<p>I'm planning on majoring in Linguistics when I go to college next Fall. I really like foreign languages and I'm very interested in both French and Italian. I will have completed French 4 by the time I start university, and I have just a little experience with Italian. I have a goal to obtain foreign language proficiency certificates in as many languages as possible (either on college graduation or later in my life). </p>
<p>How hard would it be to continue French at an intermediate or advanced level while also starting with Italian? I'll probably minor in Italian whether I continue French or not....</p>
<p>I’m taking Chinese and Spanish while continuing my own self-study of Japanese. It’s not really that hard so long as you allocate enough time and make sure to keep all your vocabulary separate. It also helps a lot that you’re not starting two new languages simultaneously; since you already have crystallized knowledge of French, the new stuff you learn in Italian won’t mix with your French knowledge so much as if you were learning basic grammar concepts in both simultaneously.</p>
<p>My hallmate is majoring in Japanese and also taking Korean. My RA also took French and Spanish. But they both had a firm foundation in one language before moving on to taking a second, so as long as you’re at an intermediate level of French already, Italian shouldn’t be a problem</p>
<p>I’ve met a few people who take multiple languages. I even knew a kid who was taking all languages (four of them). The thing is, at least at my school, language classes have a lot of work, especially like daily homework, small stuff but kind of time-consuming. So it might be an intimidating workload.</p>
<p>OP, if you’re fairly good in languages, two Romance languages shouldn’t be two difficult. It would get difficult with non-Western or ancient languages, though, which can be very time-consuming.</p>
<p>If you’re schedule isn’t crazy with really hard science classes, then it should be ok. But it also depends on how well you know the language and how you adapt to it. I tried taking Latin with Spanish, but I found Latin to be way too hard due to my other classes, so I had to drop it. But if you have an interest in foreign languages, then it might not be too bad for you.</p>
<p>I know someone double majoring in French and Spanish.</p>
<p>If you’re a linguistics major, I’d imagine you either have an ear for languages or at the very least a strong interest in them. That right there will make it a lot easier for you. I know a lot of people who take the minimum language credits possible and they completely struggle with their most basic language courses just because they don’t enjoy them or they just don’t understand them.</p>
<p>Personally, language is something that comes fairly easily to me and I’ve been able to take in high school as many as two languages at once and I have studied three without confusing them terribly. I’m also of the mindset that studying one language helps you make connections to another language and it actually makes it easier.</p>