US grad schools foreign language requirements

Kinski

I'm planning on doing a masters in English in Ireland this year, and am considering the possibility of pursuing a PhD in the US afterwards. However, all the US English programmes I've looked at stipulate that PhD candidates must be either 'proficient' in the reading of two foreign languages, or else fluent in one. I am neither, but I am planning to learn some French. Does anyone have any experience of this in American grad schools? I'm wondering how difficult these requirements are to meet. They seem to typically define 'proficient' as being capable of translating a short passage from a foreign language into idiomatic English, with the aid of a dictionary, in the space of 90mins. However, I don't know what kind of passage they have in mind (if they asked candidates, for example, to translate a complex passage from some literary theorist, I imagine that would be particularly difficult.)

baby and crumble

Did you learn Irish in school? Because since it's now an official EU language I'd wonder if it could count...

Kinski

Actually they do seem to accept Irish - unfortunately I was never much good at it!