<p>Hey everyone!
I'm planning on taking either Arabic or Russian this semester. I know Arabic is probably more useful, which was why I originally planned on taking it, however, the Russian department seems to have more interesting professors. So, what should I do? Will Russian be at all useful? The Arabic professor seems nice as well, so does the functionality of the language outweigh a slightly more entertaining professor?</p>
<p>Any thoughts would be appreciated...</p>
<p>What languages are useful depends entirely on your field. I am going into political science with an international focus and could probably benefit from either, though I really want to study Arabic and Chinese.</p>
<p>If you are just taking a foreign language because of a requirement or just for the sake of doing it, I’d just take whatever sounds most interesting to you-- remember language classes also study culture too, I’d love to learn a lot more about both arabic and russian cultures. Language classes are a LOT of work and you’ll be in the best shape if you pick what you’re happy studying.</p>
<p>First of all, in general, I’d say Russian is more useful. It’s also much easier to learn, and it doesn’t have a bunch of different dialects to confuse you.</p>
<p>Next, you need to decide what’s more useful to YOU. If you’re planning on being a doctor, I don’t see why either one would really be useful. If you’re going into computer science, then either one could be useful. We can’t really decide this for you.</p>
<p>Finally, you need to take what’s interesting. It sounds to me like you’d rather take Russian. Please don’t pick a language just because you somehow perceive it as being more useful than another. You’re going to regret it.</p>
<p>I am majoring in both and Russian is WAY easier to learn than Arabic. I seriously would suggest Russian over Arabic if you really want to actually be able to speak the language before you graduate. I don’t plan on being fluent in Arabic, I’d just be happy with getting reading down. With Russian, I could read books/newspapers after my first year. But I also put in a lot of effort and listened to like Disney in Russian and watched Russian movies w/o subtitles and looked up words that I thought were useful and not in the textbook and whatnot. Arabic, not so much… xD</p>
<p>They are basically two of the hardest non-asian languages besides english so either one you are going to have to put in a lot of work.</p>