<p>I was thinking about a language just for like my senior year or something, but I've heard that the course load for languages is A LOT, so I kind of feel discouraged about it. Has anyone here taken any languages? I'm interested in possibly spanish, french, or portuguese. I've taken spanish and french in high school, but was thinking of portuguese, which I have never taken before.</p>
<p>Beginner languages are very intensive and most of them meet at least once every day. The reason for this is that the instructors are trying to get students to quickly accumulate some degree of conversational comprehension and writing skills. I did beginning Mandarin (6 credits) and it was quite demanding, putting aside the difficulty of the language itself.</p>
<p>Islander4,</p>
<p>I know you can’t speak for this particular group of students, however I would like to hear your opinion. How would a Mandarin speaker with fluency do in Chinese Mandarin classes (intermediate/advanced)?</p>
<p>It would probably be easier, but you may have to enroll under a different track of courses; and the material for those is probably different. Also, intermediate/high intermediate courses are emphasizing conversion a lot less.</p>
<p>I also took Beginning Mandarin I & II, and both semesters were quite demanding. Some of my friends took a Mandarin course for fluent speakers who couldn’t read/write, and that seemed pretty demanding as well.</p>
<p>In general, I would expect any language class to be intensive…you’ll definitely learn a lot and get a lot out of them, but be prepared to do the work.</p>
<p>@bumbulbi - there’s a class specific for mandarin speakers who cannot really read or write.</p>
<p>The workload varies by language, but is quite intense at the beginner level. I started German at Cornell, which I’m guessing will be closer to Portugese in terms of difficulty than something like Mandarin. Classes meet every day and the average homework is probably 1-2 hours per night. It definitely forces you to keep on top of the work. That said, it’s not like doing problem sets or writing essays where you can struggle, etc. for hours. You’re going to be doing workbook/writing/grammar exercises which aren’t terribly difficult, but since it’s a language, it’s all about putting the time in. The classes themselves I found to be quite fun. Unlike other classes, the topic of conversation isn’t going to be something terribly deep/intellectual. It’s kind of fun to write 1 page stories that are humorous (and bad), yet still acceptable since it’s about practicing the language, not writing like Mark Twain. I found it a welcome “intellectual” break from deep thoughts, while still putting in the time and getting real, tangible results critically learning a language. I would say after my first 2 semesters of German, I was already at the same level as 4 years of French in high school</p>
<p>I know this one!</p>
<p>French-NO</p>
<p>Spanish-MAYBE</p>
<p>Portugese-YES!</p>
<p>So, languages at Cornell are intense, but Portugese and Italian are the most leniently graded. All require work daily, about 1-3 hrs/day of practice, but Span might req 2-4 as well as French. Trust me as a polyglot and a Cornell senior!</p>
<p>Steph :)</p>