So I placed into L3 - Now What?

How you got here:

What you need to do to fulfill the requirement:

Some things you need to know up front:

1. Deadline: You need to do at least the L3 part of this by the end of your sophomore year, and you need to complete both parts, thereby fulfilling the requirement, by the end of your junior year. (However, it wouldn't make sense to separate them that much; you should just take both semesters together right away.) Don't jeopardize your promotion to senior year by putting this off!
   
   
2. At any level, fulfilling the Foreign Language Requirement only gives you minimal proficiency in your foreign language. If you plan to make any practical use of your language, you need to seriously consider taking at least four semesters of it at Yale, and going abroad at some point wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Be sure to read Eight Reasons the Foreign Language Requirement Isn't Enough to find out why you (yes, you--no matter what you're planning to major in) should keep taking language courses even after completing the requirement.
   

A few options:

1. You could take two semesters of language (L3 and L4) right here on the Yale campus in beautiful downtown New Haven. In higher-enrollment languages, multiple sections of these courses are offered, giving you a great amount of flexibility in fitting languages courses into your schedule. (For example, if you absolutely have to take Spanish at 9:30am because that's the only time free in your schedule, chances are there will be a section available when you need it.)
   
   
2. Intensive courses at Yale during the academic year. Some languages offer the opportunity to take intensive courses, which fit twice the language learning into each semester. For example, some languages let you take L3 and L4 in a single semester
   
   Things to consider with this approach:
   
   a. Intensive courses are not for everyone. If you're thinking of taking an intensive course just to get the foreign language requirement over with faster, think again: intensive courses are designed for students who are willing to work hard to reach advanced-level proficiency as quickly as possible.
   
   b. In foreign language learning, there are two kinds of "time" that are important. Let's call the first "contact time," which refers to the number of hours you spend in class or doing homework. This is the kind of activity you can speed up by simply spending more hours per day or per week on language study. The second kind we'll call "calendar time." No matter how quickly you initially acquire new information about a foreign language, you will likely need to spend months practicing it and hearing it spoken in order to gain real comfort and experience with its use. There is no real substitute for investing calendar time in language study--though study abroad can help somewhat. (Consider this analogy: baking a cake at 350 degrees for an hour isn't the same as baking it at 700 degrees for 30 minutes. In language learning, you can "turn up the heat" a little to learn faster, but because it still takes time for the language to sink in, you won't be successful if you just rush through it and then quit.) To be effective, an intensive course should be followed up by another course the next semester. For example, if you do L3 and L4 all in a single semester, you should strongly consider taking an L5 course, like one in Advanced Conversation, the next semester (or during the summer) to solidify what you've learned. If you don't, the language you've learned so quickly can be forgotten just as fast.
   
   
3. Summer Courses. You could fulfill the L3 and/or L4 parts of the requirement by enrolling in Yale Summer Session or another approved summer study program. Some things to consider about this:
   
   a. Summer courses are intensive courses, so read everything we said above about how they're not for everyone. (You don't want to end up feeling like burnt cake.)
   
   b. If you participate in a non-Yale program, you will have to pass an additional exam when you return to campus before your experience will count toward fulfilling the requirement.
   
   c. During the summer, you have the opportunity to complete some of your language requirement abroad. The Yale Summer Session offers study abroad courses in some languages that fulfill L3 and L4 requirements in just eight weeks.
   
   d. However, depending on the summer program you choose, you also risk missing out on some of the cultural experiences available on campus during the academic year. Many language programs offer language tables, film series, and other outside-of-class learning opportunities that do not run during the summer. If you do fulfill your requirement during the summer, be sure to try and take advantage of some of these opportunities during the year, too.
   
   e. Summer courses are most effective when immediately followed up by an "anchoring" language course in the fall. For example, if you do the eight-week Intermediate Spanish course in Yale Summer Session, you should plan to take a fifth-semester Spanish language course (either Advanced Conversational Spanish or, if you're ready, a bridge course, such as Spanish in Film or Advanced Spanish Grammar) the very next semester. If you do, you'll be amazed at how much Spanish you've learned in a very short period of time, and you'll be well-positioned to go on to learning just about anything in Spanish. If you don't follow up your summer study with an L5 course, you're likely to forget what you've learned very quickly.
   
   
4. Academic year study abroad (non-Yale). Technically, you can complete your requirement while studying abroad during the academic year. (You would have to take an exam upon return to campus before your experience would count as part of the requirement.) However, you'll likely find that most study abroad programs have more demanding prerequisites for participation than just two semesters. (Check on this early so you have time to fulfill any prerequisites before you apply to a program!) Study abroad during the academic year is a wonderful opportunity to expand your knowledge of a language and culture of a foreign country. However, if you plan to do this, it is strongly recommended that you complete the L4 level at Yale first, so you can be as prepared as possible for the challenging language situations you will likely encounter abroad.
   
   
5. These are just some of your options for fulfilling the requirement. Obviously, there are ways to combine options and invent imaginative alternatives. Some creative solutions are likely to be very successful (such as the one described in 3e, above). Some paths, though technically allowed by the requirement, are likely to be counterproductive or even disastrous. (For example, it is not recommended that you take no language while at Yale except for L3 and L4 during one summer. With such isolated exposure to a little language, you will likely forget it very quickly, and what would be the point of that.)
   
   The CLS staff can offer guidance to students who are considering the various alternative paths to fulfilling the requirement. (See our Getting Help page.) If you have questions about a particular language program, be sure to speak with the program's Language Program Director or with an instructor of that language.