any suggestions for foreign language?

hsmomstef
Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:28:16 +0000

my son had another few thoughts he wanted me to post –

Is he considering graduate study in any particular field? My son found that the area he is interested in will require French and German in order to do master’s/doctorate.

The teacher and department can make all the difference in the world! A great teacher can make any class fun, interesting and easy to learn. He might see if any particular language is more highly spoken of at the school he is attending.

See if it is harder to get into classes in certain language, how long they have been teaching the language and how many classes they offer. Arabic and Mandarin are newer languages for many colleges and I know that they have been having troubles getting qualified teachers. This sometimes means that the teachers really aren’t all that qualified (the know the language – but not how to teach) or the class enrollment is restricted and hard to get into or only a few classes are offered. All that could be a problem if that is the language he wants to gain fluency in (and I would think an IR major would want fluency, not just a certain number of semesters to meet the requirement).

Finally – he wanted me to stress againg – immersion, immersion, immersion! It is really the key to learning a language.