The headline’s not hyperbole — if you are studying French, stop. Studying that venerable old tongue may be costing you a job.
sacre bleu! A knee-jerk prognosis? Perhaps — but not by much. You see, inherent in studying French at Penn (or at any school) lay a two-fold problem: You are learning a language that is next to useless in the job market, and forfeiting your opportunity to learn one that is.
Is knowing French really going to get you a job? Well, when even French college graduates are fleeing to England simply to find a job, what is the chance you can succeed in France where the French themselves have failed?
Even in the French stronghold that is the EU, France cannot make its language matter. The de facto language of the EU is English (in one particularly embarrassing/hilarious incident, President Chirac stormed out of a press conference when his own French ministers used English). If French isn’t even necessary in France’s backyard, what are the odds that it is going to matter in New York? Sao Paolo? Tehran? Shanghai?
Penn has one of the most comprehensive foreign language centers in the United States. When you opt to take French, you are not only studying a language that is ornamental at best, but squandering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study a language that is relevant and useful in the 21st century (like Chinese) or genuinely unique (like Pashto).
Even if you don’t feel like learning languages that enhance your attractiveness to an employer, your global competition does–and is. In our wonderful era of quanjiuhua (Chinese for “globalization,” expect to hear more and more of that in the future), you are not merely competing for that Goldman Sachs job with kids from Harvard and Stanford, you are competing with the best and brightest from Seoul National University, Peking University, Oxford University — students every bit as smart as you, and for whom studying two or three languages is the norm.
To those of you with an open mind and desire to succeed, don’t study French. For the sake of your own career, as well as the international competitiveness of America in a world that has long since ceased revolving around Europe, take a language, any language, just not French.
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January 31st, 2007 at 12:15 am
This post is so ridiculous, it is not even worth a comment.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:50 am
first, it’s quanqiuhua, and second, one may conceivably study a language for sheer interest and care less about how it figures in a job search. more respect then, to those willing to spend so much time on a language as useless as you make it out to be.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:29 am
good luck picking up chicks with chinese. ill stick to french.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:34 am
“This post is so ridiculous, it is not even worth a comment”- So why did you make one then, smartass? With regards to d’s comment, he addressed the point of studying a language for sheer interest. The chief reason the average American student would study French as opposed to a truly unique and interesting language (viz. Pashto) is that one was exposed to it in his earlier schooling, a time in which the choice of languages was severely restricted. (Latin, German, French, and Spanish anyone? Perhaps Italian?) Those pursuing languages out of interest should be provided the opportunity from an earlier age to study a unique language, not pidgeonholed into a Romance language. That not being a possibility for many people, these future polyglots should explore the opportunities provided to them at an elite diverse institution such as Penn and see if they truly are interested in French.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:34 am
“This post is so ridiculous, it is not even worth a comment”- So why did you make one then, smartass? With regards to d’s comment, he addressed the point of studying a language for sheer interest. The chief reason the average American student would study French as opposed to a truly unique and interesting language (viz. Pashto) is that one was exposed to it in his earlier schooling, a time in which the choice of languages was severely restricted. (Latin, German, French, and Spanish anyone? Perhaps Italian?) Those pursuing languages out of interest should be provided the opportunity from an earlier age to study a unique language, not pidgeonholed into a Romance language. That not being a possibility for many people, these future polyglots should explore the opportunities provided to them at an elite diverse institution such as Penn and see if they truly are interested in French.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:39 am
I apologize for the 3 post spamming- I’m currently in Hong Kong and the internet connection is very unreliable.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:57 pm
“To those of you with an open mind and desire to succeed, don’t study French.” Why must the only motivation for studying a language be a well-paying job? So what if Chinese is the new language. There is something to be said for students who study a language because they WANT to. Do you enjoy Chinese, or do you simply regard it as another advantage in “global competition”? I think we both know that answer. In addition, French is not at all useless. I would hardly overlook those people working for peace in the Cote d’Ivoire. Is their diplomatic work less important, because they are not using the language of an up-and-coming country?
If anything, I think you need to listen to yourself. Once again, you said, “to those of you with an open mind.” How hypocritical that statement is, when in fact your article showcased your one-track mind.
Bonne journee
October 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Hello…Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin..holy Friday
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:54 am
What a myopic mindset. On one hand, you minimize the importance of French due to its supposed descent to obscurity, and on the other, suggest an exponentially more obscure language (Pashto)! Your strained attempt to appear intellectual is actually your undoing, and exposes you as the poseur you are. And your insistent designation of Pashto as an infinitely more interesting language is a personal opinion, yet you treat it as a universal truth. STOP insisting that Pashto is the more lofty, interesting pursuit. That is YOUR opinion; we don’t need it shoved down our throat!!
And again, I ask, why go to great lengths to illustrate how French is a sparsely used language only to follow up by cheerleading for an even more obscure language? You are simply a dope.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:00 am
If French is ornamental, how would you classify Pashto?? (Hint: you have already exhausted all of your “unique” cards). Fool.