<p>I'm interested in pursuing (probably) two of these areas (most likely Classics paired with one of the other three because of my love for Latin), so any insights into any one of the four would be great.</p>
<p>I don't know a lot about the individual departments through experience, but I can share the following:</p>
<p>1) There's at least one poster (I believe she's a Smithie), who, when she hears of the U of C, her immediate reaction is, "Oh, their Arabic program"</p>
<p>Our NELC program is very kick-butt. If you can, find a link to the program and check out all the nutty languages we offer.</p>
<p>2) The same holds true for Russian and other Slavic languages.</p>
<p>3) The classics program is neat. I believe one of the poster's D's.... rondafaye, maybe? is a language-intensive classics major, she'll probably be better at answering questions.</p>
<p>Take a look at the course catalog. Chicago's classics resources are among the best in the world; it's been high on the list of almost every serious classics jock I've known in the past few years. Same for ancient near eastern stuff. </p>
<p>I know that Chicago generally has good language programs, and that Arabic, Russian, and Mandarin are all very popular languages to study there.</p>
<p>My 2 cents:</p>
<p>I took the accelerated intro to Latin class, and I didn't find it too challenging. There was a lot of busywork (vocab/grammar/etc.), but nothing terribly difficult conceptually.</p>
<p>From several friends in Russian language classes, and a couple more in Russian lit classes, the department sounds reliably very good.</p>
<p>Do you have AP credit in Latin? You may be able to skip intro Latin.</p>
<p>Everyone I know has loved Latin, both the normal and accelerated. I don't know about the other languages, but I would assume that they are similarly excellent.</p>
<p>Cesare, as a language, what would you expect to find conceptually challenging in Latin? In my experience all languages require that "busywork" because it's necessary if you want the grammar and vocab to become second nature. Languages aren't supposed to be conceptually difficult; it would sort of be counterproductive if the language evolved to be especially challenging. (Though some languages are of course more difficult to learn than others, and there are some languages that are particularly difficult for native English speakers.)</p>
<p>Really. The enormous advantage of Latin is that there is practically nothing that's conceptually challenging in it. Especially on an intro level, where you're dealing with idealized classical Latin and ignoring the last couple millenia (give or take) of its development.</p>
<p>(I'm not certain what would qualify as "conceptually challenging" in any language closely related to English. I'm sure all of those languages are conceptually challenging from some other point of view, but I don't know what that is.)</p>
<p>Foreign languages only seem to get conceptually challenging once you move into formal linguistic theory. I read one article about tracing many modern languages back to a single global mother tongue in India, and I was blown away by the minutiae that had lead linguistics in the direction of the theory to begin with. </p>
<p>Otherwise languages are inherently about effort, not insight.</p>
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Cesare, as a language, what would you expect to find conceptually challenging in Latin?
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<p>Figuring out a Nepos sentence (or should I say paragraph) is much more difficult than English could ever be. Also there is much more ambiguity in Latin than in English. Latin being a dead language, one would think that an "official" exhaustive latin grammar could be published, but it just cannot be done.</p>
<p>
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Languages aren't supposed to be conceptually difficult; it would sort of be counterproductive if the language evolved to be especially challenging.
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<p>That would make sense until you realized that Chinese (and many other Asian languages) are spoken by billions of people, and yet are incredibly hard to learn (compared to the Romance languages, etc.). I'm not saying that Chinese is conceptually difficult (I don't think it is), but that Chinese did not evolve to be "easy." </p>
<p><a href="Though%20some%20languages%20are%20of%20course%20more%20difficult%20to%20learn%20than%20others,%20and%20there%20are%20some%20languages%20that%20are%20particularly%20difficult%20for%20native%20English%20speakers.">quote</a>
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<p>Chinese is difficult for non-native English speakers as well.</p>
<p>Arabic here is phenomenal.
Small classes, intensive program, lots of speaking. (6 hours of class per week).</p>
<p>Though no first hand knowledge myself, I once had a nice conversation with a guy who was a Stanford valedictorian, and had earned a Ph.D. in Classics from Oxford who said. "My only regret is that I never had the chance to study at The University of Chicago."</p>
<p>Question to all of you language folks: If one is taking a foreign language and will need reading competency for grad school, should said student take the sequence as a first year or is it better to wait until third/fourth year so it is fresh? Is the one-year sequence enough?</p>
<p>S took three years of Spanish, has forgotten almost everything, so figures he'll start anew at Chicago in German or Russian, which he thinks are far more interesting anyway.</p>
<p>My strong impression is that an introductory 3-quarter sequence in a language at Chicago is intended, at least in theory, to get a student past the reading competency hurdle for grad school. Since most language courses aren't directed at reading competency, though, there might be some gaps that had to be filled in through self-study.</p>
<p>There are also separate one-quarter reading competency courses that don't count towards one's Core language requirements. (Which gives you some idea of the relationship between a regular language course and acquiring reading competency.)</p>
<p>JHS,
Yeah, I could see how three months at one of the overseas programs could meet the language requirement by immersion, but I suspected that it wouldn't necessarily do a whole lot for reading skills. (It sounds like a fabulous experience, however!)</p>
<p>I suggested that S talk to the prof/advisor in his intended major, as I am sure she'll have some specific advice. I figured I'd ask all the experts, here, too! :)</p>