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At some point in all of our academic careers (most likely during high school chemistry), we will inevitably ask the immortal question, "Why do I need to take this class anyway? It has nothing to do with what I want to do in life."

The answers given to that query are sometimes poignant, sometimes pointless, and always leaves us wondering why we are required to take a class that has nothing to do with our future careers.

I am a political science major, with plans for law school. Barring a change in graduation requirements I will have taken 4 semesters of Spanish that will not aid me one bit in law school. Even if I master the language of Spanish and learn to speak it fluently, it will have little to no effect on my performance as a lawyer.

Despite my many semesters of Spanish, I know I will not be speaking the language fluently when I'm done. In fact, if I am anything like my other friends who have already fulfilled their two-year Spanish sentence, I won't even be able to hold a ten minute conversation in Spanish. Which leads back to the question of why — why am I required to learn something useless to me?

As we mature we tend to ask this question less. Either we accept the necessary evil of taking pointless classes in order to graduate, or we actually begin to see the relevance of our prerequisites. More often than not, it is the former that is more typical. This time however, that excuse doesn't cut it for me, and it shouldn't for you.

I would love to have someone explain it to me. What is the point of a four semester foreign language requirement for a liberal arts degree?

The only answer I receive to this question is that a foreign language gives the student a broader education. It helps round the student out.

I don't buy that. I would like to know what the inherent value is of nearly completing a minor in a language you don't speak, don't write and won't speak or write at any other time in life other than for the four required semesters.

I used to ask the same question about math. I hated math, and at the time saw no relevance to it and my future goals. As I have grown a bit I have come to the understanding that the specific details of math I may not use everyday as a lawyer, but the way in which math makes me think is something I need. I was eventually able to find some good in the class despite my dislike for it.

I then try to apply that same logic to my study of Spanish, and I come up empty.

If I don't know how to speak Spanish, there is nothing else I can take away from that class that will help me in the study of other classes. The sole purpose of the foreign language class is to have the student be able to speak the language, and that's it.

My current Spanish teacher openly concedes that after a certain point it does not help to simply take classes to learn a language. She says that after so long the only way to grasp the language is to live in a country where the language is spoken. That means that mastery of a foreign language can not happen at the university level alone, and actually requires something the school can not mandate: living in another country.

So if mastery of the subject can not be obtained here at school lone, then aren't we being asked to be mediocre in our study of any foreign language?

Learning a foreign language is a difficult thing and for some reason educational standards are set on making us study one. One of the reasons a different language is a hard thing to learn is because of the late age at which we are required to start learning it.

Most of us start a foreign language in high school, and even then it can be too late. According to an old sociology book of mine, after the age of five it becomes more and more difficult to learn a second language with each passing year.

You would think the powers that be would require us to start learning a new language in first grade if they were truly committed to a bilingual student.

I understand that foreign language requirements won't just go away, but I can't help but think that it wouldn't be at all bad if they did.

In the mean time, perhaps a compromise can be reached with the University. If there must be a second language requirement, then how about two semesters instead of four?

The question will always be there. People will always wonder why they have to take classes they don't like. And I'll never like Spanish, no matter how little of it I am required to take.

If there is no intrinsic value in a foreign language on the bearing of what we want to do in life, and yet we are still required to take it in order to graduate, perhaps we can take from the experience a different lesson. There are some things in life that suck, and if we can't change them, we just have to learn to live with it and succeed despite the hurdles.

Rob Jones is a political science junior. Reach him at robert.d.jones@asu.edu.


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