Reply to How important is it to have 3-4 years of language?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This topic irritates me whenever it comes up.  I double majored in two different languages so I love language.  I have a kid that hates it though and the idea of forcing him to take another few years of it just so he can get into a top school is so aggravating.  He’d rather take a second science.  I just can’t believe colleges are so mechanistic about this.  Also, you know how often I use that foreign languages I spent 7 and 11 years studying?  Never unless I watch a show on Netflix from that country (and one of the languages only has on Netflix show in that language….).   Foreign language is great for people who like it but it’s not nearly as important as math, science and good writing in your native language.  For more kids, these classes are just wasted time — they will not remember any of it in 10 years and will just be the embarrassing America trying to bargain for better prices in terrible Spanish in Cancun.[/quote]

+1000. FL is some requirement that I guess was part of the definition of a classics education (??? did schools ask about this 100 years ago) and needs to go away.  If you want to study a FL…great for you…but a requirement?  Why?  Within 5 years (if not sooner) AI and Google translate will allow two people to converse with each other in their native tongue with instantaneous translation.

My kid (not alone) made sure to get a 5 on their FL AP not because of their love of the language…but to make sure they could skip the language in college.  That is a powerful, but horribly misguided, motivator.[/quote]

The reason most if the top colleges want to see it (and then have their own foreign language requirement) is that they think they are educating citizens of the world and that future jobs may turn in such expertise[/quote]

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