Immersion during summers can get you up to intermediate knowledge of a foreign language. However, if you want to work in Francophone Africa or Latin America you will need to learn to read and write French or Spanish at a professional level. Taking foreign language literature courses will allow you to do this.

In theory students can read Cervantes or Garcia Marquez on their own and write 20-page papers on them, but it seems unlikely. It’s also theoretically possible to teach yourself measure theory during the summer, but few people do it. Once students have an intermediate grasp of a language, there is a large return on a semester or two of an advanced foreign language course.

If you’re running low on electives, first drop international relations, poli sci, sociology, or anthropology courses. Those subjects are fascinating and extremely important, but it is much more feasible to learn about them on your own than to learn to read and write a foreign language at a professional level.

Second, I first learned Spanish while in the field as a Peacecorp volunteer and am quite fluent now but my Spanish is anything but scholarly. Instead, it tends to sound more campesino or street which has its pluses and minuses. In addition, my work was focused in far flung communities where I was participating with communities on agro-forestry and elementary community development projects. Many people I worked with were illiterate so my written Spanish never had a real chance to be develop in a meaningful way. I think having the ability to write in another language is advantageous.

Remember at the root of our work is sharing ideas and that cannot happen without understanding.