<p>I definitely plan on entering the medical field, so the pre-med aspect will be there regardless. However, I'm not sure which language I should take, or if I should take both. </p>
<p>I am going to UNC Chapel Hill this fall, and I have had 4 years of Spanish (including AP Spanish) and 2 years of Chinese (no AP). </p>
<p>I am 100% Chinese, so I feel like I should learn to be proficient in the language of my culture; in terms of speaking and listening, I know enough to get by; however, my reading and writing are severely lacking. </p>
<p>I also feel obligated to take Spanish since I spent 4 years learning it in high school. I'd consider myself a slightly above average Spanish student; I definitely wouldn't consider myself fluent though.</p>
<p>Also, which language would be more beneficial to me in the medical field?</p>
<p>which language is more useful will depend on where you end up.</p>
<p>How hard this is will depend on your ability to manage the workload (language classes tend to meet more often and require more daily work than other classes) and the way your school handles scheduling. You certainly have no obligation to take spanish. Not really sure what that means.</p>
<p>Err by obligation to take Spanish I mean I don’t want to have wasted my last 4 years learning Spanish. Would I be overwhelmed if I did premed, majored in Biology, and minored in Spanish?</p>
<p>1.) As you know, at and after the AP level you are no longer learning language skills but culture and history. You’ll be practicing language skills along the way, but that will be incidental to your actual learning objectives.</p>
<p>2.) In almost every geographic region, Spanish will be more useful than Mandarin, since the places where Mandarin is common (New York, San Francisco) are also places where Spanish is very common. Obviously, knowing BOTH will be yet more useful. </p>
<p>3.) Unless there are specific courses for them, you will need to supplement independently with medical Spanish and medical Mandarin, since standard college coursework usually does not include medical terminology. </p>
<p>4.) Written foreign language skills are of minimal use.</p>
<p>5.) Your having taken Spanish already – and being able to speak Mandarin already – suggests to me that neither language’s coursework will be useful to you. In all seriousness, I would suggest a picking a third language entirely, and then brushing up on medical Spanish and medical Mandarin on your own or with a single class if available.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d either take Mandarin if you think your spoken skills aren’t quite fluent, or I’d take Arabic, most likely Modern Standard.</p>
<p>Take them. Easy time with Chinese for you anyway. Most of D’s pre-med friends had various minor(s) unrelated to their majors. D. took 3rd year college Spanish, it is very very benefitial, there is NO doubt. Do not know about Chinese, her Medical Calss has over 50% of Chinese students. If D. ever had Chinese, she would definitely did not benefit from it at her Med. School, no need for her Chinese there. However, she also benefitted from another of her 3 foreign languages, got very positive written comments about it - had to use her knowledge in her Clinical Research.</p>
<p>@BlueDevil I am planning on minoring in Arabic and possibly doing a study abroad program in Egypt to become fluentish in it. Why do you suggest taking Arabic? I am curious if it will benefit me professionally as an aspiring psychiatrist. Thanks.</p>
<p>if you’re planning on living in an area with people who speak arabic then yes, it will help. Alternatively, if you want to get involved with “advanced interrogation” for homeland security/CIA/NSA then it will probably also help there too.</p>
<p>
And hope that the ADCOMs won’t figure out that OP is a native speaker… :D</p>
<p>OP, if your goal is to enrich yourself with the knowledge of your heritage language, by all means, take it. I am not convinced about the usefulness of a classroom course in foreign language to improve speaking skills. Real world interaction with native speakers is the best way to acquire/improve speaking skills.</p>
<p>1.) Arabic – particularly certain dialects – is one of few languages that dramatically improve job prospects in general.</p>
<p>EDIT: It’s not particularly useful in medicine per se.</p>
<p>2.) Of the foreign languages I’ve run into on the hospital wards, Iraqi Arabic was something like the fourth or fifth most useful – not super common, but not ridiculously rare either.
3.) There are five languages that I wish I was totally fluent in: English (American), Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish (non-Castilian), Arabic (dialect undecided), and Russian. These five represent most of the major players in the globe today, and mostly represent different language systems entirely.</p>
<p>In case anyone else didn’t know this:</p>
<p>The Real Academia Espa</p>
<p>I am a native English speaker and intermediate in Spanish (can read/write/understand but have some trouble speaking). Thank you, I will keep all of this in mind.</p>
<p>Don’t bother to minor in Spanish. Minoring in Spanish usually requires taking Spanish Lit classes, which won’t help you with med school.</p>
<p>a minor in Spanish is often different than other minors. Usually a minor just requires 18-22 credits with about six upper division. Spanish often requires many more upper division and requires Lit classes. </p>
<p>You don’t need to minor in a language to get more fluent. My son got Spanish credits for Spanish 101, 102, 201, 202, Conversational Spanish, Medical Spanish, Business Spanish, and some other Spanish. So, he’s quite fluent. However, he didn’t get the minor because it required too many upper division Spanish Lit classes which were irrelevant to his needs.</p>
<p>Are you in-state for Carolina?</p>
<p>I ask because UNC and ECU will then be your in-state (public) options for med school. And if so they will place a premium on your spanish language skills. NC has a fast and ever growing population of spanish only speakers and not nearly enough physicians who are fluent. UNC med school does offer a medical terminology spanish I do not know if it is for undergrads however.</p>
<p>Kat</p>