Languages

Roman

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2008
Messages
262
I heard that cadets are required to take a foreign language. I believe that for AFROTC you are only required to if you have a nontechnical major. So at the Academy does everyone have to take a foreign language or only the nontechnicals?
 
Last edited:
I heard that cadets are required to take a foreign language. I believe that for AFROTC you are only required to if you have a nontechnical major. So at the Academy does everyone have to take a foreign language or only the nontechnicals?

Everyone.

Unless you can "validate" out of one.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
How many classes are required and how hard is it to minor in a language? Thanks.
 
How many classes are required and how hard is it to minor in a language? Thanks.

UNLESS my classmate Dana has changed the curriculum, you require a full year. How "hard" is it to minor in a language?

To be honest, I don't know. I'm not certain that you can "minor" in a language. I'd have to do some checking.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
UNLESS my classmate Dana has changed the curriculum, you require a full year. How "hard" is it to minor in a language?

To be honest, I don't know. I'm not certain that you can "minor" in a language. I'd have to do some checking.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83


I found this: "we offer 2 minors. A minor is optional and is earned in addition to the cadet's major. The 2 minors are: Foreign Language, Philosophy"
 
Do they offer the tagalog language (Philippines) as a course?
 
How many classes are required and how hard is it to minor in a language? Thanks.

I was under the impression that it is two years for a technical major, three years if not. And minoring is possible, especially if you place into a higher level. I believe you need to take either two or three classes above the 300 level. Upperclassman, feel free to make corrections. I am going off what I think I remember my ac advisor saying a couple weeks ago. I am not sure.
 
At least for 2010 a minor is 4 classes and only 200 level and above can count. So, if you start out in the introductory 100 level, you will need to take 6 classes for a minor.

I'm pretty sure everyone in the incomming classes is required to take 2 foreign language classes. They instituted that for 2011 and beyond. 2010 techie majors do not need a foreign language.
 
I found this: "we offer 2 minors. A minor is optional and is earned in addition to the cadet's major. The 2 minors are: Foreign Language, Philosophy"
Which is precisely what I found a moment after I wrote my last.

See, we ALO's don't know everything...:smile:

We just have access to those that do! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
Minor = more pay?

I heard that if you graduate with a language minor, that you would earn higher pay.
This is from a Blue and Gold officer last year.

1. Is that true? 2. For the Air Force too? 3. How much?
 
you have to take a proficiency test and do very well on that before you earn any extra money.

for us, non techie majors have to take 4 semesters of a language. techie have to take at least 2. a minor is still 4 classes at or above the 200 level... so in my case, i validated into german 222, which means all i have to take for my german minor is 222, 321, and 322.
 
How uncommon is it for a cadet to major in aerospace engineering and minor in Japanese. I know that these are somewhat conflicting areas of studies so I do not know if the academy would allow me to do this. Is this such a strange situation that it is almost unheard of or is it common enough for me to be able to get a contact of someone who recently went through this process.
 
I know that I can do it. I just want to know how common it is as well if i could find some contact info for someone that had done or is doing it.
 
First, there is no "aerospace" here. USAFA has aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

As for minoring in a language, how difficult it will be depends on your current level. To minor, you need 4 semesters at or above the 200 level. If you are new to a language, you will need to take 6 classes. If you can place into the higher levels, you'll only need 4. Now aero and astro already have a fairly heavy course load (being techie majors). If you go for it, you'll probably have a few 7 class semesters (which can get rough).
 
Sorry about the wrong terminology. I have looked at other colleges who have called it aerospace engineering so I got them mixed up. I will have had two years of high school language classes in Japanese so I think that I will be able to skip the seven class semesters. By the way, do the classes for Japanese go high enough for fluency or almost fluency? That is what I am going for so it would be pointless to do it without being fluent unless I got the rest of it later.
 
I'm an Aero major and I'm also minoring in Chinese. It's a lot easier for me since I was placed into a higher level Chinese class, therefore I only need to take one more year of Chinese to minor in it before my major courses start.
 
How uncommon is it for a cadet to major in aerospace engineering and minor in Japanese. I know that these are somewhat conflicting areas of studies so I do not know if the academy would allow me to do this. Is this such a strange situation that it is almost unheard of or is it common enough for me to be able to get a contact of someone who recently went through this process.

i'm sure there are a lot of people who have done it. i know a lot of my friends here are looking into astro/russian combo. i'm thinking about it too, but we'll see. that will be pretty rough
 
garretm: please don't just assume that because you have had two years of a language in high school that 1) you will validate ANY portion of the language requirements; 2) you will even be assigned the language which you studied in high school.

Case in point: my sons' dear friend from SoCal had 4 years of AP Spanish in high school, all As- this cadet validated only the first semester of Spanish.

I believe that languages are still assigned on a "needs of the Air Force" basis with some input from the cadet. For instance, just because you want to study German doesn't mean you will.
 
Back
Top