<p>I'm going to college next year, and I've been thinking about what I want to study. One of my biggest issues has been what language(s) I want to take, which are the three in the title. But I know it's difficult, to say the least, to study all three, so I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of each. </p>
<p>--Chinese: I am Chinese, but I can't read or write, and I have the vocab of a 3rd grader. I'd really like to be able to travel in China and communicate with my relatives on a more than basic level. </p>
<p>--German: um...my justification for this is that I find it really pretty. I took a beginning German class over the summer and positively loved it. I've been told it's the most "impractical" of the three, but I can't let it go. </p>
<p>--Spanish: I've been taking Spanish for 5 years now, but still need a lot of work before becoming fluent. I could probably place into an intermediate level class. I know all the reasons to learn Spanish.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I'm guessing foriegn language is your major. Maybe, maybe not. Students at my school have to take up through 250 of any language to get a BA in anything. </p>
<p>You have good reasons for taking Chinese and German. I say focus on German since you seem most excited about it. Maybe you can minor in German studies or something if you've already decided on another, different major. Then maybe take the 100 and 200 level Chinese so that you'll have the basics down pretty well. I am taking Spanish to get my BA in English, and I find it most difficult to understand what others are saying. It sounds soooo fast to a foreign ear when, really, they are speaking at the same pace you would speak to someone in English here in the States. I can usually get enough to have a general idea of what we are talking about. but it's getting better. If I have the concept down then I can speak and write it fairly well. I'm progressing with reading it as my vocabulary grows. </p>
<p>Or, major in German and minor in Chinese. I don't know if it's pdefinately possible at your school, but, hey, that's what liberal studies is for:)!</p>
<p>^ just remember a lot of times, MANY people who speak those languages natively will speak English much better than you ever those languages, thus making it pretty useless...</p>
<p>I would say go with the one you like the most. Why? because otherwise you'll be bored out of your mind. I took spanish and french and i remember nothing... or not much of it. Yet, I know more Japanese that I learned on my own (it's not much but more than french and spanish, lol) because I enjoyed learning it more <em>shrugs</em> your choice</p>
<p>take german cause then you can study abroad in germany and it's the most fun country to be in out of germany, spain, mexico, and china. ok i cant speak for mexico, i've never been there. but germany is funnnn. and its a very academic language, whereas spanish is more of a practical "interaction-based" language.</p>
<p>I disagree that German would be the most impractical. I'm thinking about going into business and so I always figured I should learn Spanish since so many people speak it. Unfortunatly I've never liked Spanish, but always liked German. Yesterday I learned that Germany is the 3rd largest economy in the world and since I'm going into business, it seems more beneficial to learn German instead, so I'm excited about that.</p>
<p>MNKeeper, the poster above you said German was PRACTICAL, not the opposite.</p>
<p>Anyways, go with German. It is VERY practical, whether you're in business, the sciences, art etc. I only have one caution for you:</p>
<p>when you play Simon Says in class, and you will :), NEVER, I say again, NEVER do what Simon doesn't say. You will regret this. German is a scary language when people are yelling at you...-shiver-</p>
<p>" it's the most fun country to be in out of germany, spain, mexico, and china"</p>
<p>this comment is retarded.....there are tons of more countries where spanish is spoken, basically all of Central and south america...and believe me between studying in germany and studying in say argentina, I'd choose argentina any day</p>
<p>you should take whichever language you like the best:</p>
<p>im taking german in college right now and plan on double majoring business and german. whoever told you that german is impractical is very wrong. the three largest economies in the world are the US, Japan, and Germany. the best languages to choose from for practical use in my opinion include: japanese, chinese, german, spanish, russian and french. not to say other languages are less important, but these are very solid choices. if you enjoy german the most (i've taken japanese, spanish, and german classes) then you should DEFINITELY take german. it's a difficult language relative to other european languages, but still incredibly enjoyable, rewarding, and fun. i wouldnt trade it for any other language... =)</p>
<p>to the comment above about whether you'd rather study in germany or argentina, what you have to remember is that when studying in germany, youre hours away by rail to italy, france, spain, the netherlands, denmark, austria!</p>
