Foreign Languages

It seems like it is a general requirement for every major in the College of Arts and Sciences that you have to take a certain amount of credit hours in a foreign language. Here it is 3 semesters. I've always thought it was a racket, they make us buy expensive books written by the head of the department for each of the classes in the series and the majority of students have to do it. I also always felt that that it was unfair that that try and get first semester freshmen to take the foreign language when college is so new to them and so stressful I always thought it was a weeding out process. How do you guys feel about it? What are the requirements at your school? What once have you taken in high school and in college?

4 years- High School French
1 quarter -Collage Latin (at my first university that I didn't stay at before the whole state switched to semesters)
1 semester- College German
2 semesters - College French and one to go!

But I'm really bad at french.You know in Inglorious Bastards when Brad Pitt is all like “I speak the most Italian.”? And then when it comes to hes all like “Bawnjourno.” In the worst stereotypical American accent in the world?

…Yeah thats how I feel everyday in French.

French teacher: Something beautiful and flowing french.

Me: Bawnjour, MaaDam. Gem apple Amber.

I feel this on a serious level! My school required we took at least 4 years of French in secondary school before you could drop it, as well as introductory classes for two years in primary school. That was hell, because I used to speak French (and still do when I need to use it) in the most broad Scottish accent I can muster. I can't even stop it, it's ridiculous. I failed my oral speaking test twice because of my accent alone -- my teacher couldn't understand what I was trying to say because my accent messed with the word pronunciation.

We're lucky in Scotland that languages aren't a part of the curriculum unless you're studying a language. However, I'm currently on an exchange where our university is strong-arming us into online Dutch lessons, which is pretty cool but they expect me to have improved by the end of the semester and I'm still useless because I don't actually have classes, it's basically just a mini online vocabulary course (and it really is crap as well -- I've been using Duolingo but now they're complaining because I've not taken part in their own online courses so I'm having to use that and take their mini tests throughout) that makes no sense whatsoever. Besides, all of the Dutch students we've met have been so eager to practise their English skills with a native English speaker that they refuse to speak Dutch around us, which means that we're not picking up words in general conversation.

My high school required only two years of a language but I took four years of Classical Latin. I had a lot of fun with it too. It probably would've been more useful to take Spanish since it's such a popular language here in the U.S. but oh well.

I took two years of Latin in university too – they didn't offer a Latin placement test, so the first year was relearning everything I'd learned in high school. I was really impressed to see the university fit 3 years of high school curriculum into one year of college. The second year was the most fun because we were basically done learning the building blocks and could actually use the language to read & write like a literature class. We just felt Fancy.