Does it look bad if you want to major in a language but don't put "proficient"?

College Majors
1

<p>I want to major in Japanese and I have taken it for five years, but here's the issue. Our classes move very, very slowly. I'm in AP now but compared to other schools I feel like I'm barely in Japanese 2 or 3. (Japanese 2 at the university level - my brother took it at his college and knew a lot more than I did by the time I was in Japanese 4 at my school). I wouldn't feel comfortable calling myself proficient, but I'm really worried it'll look bad if I don't list myself as proficient on my common app. What should I do?</p>

2

<p>don’t lie about it. it would be worse to put yourself as advanced and then fall way behind in the coursework. a lot of colleges don’t have prerequisites for when you go into not as often offered languages so it shouldn’t be a problem.
if you only know like kana and basic words and can’t really form complex sentences yet, then don’t put yourself as advanced.</p>

<p>but i also want to do Japanese but as a minor. I’m doing linguistics</p>

3

<p>Passion will always exceed knowledge. People major in medicine yet they don’t know whats in Advil.</p>

<p>Not everyone that majors in Japanese knows it well. AP is a lot by itself. My Japanese class moves slow also, so much that year 5 isn’t even AP. Colleges understand that. If after two years (6 yrs of hs Japanese), when you enter grad programs, and your Japanese still sucks, then thats a problem.</p>

<p>Until then, no worries, and itsumo, ganbatte.</p>

4

<p>At my college, most language majors are structured assuming that students will start from scratch. Only French and Spanish assume that students have a background from high school. (French and Spanish require 12 courses at the high-intermediate and advanced level, while all other languages require 12 courses in total.) Some of our language departments even explicitly prohibit native speakers from majoring in that language. For example, Chinese students may major in East Asian Studies but not Chinese language.</p>

<p>Which leads me to conclude: no, you are not expected to be ‘proficient’ in a language to major in it.</p>

5

<p>Thank you guys so much! I feel a lot better now :)</p>