If you do the Princeton-in-Beijing program (which is by competitive application), you will complete the langauge requirement at the end of the summer after your freshman year.
Language recommendations (coming from a comparative literature major): any of the Romance languages are pretty painless, but...practically everyone takes either those or Chinese. That said, I have a strong affinity for the French & Italian and Spanish & Portuguese departments. Great professors, fun classes, very interactive, and (if you ignore the brainchildren who clearly only want to learn the material and get the hell out of the class) great foundations for further study of literature and culture at Princeton. You really do need to go through 207 (or even 307) to be able to get a firm grasp on the language, though.
Chinese is really difficult, but a great way to make friends. It requires six classes a week, though, as well as an individual session with your drill instructor. Classes get pretty close and you can often see people walking through campus and along the Street saying "ni hao" and all that to each other. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and the Chinese kids get muscled up together
The professor and lecturers are what make Chinese what it is, though. I tried to do it my freshman fall when Perry Link was teaching and found it a little too intense with everything else I was doing that semester, so I dropped it. There's a new professor now, though, and the lecturers are getting overhauled as well, so things will be different next year.
Japanese is less strenuous than Chinese, but it's still an East Asian language. My friend took it last year, though, and loved the class and the instructors. They were, to quote her, "cute." She's now at a study abroad program doing the equivalent of JPN 105 and 107, much like the Princeton-in-Ishikawa program offered.
German is supposed to be a great class because of the professor, Jaimie Rankin. He has a great reputation as an energetic and committed professor who even invites his classes to dinner at his house where you get an excellent German meal. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking this one next year, and I'm really excited. Plus, you can combine second- and third-semester German into one intensive course in the spring, and then go to Princeton-in-Munich over the summer to take GER 107.
Arabic is getting much more popular now with more and more kids each year either majoring or getting a certificate in Near Eastern studies. Not as hard as Chinese but not as easy as the Romance languages, it's a great language to know now. Populated by a lot of politics, Woody Woo, and economics majors. That's not deterring me from starting it next year, though.
Swahili's fun! Man, I really wish I could take this class, but...it's at 9 a.m. Still, the professor is
amazing: really nice, fun, and smart (he lectures in the comp lit department as well). And, in contrast to the other languages, it doesn't meet on Friday. So...if you don't mind the early class, that could be a big plus.
If you want a
really easy language (and you've already completed the language requirement in a Romance language), take Portuguese. Really fun class, the professors are
so nice, and it only takes two semesters before you're ready to hit Brazil and live it up. On the first day you start speaking nothing but Portuguese and never look back. In fact...if you need any kind of grade padding, take this class.
Russian is also cool, but I haven't known as many people who've taken it. Generally they say it's really hard at the beginning but gets easier once you get the alphabet and script down (which happens in like...the first two weeks). Professor is, according to the student guide, great.
Overall, take something you're interested in. Don't think of the language requirement as a requirement but a way for you to incorporate new things into whatever you're studying. I guarantee you it will help you later on when you're doing independent work (whether reading foreign papers in the sciences or incorporating foreign sources into your independent work in the humanities and social sciences). Plus, Princeton pays out fairly well to send kids abroad both during the semester and during the summertime.
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