sf606508

yeah, that's actually part of the problem i sort of have with Wes. There are about 20 schools in the country named that. it has next to no instant name recognition, unlike Bowdoin or Club Midd. No, why the hell would i even go to school in Ohio, right in the middle of the rustbelt?

It's the one in Connecticut. Although the whole concept of a business-friendly second language is pure rubbish. Many times have I watched in sheer fascination as some unfortunate bloke wrapped up in the latest lingo fad tortures himself with Spanish or Chinese.

and about elitism: go read Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes (one of the two books Teddy Roosevelt believed every boy must read), or if you want a N. American example, Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. there is a lot more nuance to it than you think, stuff that couldn't be summed up by populist republican (in the French sense of the word) claptrap

Swissas

THis forum is completely full of idiots who seem to know little or nothing about IBanking. Firstly you have to know English, that is key. Languages such as Arabic, German, Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian whatever would be useful if you are located overseas and for business. And for those that keep on bashing German: Germany is the second largest exporter of goods in the world. Switzerland is an economic hub with a multitude of hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks located in the country. Swiss Companies include the likes of Glencore, Credit Suisse, Rothschild, Sarasin, Nestle, Novartis, Swatch, ABB, Kühne + Nagel and the list goes on with most of them located in the German speaking part. You may not be working for a German company but you will most likely have interaction with them.

johnwesley

I'm beginning to think sf606505 is not a real Wesleyan frosh, but someone intent on embarassing the school by making troll-ish posts. Wesleyan (the one in Connecticut), btw, has one of the most easily recognizable brands of any small college in the U.S. It's almost impossible to use the word "quirky" or "politically active" in the context of college selection without thinking of Wesleyan first, followed by Vassar, Oberlin then, Swarthmore, then perhaps Columbia, Brown, or Berkeley or a host of others before one thinks of any other college with the word Wesleyan included in its name.

And, in case it isn't obvious, at Wesleyan, the question would not be what language would one need to become an i-banker, but rather, what languages would be in the best interests of someone whose country is presently occupied fighting two wars on foreign soil? But, maybe that's just me.

TruthSmoker

You may not need to know it to work there, but it is definitely a HUGE advantage to have Arabic fluency and work in the Middle East. Think automatic job offers/promotions. Heck, the US army offers an automatic 200,000 tax-free per annum to anyone fluent in Arabic willing to work with US military or military contractors in Iraq, no prior experience or college qualification needed. Sure there's a higher risk and that accounts for such a salary, but it's the same idea.

sf606508

Too bad, johnwesley, the sort of policy you advocates (diversity) comes back to hit you on the head. I am sure as hell that amidst 3,000 (or something like that) bleeding-heart "politically active" liberals, the admit office chaps must have thought, "oh here he's not even remotely liberal, fav. hobby is skiing and talks about character and ethos in his essay, let's take him, maybe he's revive the (defunct and abeyant) Young Republicans at Wes." That's diversity for ya.

Your logic for questioning my frosh status (sorry I actually don't know what the word frosh means) is pure ludicrousness. I would love to offer you some proof, but on second thought, won't bother with the privacy issues.

And I am not too sure your sense of "name recognition" as being quirky or politically active does much for future captains of industry or Masters of the Universe. I would love to concur with you, but am looking at eventual transfers to Midd, Bowdoin, or Colby pending me actually being able to do something for the Wesleyan Young Republicans.

megaman123

sfblabla. I 'm not even going to go about pointing out the myriad of faulty arguments that plague your posts. But in any case, yeah, I'm sure people in Spain make fun of latinamerican spanish, as do British people of american english, but that doesn't reduce the value of either one. In any case, from what I can gather from your posts your contact with the actual world, and the use of languages, is probably reduced to what you watch on tv, so I'll just ignore the rest of your remarks,

johnwesley

sf606505 - when are you going to admit that if you were white you would never have gotten into Wesleyan?

sf606508

I doubt it, johnwesley. White conservatives as as rare a breed at Wes as Asian conservatives. Granted, most asian-americans are pretty liberal, so i stood out. But how many 2400-SAT guys does Wesleyan get to have? Most are snapped up by the likes of Amherst and Caltech (i am a general arts guy); Wesleyan gets mostly the leftovers. That and they probably thought my music thing and their (apparently very good) music department was a good match.

You go to Wes. you should check out the retention rate. yeah, not that good. year 2006, enough transferred out to make place for 70 transfers-in.

Magaman, i took 8 years of pretty rigorous, official bilingualism-level French. I can speak it a lot better than most Americans can speak Spanish. I listen to French radio (Radio-Canada) everyday. I read more Jules Verne than the vast majority of Anglophones in the world.

