I’m just curious if this is doable or not. Suppose I haven’t spoken a word of German in my life, could I still jump into a German major and graduate on time? Is this commonly done at all? I wouldn’t imagine so because most people don’t just wake up one day deciding to spend 4 years studying Arabic and Arab culture and whatnot, etc.
Any answers are greatly appreciated.
@Ctesiphon I just sent you a PM.
@dorie13 I would also like to know. I speak Spanish fluently and would like to minor in either Italian or Portuguese.
One of my D’s Spanish teachers in high school said as a fluent Spanish speaker, she could reasonably learn Portuguese in a year if she took it in college.
You’d have to do an intensive class (5 periods a week, for example), or, in many cases, take an intensive seminar such as Penn State’s Summer Intensive (2 semesters in 10 weeks), Middlebury’s (even more intensive, but very effective), or, for fun, go to Concordia Language Camps as a HS senior.
Yes, you can. I’ve never spoken a word of Japanese before I entered college (unless you count singing along to J-pop and anime songs) and yet I became a Japanese major (after changing it from Animal Science and then East Asian Studies). There’s a reason why there’s beginning level language classes exists–they’re for complete beginners who’ve never studied the language before.