Any advice or thoughts?

[AddictedToCoffee4657]

Hello all! most of you know I'm a nursing student. Lately, I've been thinking of minoring in Spanish as well. I know it's not necessary, but my professor told us it looks really good on resumes and I am always up for a good challenge. I am required to take 2 foreign languages anyway and for that I am taking Spanish 1&2. in order to be a minor, I would need to take 5 more Spanish classes after that. I was thinking since I have a full course load during the semesters I would take 2 summer Spanish classes this summer, and 2 next summer, then 1 during a semester of my senior year before I graduate. I still need to talk my to advisor, if they do not offer these courses in the summer, I will probably not do it because I couldn't handle having that many classes at a time. However, I am worried because I have never taken upper Spanish level classes in high school before so I'm concerned it will affect my GPA if I do poorly and as you know we need to keep up a certain GPA for scholarships and to stay in the program. Do you think I should take a shot anyway? I am generally a good, hard working student and think I am capable of it, but at the same time I'm just scared that if something happens and I do poorly it will forever screw up my GPA. What do you guys think?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Minors are fairly worthless. If it means you might jeopardize your scholarships- I'd decline.

Let me guess, the professor who said a minor in Spanish looks great on your resume is a Spanish professor, right?

[Nightmaren, BSN, RN]

I agree, and here is another way to look at it. If you have a minor in Spanish and rate your ability to speak Spanish as "proficient," an applicant with no minor but the ability to speak Spanish "fluently" would still be the stronger candidate. The minor itself is more or less irrelevant -- the usefulness of Spanish to nursing purely boils down to communication effectiveness.

[Green Tea, RN]

I am a native speaker for a non-English language. I tutored the language to American students when I was a nursing student in college in the us. From the experience, I don't think minoring a foreign language will not make students proficient enough.

Furthermore, some hospitals prohibit employees to speak a non-English language to patients. The hospital I work is one of them. If you wanna speak a foreign language at work, you have to be certified (and often times with no incentives.)

If you purely love to learn a new language, I would say "go for it," but I would not recommend you to minor in a foreign language just for resumes. It does not worth it.

[AddictedToCoffee4657]

thank you for your input!