. First, you will meet people who you are forced—forced!—to interact with and speak funny words to and look ridiculous with. And that’s the key: You make friends faster in a language class than any other type of class out there. There is something about surviving the crucible of embarrassment when standing in front of a classroom of your peers mumbling broken words in a foreign language you couldn’t speak yesterday that brings people together, probably because you and they must survive it together and look like fools together. It’s a special trial.
On that note, because language classes don’t really discriminate when it comes to what major you take, you will find a diversity of individuals in your class. There will be an Engineering major, an English major, a Sociology major, an Accounting major; you name it, they’ll be there. “Why is this important,” you ask? Well, think about it. You make friends with a bunch of people who specialize in different areas. You have to pass elective classes. Put two and two together, and if you can’t do that, find the Engineering major in your class who can. Get me? Getting to know these people in your first semester will help you out a lot in the final three years of your undergraduate program. Just one friendly tip: Don’t just use your friends. Make sure you give as much as you take.
Balance Challenge and Interest
You’ll be faced with a variety of languages to do battle with, and it’s difficult to narrow down your choices to only one. On one hand, you have languages that you are interested in… and others that you are not. But maybe, just maybe, the languages you are interested in are difficult—and by difficult I mean that you have to learn another alphabet, or a set of symbols. Japanese, for example, or Chinese, use symbols in their writing, and that means you will have to put in significantly more effort in learning these written skills than you would have had to in a French class. I’ve taught individuals whose mother tongues are based on symbols rather than the phonetic alphabet that we use in English, and let me tell you, it is a tough haul for them to learn. These individuals have to learn so much more than, say, a Spanish speaker. The gulf in languages (and cultures) is so vast that covering that chasm can be quite a challenge—and for some, too much to handle. Taking a language class that uses a phonetic alphabet can be significantly easier to manage, and you’ll find that your grammar, reading, and writing skills will develop much faster, so I think tempering challenge and interest is a good starting point when selecting a class.
Decide What is Useful
You should consider selecting a language that you could potentially use in your given undergraduate program’s potential job pool. Let’s say you are taking nursing and are wondering what language elective to take. Well, ask yourself what language would be most useful for those jobs. Spanish or French are both good choices, but you may have to do a little research to figure this out. The best way to solve this issue is to do a quick search of jobs in those fields available now and see what languages come up most frequently. If you want to travel abroad and perhaps teach English as a second language after you complete your undergraduate program, look at the native language that you’d need to speak in that country. Basically, help yourself out by pursuing the language that will give you a leg up on your competition.
This last is about your GPA, your grades. They are incredibly important to your future job prospects and your continuing ed. One thing I’ve noticed about second language classes is that your language class’s GPA at the end of the semester will be a good indication of not how well you did, but of how much effort you put in. Zero effort in a language class awards you zero percent. Dedication in learning a language results in good marks. This, I guarantee you. However, make sure that you don’t overload yourself in the first year with too many classes, because second language classes can eat up a lot of your time and effort, and you don’t want to smear your GPA early. You’ve been warned!
Learning a second language is incredibly difficult, and it gets harder the older you get. So if you plan on learning one, learn it soon. In recap, take that class in your first year of university, and if you liked it, take the second-year equivalent. And when selecting the language you wish to study, make sure to balance your interests against the potential difficulty of the language. A stain on your GPA early on can really hurt you down the road. And finally, decide what’s useful to you, your career. Just don’t forget to put in the effort. Au revoire.