AMPH007

Hey everyone. I'm thinking of majoring in international relations with maybe a minor in a language. However I'm not sure exactly what language to study. I would enter college at French 3150 due to my AP test credits, so I would start with an obvious advantage. But I'm worried that French isn't the most practical option. I can also take arabic, spanish, and chinese. What language(s) do you think make the most sense to study in college?

zapfino

Why isn't French practical?
It might depend on whether or not you have interests in a particular world region?
French is one of the official UN languages. It also is useful for Western Europe and large parts of Africa, including certain areas of North Africa. It is useful for parts of the Caribbean, South Pacific, and SE Asia. French also may be useful for scholarly literature published in that language, including research on France's former colonial areas.

Spanish is primarily useful for Latin America and Spain. Arabic is useful for much of the Middle East, though not so useful in certain Islamic countries, e.g., Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, and certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa with Muslim populations. Chinese is useful for China, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Chinese diaspora in SE Asia.

Since you've already studied French, you could continue it and start one of the other languages, any one of which could be usefully combined with your French studies. You could take coursework in languages without declaing a formal minor.

The Twelve Most Useful Second Languages for English Speakers - a knol by Dominic Ambrose

vienneselights

No language you know at the level of a college minor is going to be advanced enough to be useful. Ergo, to really derive any benefit, you not only have to study the language, but also the culture, and undertake study abroad or other 'fieldwork', because knowing how to order a tagine in Arabic won't help you whatsoever irl.

An additional caveat with Arabic and Mandarin is that the multitude of spoken dialects is so diverse from their literary forms that you literally won't understand anything irl.

@zapfino lol@link. Who in their right mind would put Russian above Mandarin?

Dreburden

I think learning Mandarin Chinese solely for the purpose of work/business is pointless because pretty much all Chinese professionals that do business with Americans are already more proficient in English than you could ever hope to become at Mandarin. If you want to learn it still, do it for personal/enrichment purposes.

Blobof

I have to agree with vienneselights, studying a language is pointless if you don't want to learn about a culture associated with that language (as there may be more than one, particularly with former colonial empires...). The utilitarian view of "I need to know X language for business" is silly. The best way to learn a language is through immersion, and when that is not possible, the student needs at least the will to be immersed in the culture.

sweetchildofmine

Well, IMO learn the language you want to learn. You never know when a particular language will become handy. As long as you are willing to immerse in the culture and ways of the culture -as stated previously- you should do fine. If you go into business, not only will companies be located in different countries, but the people working in them will be from different countries as well.