french minor or spanish?

[musiclink213]

OK, here's my Q. i'm curious as to what other's think. i've taken french since junior high, i'm in upper level classes, i'm going to paris this summer for study abroad, and after i get back, i would only need 10 more classes for a minor, which is basically 3 classes, and one conversational worth 1 credit. i was either going to do this, or take spanish next year starting from level 1, and going up through 4. however, due to scheduling conflicts and the requirements for my major, i won't be able to do both. so my question is, should i go for the french minor, or do a second language, which would actually be my third foreign language, and take spanish?

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[finnpipette]

spanish is more practical in most parts of the country, but if you really dig French, go with what you love.

 

[u2ecila]

Hi,
Just fyi, in Northern VA, there is a huge demand for Spanish-English translators in the hospitals.

Still, go with French if that is what you love!

 

[Adapt]

I would go with Spanish as hispanics are now the largest minority in the US. It would be to your advantage to know spanish and it would only help in getting a job.

 

[felipe5]

It is very true that learning Spanish will definately come in handy in any career in which you will help people, especially 'underserved'.

But, if you love French, than that's not necessarily a bad choice....as someone whose native tongue is Spanish, I can tell you that the romance languages are all VERY similar, so your knowledge of French may even come in handy when trying to communicate to people who speak other latin-based languages

 

[speedbird001]

Some medical schools offer medical Spanish courses, so if you don't take Spanish now, it's not like you will never have the chance to learn it.

 

[greenie8]

Stick with the French--your skills will be great once you return from Paris and you won't want to give that up.

Spanish skills would be great too, but as someone else said, you'll be able to start classes whenever you want so there's no rush.

French would be a boon to anyone wanting to serve in some parts of Africa if you ever wanted to work overseas.

If you have extra room maybe squeeze in an intro Spanish class along with your upper level French. This can get confusing though--I was always mixing up German and Russian when I had the two at the same time.

 

[mmapcpro]

My wife studied french in college, and studied abroad in Paris, as did each of her sisters. While she was living in Puerto Rico near her family, they would always go back and forth between spanish and french when they didn't want people to know what they were saying.

Since she left the island, she's had nobody to practice with for several years and she has forgotton a good deal of it already. If you don't end up having anybody around to speak french with, it kinda sucks. I'm sure if she met someone that spoke french, it wouldn't take long to pick it all back up again, but that hasn't happened where we live.

And to reiturate what the others have said, I work in lots of dental offices in Florida, and the doctors that have a decent spanish background seem to have a big advantage. I am planning on going beyond the recommended spanish1 and 2 sequence so that I can learn some decent conversational spanish, which doesn't come until some of the upper level classes.

 

[musiclink213]

i live in ny, where spanish is a really good thing to know. when i was volunteering at a hospital, they were always asking for spanish speakers to translate something. but i also was thinking about going overseas eventually with a program like doctors without borders or something. i definitly can't take both, because the labs i will need to take take up several class times. if i have a lab on wed. and a lab on thurs, that rules out most of the MWF classes and the T, TH classes. that's why i can't take both.

 

[melunman]

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[MeowMix]

Well yes, following your heart is lovely and all, and being able to speak French does help with Spanish, but...

when you are trying to take a detailed patient history and communicate clearly with a patient, Spanish is going to be way way helpful in many communities in the US. I work as a medical assistant in a free clinic and any provider who does not speak decent Spanish is at a real disadvantage; you are going to be waiting for someone to translate all the time. And one Medical Spanish course is not going to give you this marvellous fluency, even if you speak great French already. Instead, you will be trying to speak Spanish but French words will be coming out of your mouth.