<p>I have a strong interest in East Asian language. In college, I plan on majoring in the topic, of course, but I come to an issue when I realize that I want to study three languages and isn't that too much to take in college?
Right now I'm studying Spanish and Japanese, and will have reached AP level in both by the time I graduate. Spanish is a language that is easy to keep up outside of school, and I will be close enough to fluent anyway that I would have reached my goal. However, Japanese is another story, as it takes much more than AP level to bring you near fluent.
So this means that I should continue Japanese when I get to college, but I really want to learn Korean and Chinese as well so is that too much? I will learn them all anyway, but I'd like to do it in college if I can.
So basically my question is: Is taking three languages in college too much?</p>
<p>Probably. To some people, learning languages comes more easily than others.</p>
<p>However, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese are three of the most difficult languages to learn. Each separately requires a 4+ year commitment to become fluent (and if you don’t become fluent, taking a language won’t be very useful), and even then your language skills will be probably much worse than a native speaker.</p>
<p>Also, in my opinion, AP level really does not signify anything. I reached Spanish 5 in high school (AP Lit) and received 5s on both tests, and I would never say I am fluent, or even “close to fluent.” Although if I took a couple of years of Spanish + study abroad, I could probably become fluent.
IMO it takes living for 6-12 months in a different country to become fluent.</p>
<p>However, you do sound like someone who is genuinely interested in those languages, so that huge of a commitment may not be as daunting for someone like you who (I assume) takes joy in language classes.</p>
<p>Also, taking classes in 3 languages is going to be a lot of work, and leaves little room for anything other than majoring in East Asian Studies.</p>
<p>I’d urge against you studying 3 languages at once coming from a person that graduated from an East Asian studies program. I tried that once since I came from a high school that taught both Chinese and Japanese and tried to pile Korean on top of that. Long story short I dropped Korean focused solely on Chinese and Japanese which meant going abroad every summer, spending time abroad my academic year. Personally I would urge you solely concentrate on Japanese if you really want to gain fluent. I was lucky enough to live in an area where I could use Chinese and Japanese outside of my high school constantly so I placed out of Chinese early on in my college career and focused on Japanese my last 2 years. So you have a choice. You can get super good at ONE Asian language by focusing on Japanese, studying at the IUP program at Yokohama your Junior year at the Princeton in Japan intensive Japanese language program your freshman and sophomore summers. Or, you can be like the myriad of other East Asian studies students that are some of the most pretentious individuals you can meet. They think they can tackle and master 3 Asian languages at once and by the end of their senior year don’t even have real proficiency in any. Look, once you can pass the JLPT 1 and can function at Japanese on a college student level, THEN start another language.</p>
<p>And to debate Terenc, I’d say to gain true proficiency in an Asian language I would say minimum 7 years of study.</p>
<p>Thank you both 
I am certainly not fluent in Spanish, but I know enough to get by (i can have full fledged conversations, they’re just a bit slow) and if I saw that a job opportunity included that requirement I would have to study up immediately.
I suppose knowing that I want to study Japanese in college no matter what, I’d have to decide on what the second language I’d take would be. I’m assuming that Chinese is more useful in the workforce in general, especially considering that it’s the most spoken language in the world, but I think I would be more interested in working related to Korea than to China.
Are there any other determining factors you would suggest I consider in deciding what my second language of study is?</p>
<p>Regarding working in Asia. I have been working in Beijing for 2 years and I can tell you a lot has change. Talking to former classmates that are Korean working in Korea, I can tell you that finding a good private sector job in Korea that isn’t teaching English for a foreigner is nearly impossible. Sadly due to xenophobia in East Asia getting a working visa for Japan or Korea is extremely difficult. China is getting worse. I now discourage people from trying too hard. If you really want to work in Asia I highly suggest you look at a job in the foreign service. East Asian Studies majors are highly sought after now since the state department realized that having foreign officers that can’t speak local languages is a huge problem . I highly suggest you look at schools with good IR or program and east asian language programs such as Tufts, GWU, American, JHU, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford etc. Also you need to realize you can’t have a “second language” in Asian studies. You either devote your time equally between two or you just focus on one. Although this sounds pretentious, you can’t half-as* an asian language like you can with a european one.</p>
<p>I’m fluent in Castilian (Spanish) as well as being conversant in Catalan (Spanish) and I’m told I’m pretty good at English (kidding), but I’m having my butt kicked by Arabic right now even through there is significant crossover with Mexican/Latin American Spanish and (due to the international standardization of Spanish) Castilian. It’s not the sounds but the letters and since Chinese, Korean and Japanese each have different writing structures I couldn’t imagine trying to learn more than one of them at a time.</p>
<p>I would also suggest that you stick with your Japanese in UNI and keep gradually strengthening whatever you know of (Insert name of dialect here) Spanish. I would suggest Castilian Spanish because it is still used as la lingua franca for international trade in South America and even through nations such as Venezuela and Argentina have significant Italian-speaking populations, Italian is close enough to Castilian that it is the lingua franca there. Also, King Juan Carlos de Borb</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What is your purpose for learning each language? What do you plan to do with each language? </p></li>
<li><p>What sort of language skills are you aiming for? Fluent? Proficient? Conversational?</p></li>
<li><p>I agree with everyone else in that you definitely should not take Chinese, Japanese, and Korean at the same time. However, you may want to have one “active” language and one “passive” language. For example, you take Japanese (the “active” language) courses in college and self-study Chinese or Korean 2-3 times a week at low intensity so that you become familiar with the second language, but not have to be held accountable for your learning in the form of tests, quizzes, oral finals, homework, etc. To check your progress in the second or “passive” language, you listen to music and/or watch TV programs in that language 2-3 days a week for a specified amount of time. This provides a less stressful way to learn two languages at one time. Granted, you won’t be anywhere near fluent in the passive language before you graduate from college (that’s what grad school is for), but you still will gain some sort of familiarity in the language while gaining proficiency or near-native fluency in the active language. Once you are satisfied with your skills in the active language, then you can increase your efforts on the passive language.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I believe that learning Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can be done - just not in the timetable that you want.</p>