<p>Hey everybody! I was wondering if any current/former students had input on the reputations of foreign language classes at Columbia. I'm a hard-working and intelligent student, but foreign languages are my kryptonite. What languages are known for being the easiest, hardest, most fun, most boring, most helpful, etc.? Any advice is helpful!</p>
<p>to be honest - they are all tough and require significant amount of work. the most well known languages tend to be the most difficult because they are taught at a faster pace.</p>
<p>the lesser known languages are not taught as quickly, but the lack of familiarity means it is harder to find peers to help you with your study, which i find with learning a language to be the most important part.</p>
<p>i would say of the languages i would actually suggest russian and portuguese as they are small enough departments, but have a decent cohort of students who are in the class. of my friends who took both they found them easy to learn just because of the quality of class environment and teachers. departments are small enough that rarely do young profs or post-docs teach classes.</p>
<p>in the end, i would go through CULPA. great teachers matter more than anything else. and so a good teacher can make taking a class worth it. so even in a massive dept you can find diamonds.</p>
<p>[CULPA</a> - Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/)</p>
<p>Thank, admissionsgeek. I just checked out CULPA and it looks great, thanks for the link!
Do you happen to know anything about Latin or Italian. I took Latin in HS and loved it but was, admittedly, terrible at it. I’ve heard it’s nearly impossible at Columbia and I feel like if I struggled with it that much at a lower level, I shouldn’t attempt to continue. I wouldn’t mind taking a class I loved and getting a C if I know I worked as hard as a could but… well, being honest, I’d prefer to not have one class weighing me down forever if I believed I could enjoy something else just as much.
In terms of Italian, I’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s the easiest. I checked up on some of the elementary teachers on CULPA and one person even said “Plus Italian is basically Spanish which is basically English. Definitely one of your easier options.” Any insight on that judgment?
Russian and Portuguese both sound great. I’ve heard that Russian is hard at other universities (new alphabet, very different grammar) but from unreliable sources. In that regard, have you heard anything about Hebrew? I’m concerned about the new alphabet and such, but it might be cool…? I have no idea. I’m really just repeating rumors and my own personal anxieties and asking for your validation. So… what do you think? (haha…)</p>