<p>Does anyone know anything about these? The language I want to take next year only has intensive courses for beginners. How hard would it be to take such a class, as well as a regular language course in another language?</p>
<p>I wonder if there is an innate ability to learn foreign languages from some. It depends. If you're generally good about learning foreing languages and you're passionate about what you're doing, I think you could do it; that's not to say that it would be rigorous, but if you want to do it, that shouldn't the reasont that stops you.</p>
<p>I'm a bit unsure about the whole language requirement thing..I'm in Spanish Lit right now, and loving it. I still have a lot more Spanish to learn, but I really want to learn Chinese because I feel like it is much more practical. I'm afraid that'll I commit all this time to learning it, suck, and just be mediocre at two languages. </p>
<p>I decided I'm going to try and take a UCSD extension course this summer in Chinese, test the water, and if I still feel like it is something I want to pursue I will...</p>
<p>Anyway, from what I've heard, if you take an intensive language course they recommend taking less units than one normally would with a regular course, to adjust for the increased work load.</p>
<p>Oy, learning Chinese is difficult, at least for me. I speak to my mom in English, and she responds in Chinese. It's an interesting system and I hear it everyday, but once I began learning English when I was six (and not using Chinese too often), I've lost most of it.</p>
<p>And there are many dialects in Chinese; Mandarin is the most common form with Cantonese and Tawainese following. My family uses Hanainese (on my fathers side) and the dialects of Haka and FuChien (for my mom's side). I know only Mandarin (and very little of it too). I hope to pick it up at university.</p>
<p>The most difficult thing about learning Mandarin is the fact that there is no unified alphabet. There are many thousands of characters that have to be memorized (but they can be built from "root" words). There are also 4 possible ways of saying one word (placing emphasis differently), resulting in 4 very different definitions.</p>
<p>This you should know if you're already Chinese, but if you're not, then just FYI.</p>
<p>I've heard it's difficult (and I am not Chinese, so thanks for the preview)</p>
<p>We'll see how the summer course goes. I really enjoy learning languages, but have no idea how I will handle a whole new alphabet.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy it. And perhaps you can relay that experience. I would love to know what taking Mandarin is like at a university.</p>