<p>Jonri–I agree that many US students (in any field) have a difficult time jumping over the foreign language hurdle, regardless of the number or type of languages. One thing I hadn’t mentioned in my long post was that our family lived in several foreign countries when our kids were younger–one of them being the country of language 2, her high school language. I wouldn’t call her fully fluent in that language BUT hearing a lot of languages and learning a little of each does amazing things to kids. First, it opens their brains to other sounds so they are not so stuck on the American English way of looking at words. Most important, they see the utility of foreign languages and learn how great it feels to read a menu, talk to a shopkeeper, translate for a friend. In my opinion, looking at the way I learned languages in HS and seeing friends’ kids struggle, students in the US don’t feel the pressing need to learn a FL enough to actively engage in learning one! Though that is changing rapidly.</p>
<p>I didn’t think my D was going to be our foreign language kid. BUT learning a language in college really taught her a discipline that she realized she was good at, and which was a formula she could apply to other languages. Also, History grad school wasn’t even a glimmer at that point, but she realized (being more of a Humanities person) it was truly the most valuable, concrete skilll she could take away from college, no matter what she did in the future. So she really applied herself to learning them. A couple she just reads, but the others she definitely speaks and hopes to keep using. her field is a transnational one, so multiple languages are even more important for her than, let’s say a Medievalist or an Americanist.</p>
<p>She went to a small college, and one thing which was key to her success is close relationships to faculty. Not only for their recommendation letters, but for helping her think through what she wanted to study and how she might cast her net in order to be a more attractive candidate. Also for giving her advice on what to look for in different schools’ departments and helping her network in general.</p>