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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP who did biology/French here. I'm not sure I understand the posts saying don't major in a foreign language just become fluent. At least for me, majoring in French was a path to fluency! In addition to ensuring that I stuck with the language and had lots of conversation courses, I did a semester abroad that really strengthened my speaking and listening comprehension. I actually didn't use my French for 5 years after college, then was tossed into traveling to Francophone Africa and my French came back completely--thanks to having spent so much time on it in college.

Not to mention getting to a level of fluency that lets you operate in a professional setting isn't just about speaking a language. It typically requires the ability to effectively read and write the language as well. For my job I have to be able to corresponded via email with French speaking, reading their reports, and provide feedback to them in French. This is actually a major gap that many of my colleagues who acquired language in different ways (e.g. by living in a certain country or through programs focused on training speakers) have noted to me. They can speak and read basics, but they aren't as strong on either spoken or written grammar. That is an advantage I feel my language major gave me.

Obviously majoring in a language isn't necessary, but how else do most people become fluent in other languages, outside of on the job training (e.g. Peace Corps, Foreign Service)? Sure, some people are incredibly self-motivated at doing things like Rosetta Stone, but without the structure of studying language as part of my college coursework I would not be fluent in anything today. [/quote]

I think the point is that majoring in a language is not the end all be all. For example--you double majored so you had another usable skill set. Someone else who majored in languages then got a law degree. If you only major in a language, then you may not necessarily have enough skills to successfully use that language professionally. However, you can major in pretty much any field and dedicate time to becoming fluent in another language. You don't have to have a degree in french to speak french fluently. Yes, it might be easier to do it that way--but how many jobs are there for people with french degrees and no other degrees?

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