When I decided to switch my second major to French even I doubted my decision-making skills. IST and Security Risk Analysis (SRA) are so commonly paired together that the college is very good at making the schedule work for students. I would have, perhaps, been able to graduate early and would have been able to coast fairly simply through my scholastic world. But after a semester of giving SRA a shot, I found that it truly wasn’t for me. I dreaded going to my primary SRA courses because it was truly so uninteresting to me it became physically taxing. I would find myself fidgeting, getting up for 20 minutes to roam the hallways, reading tech news in class, etc. instead of paying attention to the course material that was presented to me. Part of this was the fact that I had an extremely poor teacher, but the majority of my issue with SRA was truly the subject matter. After that semester, I vowed to forsake my second major. I toyed with the idea of simply being an IST student, but that just didn’t feel right to me. I knew I had the capacity to add something else to my day, but I couldn’t figure out what.
Upon further analysis and after much deliberation, I remembered that I had transferred a bunch of French credits over to Penn State from high school. In high school, I was dually enrolled at The University of Pittsburgh and had accumulated a semester’s-worth of French credits, which helped a lot when coupled with my testing-out of French 1 and French 2. I had effectively knocked off 4 French courses before even coming to college, so I thought, “Why not give a double major in French a shot?” At that time, I just thought of French as a convenient supplement whose sole purpose would be personal entertainment and perhaps look good on a résumé. I had no idea then just how useful my French language education would truly be.
In my first internship with Mars, Inc. I found on day one that half of my team was based in the north of France. It quickly became clear that the I would need to use my competencies a few times a week at least as we had regular calls with the French team. This not only provided me with great visibility, but also impressed my superiors. Anyone from their talent pool who had been offered an internship could effectively (enough) do what I was doing from a technical perspective. But they truly weren’t expecting the level of French competency and were surprised by the number of contacts I was able to make and maintain using my language skills.
The same was true in my second internship at GE Power in Atlanta. My team wasn’t split half and half with France this time, but a significant portion of our company was headquartered in the country and in Canada, where French is frequently spoken as a second, if not predominant language. This was again a major asset to my professional development and allowed me to work more closely with the teams in France than others who weren’t at the same level as I was.
This is why, when I see schools shutting down their language programs in favor of STEM or Arts classes, I shudder. I realize that all of the aforementioned are crucial to having a well-rounded education, but to favor one over the other is ignorant and short-sighted. Even my high school in my hometown has discontinued their French 5 class, leaving those like my brother who want to take the class with a significantly detrimental online option. As I speak with my brother frequently, I hear his lamentations on the regular, including how he feels the online work isn’t as robust as working face-to-face with a teacher. And I don’t blame him. Some classes are conducive to online learning, but languages are not one of them. I have tried learning with tools like DuoLingo, an online application designed to help its users learn languages quickly and, although it has been useful to some extent, it is no substitute for a veritable and competent teacher.
As my time at Penn State comes to a close, I would urge those who are interested in double-majoring in a language to not only do so, but to leap at the opportunity. Languages open doors I never even knew existed until I was through them. I would equally encourage that same subset to go back to their elementary schools, middle schools and high schools and demonstrate to their teachers and administrators the benefits of being language education. Those of us who have the experience also have the opportunity to change the lives of those who come after us. Make me proud.
Hi Liam,
I’m a huge supporter of learning another language. Knowing other languages can help you professionally, as you’ve already experienced, but it also has many cognitive benefits as well. There are numerous articles written on the benefits of bilingualism that talk about language study as exercise for our brains, which helps with memory, critical thinking, and even decision making.
Also, I feel your brother’s pain when it comes to language education in school. I went to a public school in Philly that was very underfunded. I was in the minority of students that took French, and senior year our “AP French class” was actually more of an after school activity that met three times a week.Unfortunately, I couldn’t take the class because of sports. I don’t think much emphasis is placed on languages in education in America, and that’s a shame because we learn languages so much better when we’re younger. Like my cousin has three kids and they know 3 languages off the bat because she speaks to them in Russian, her husband speaks to them in Italian, and they speak English at home. It blows my mind! And in other countries I believe more often than not kids start a secondary language in elementary school, which should be done more here.
As for myself, I decided to take Russian here instead of French because I want to be more fluent in my native language. I speak Russian at home and with the rest of my family that still lives in Russia, but last fall was the first time I took a Russian grammar class in my life. I actually added it two weeks after the start of the semester when I realized that my STEM classes weren’t enough. Taking a language class is a complete change of pace and it’s fantastic.
I really enjoyed reading your post, thanks for sharing!
My mom is a Spanish teacher for an elementary school and, after going in to help her teach once, I’ve realized the importance of language programs. It is so important for kids–preferably during their elementary school days–to learn a second, or third, language. Being bilingual makes you think differently and wires your brain in a unique manner–I’m not sure of the exact ways in which bilingual students think versus monolingual students, but I grew up trilingual and I know I wouldn’t be where I am if I only spoke English. That’s not to say you can’t be successful if you only speak one language (you most certainly can), but I know that, for me personally, knowing three languages has helped me succeed in classes I otherwise would not be doing well in (Italian, for example…). I also think that learning another language helps individuals to appreciate the difficulties of having an accent, or moving to a country where you don’t speak the main language. My mom has a very strong Spanish accent and she’s always embarrassed by it but I tell her it’s a strength and not a weakness, and anyone who makes fun of her or looks down at her because of it obviously has never tried learning a new language altogether. Learning languages helps humans become more global, open-minded, and overall helps to connect people from all around the world together. I can’t imagine living in a world where absolutely no one spoke more than one language–we wouldn’t have the opportunities to appreciate works of art from around the world–Les Mis, for example, or the writings of Voltaire.