<p>well it depends on where you see yourself doing in the future? where do you plan to work? personally I've never been able to understand how immigrant parents can not teach their children their native language. The kids should be bi-lingual (knowing English and whatever their parent's native language is). I'd say learn Chinese because your Chinese. Also from a business stand point, China is the fastest growing economy so it would also be practical if you were going into business. But then again that really depends on whether you see yourself even interacting much with Chinese people, because if you don't then there's no reason to even bother. Same goes for German or Spanish. My advice is to not spend time majoring/studying something you aren't going to use later on in life or that's not going to help you develop because you can easily learn a language if you put yourself up to the task but if you don't use language then you'll just as easily start to forget it. anyways good luck choosing.</p>
<p>Seriously just take whatever you want. I'm surprised you can't lower it down to 2 languages out of 3..I mean, come on and make up your mind! These languages are drastically different...if you're like 90 percent of the population and bored to death with Spanish then don't take it! </p>
<p>Now as for German and Chinese, I like both but I especially like Chinese because the script is more sophisticated and overlaps somewhat with Japanese. (A chinese speaker can take stabs at understanding written Japanese and visa-versa.) I personally think you're marketable when you understand this more complicated thing.;..besides, how often do you eat out with German menus in the restaurants? </p>
<p>But seriously, if you can't make up your mind then take both classes (forget the tranquilizing Spanish!) and then after a day drop out of the one you don't like....which judging by your post will probablly be Chinese since you're already fascinated with German and are probablly just considering Chinese because it sounds complicated and prestigous. (It's definately harder to retain the abillity to write Chinese script than German...even with the accent marks.)</p>
<p>I'm actually tkaing Chinese right now and I can tell you it can get pretty difficult. It takes hardwork and alot of studying, but if that isn't a problem then you should go ahead and try it. Plus if you ever want to go to China to visit family (don't know if you got family in china or not), then you'll be prepared. Plus China is one of the fastest growing countries. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Bah! I'm tired of all this nonsense about China being the fastest growing economy so thats why you should study Chinese! Here are some contradictions:</p>
<p>1) Just because China is growing fast/exponentially now doesn't mean it can sustain that growth. Its easier to catch up than to jump ahead of currently developed countries. Its also true that an increase in population in the US results in a much larger increase in productivity than in China where their productivity is already somewhat maxed-out. (On account of the principal of dimminishing returns.)</p>
<p>2) People have been proclaiming "The Dragon of China will rise!" since the start of the cold war, and perhaps even centuries. Each generation has said it, yet only in the last 20 years has this even became a serious possibillity. It could still fall apart, or slow down drastically. (Remember the recent Asian Crisis? Or Japan's Bubble Economy and how it collapsed in the late 80's? Imagine all of this prospective capita flowing into China and consider what would happen if in the course of a panic, it was all yanked out. China is still developing, and remains a largely agricultural country, with pockets of textiles and other low-grade production. Without this foreign capital factories would enter serious recessions. Especially since the infrastructure is still not as strong as Japan</p>
<p>3) Billinguals/ABC always beat your meager "Ding Yun misses Gubo." (Ding Yun Xiang Gubo) PCR Chinese skills.</p>
<p>4) Although Mandarin is the most common language, widespread dialects even in China itself make it difficult to learn when studying abroad. (Unless you like in Beijing you're likely to pick up remote and incomprehensible spoken dialects, and not the Mandrin from the people you're hanging out with. This is more extreme than low/high German, and is another reason why the language is harder than...say English, where dialects are usually mutually interchangable.)</p>
<p>Now anyway, difficulties aside, if you want to study Chinese then go for it. But don't let these ignorant media-watchers convince you to study Chinese just because they have an improving economy and a large population. That reasoning is fundamentally flawed and you should just study the language because you want to.</p>
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People have been proclaiming "The Dragon of China will rise!" since the start of the cold war, and perhaps even centuries. Each generation has said it, yet only in the last 20 years has this even became a serious possibillity
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<p>that's interesting, I didn't know that there are MANY generations between the start of the cold war and 20 years ago. Nor did I know that centuries ago, before the start of imperialism, China needed to "rise" at all considering, as best as I can remember, it was viewed as one of world's largest economies.</p>