And you just indicated how ignorant you are of the Hispanic world when you analogised the Spanish (pennisulare)-New World comparison to the British-American one. Brits (as do a lot of people ) make fun of a specific sort of accent: the stereotype of Texan cowboy-redneck. They got no issues with or any condescension toward say, regular mid-Atlantic English or even New York accent. the Bronx accent, for example, is viewed much the same way Cockney (or nowadays i guess Jafaican) is viewed in Britain.

The Spanish (Pennisulare) - New World difference, on the other hand, isn't just peculiar instance. True Spaniards look upon the entirety of New World Spanish with disdain, perhaps less in some cases; they see it not as just a variation, but a corruption of the true language. Wonder why Hispanic mestizos have a regular habit of trying to claim that they are almost-pure or pure European, or failing that, exaggerating the proportion of their European ancestry? The whole inferiority complex is built into the culture, far before the Spanish Empire, since the time of Reconquista, when Spanish knights wold hold up their arms to show the blue vein and thus blood "uncontaminated" by the Moors.

sf606508

and johnwesley, please, someplace like Wesleyan should have atl east taught you to refrain from vicious ad hominem attacks like post #33. one can only hope it is not that sort of blunt intolerance in vogue at Wes.

aj16

What the hell are you talking about!! Jeez! You just go on and on about such random things that were'nt even asked of!

megaman123

wow....sfblabla, Yes how ignorant I am of my OWN culture, seeing as I'm from a latinamerican nation (not that I was simply born there, I've lived there for 16yrs). SO I can tell you first hand that I have NEVER met a single castillian (because you're sure as hell not going to find for example someone from cataluña defending spanish) who has made fun of my spanish. But yeah I guess you can continue to lecture me about my language and culture, through your textbook experience.

PS. No one here gives a crap about your french skills.

Weskid

Totally off topic, but sf606508, the Young Republicans (or at least some sort of Republicans club) is live and well at Wes. It may have been defunct a few years ago, IDK, but it's going fine right now. Also, if you want name recognition, try a school that's not an LAC...most people who know Middlebury will also know to at least ask which Wesleyan you go to, if they don’t assume Wesleyan U (and will be impressed when you say the one in CT); most random people you meet won't know either.

Also, don't be surprised if you DO meet blunt intolerance here if you continue to spout remarks like calling the language on an entire continent provincial and hick like. Most people are more interested in hearing other viewpoints than you think; however, most are also intolerant of borderline racist Eurocentrist ramblings.

On topic: I don’t know much about I-Banking, but it does seem like Asian languages will be very useful in the future in any sort of business where you’ll be working internationally.

johnwesley

sorry guys, i know this is off-topic, but sometimes you have to weigh the risk of hijacking a thread against the benefits of some general admissions info. First of all, sf505606 is _not_ Asian American, he is Asian Canadian. Trust me, there are plenty of white, ski-loving, French-speaking, Canadians at Wesleyan.

Secondly, at a place with Wesleyan's high profile in the arts world, having a "music thing" hardly qualifies as a hook.

Thirdly, finding room for seventy transfers in a student body of nearly 3,000 is not that difficult. Wesleyan's retention rate for frosh is over 90%.

Yes, sf505606, I think the Asian conservative thing could work for you at Wesleyan. Wesleyan's pretty accepting of outrageous views if they come packaged in a non-threatening, humorous way. Wesleyan embraces awkwardness.

You can throw that away by going to Middlebury (or re-applying to Amherst) if you want to, but, what a waste if all you gain from the experience is somehow that pretension and Euro-centrism are good things in today's global economy (there, was that back on topic, sort of?)

sf606508

The global economy is still pretty Euro-centric. (in the cultural sense). 7 out of the G8 are of European heritage. That is perhaps some food for thought when picking second languages.

As a personal anecdote, when I recently worked as an interpreter for a mining consortium, it struck me how much Asian languages still have to "catch up" with the scientific developments of the last 500 years, happening mostly in Euro-American countries. It was very awkward translating some mining terms because the Chinese equivalent was so clearly non-native and indeed hard on the tongue. That's why I very much doubt that actually learning the Chinese (or Japanese or Korean) language will do as much as some claim. Global business is molded and developed in the English language (and some other European languages like, perhaps German in the technical fields).

juliushark

hehe I already know Arabic (both English and Arabic were cooperatively my first languages), and I know basic french from HS, might get serious about it in Uni

I think, depending on what I decide to study, I might go back to the middle east for work. ill make tons of money for reasons I cannot disclose other than the western degree