<p>Hi everyone. I will be going to school next fall and I would like to take either Japanese or Italian. The school I'm going to offers a minor in Italian and they have elementary and intermediate Japanese. Basically I am interested in Japanese because after school I would really love to go to Japan to teach English, maybe permanently at some point(and no before you ask I'm not a weaboo). Now for Italian. I am Italian, all my grandparents are from southern Italy and I also have a dual citizenship but I know hardly any Italian. I would like to like it basically to connect with my roots and be able to pass it down to my kids in the future. So what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Take whichever one you’d rather take. If you want to live in Japan, then I would recommend taking Japanese.</p>
<p>Face it, you’re a weaboo. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s worth it if your school only has two years of Japanese. If you start it freshman year, you’ll go two years before hypothetically even using it, in which time you’ll forget it all anyway.</p>
<p>Fun fact: I take Japanese.</p>
<p>If you plan to teach English in Japan, you’d probably need more than just what is offered there…</p>
<p>It’s kind of useless to take a language and not be fluent with it (in the end, of course)</p>
<p>It depends on your interests.</p>
<p>Japanese is a hard language to learn, and you need to know about 2000 kanji to be functional, which generally requires about 4 years of study. Unless there is an opportunity to do a semester/year/summer abroad, you will not learn enough to be anywhere near proficient in only 2 years.</p>
<p>Italian is a fairly easy language to learn. You might have more opportunity to practice it if your family speaks it.</p>
<p>Either opens the door to a fascinating culture</p>
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<p>You don’t have to get fluent just through college courses. Usually, you don’t become fluent just by taking classes in the subject, but it does give you somewhere to start. Having some Japanese would make it much easier to learn Japanese later either through courses somewhere else, on their own, or by living in Japan. If they actually do want to live in or visit Japan, knowing some Japanese would be much more helpful than knowing some Italian.</p>
<p>@CSIHSIS
I’ve never watched anime in my life and only listen to a few japanese bands so i’m defiantly not a weaboo.</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon
Most if not all employers in Japanese schools prefer you to only know basic Japanese or non so you don’t speak it in the class. I would only be taking it to learn the basics.</p>
<p>@skieurope
My entire family speaks Italian so I’m able to understand almost everything I just can’t really produce the words to speak it. That why I’m not sure if I should really take it when I could probably just learn on my own.</p>
<p>I was kidding, lol. I still advise against it though. I really don’t think you’ll follow through with that plan and it would just be a waste of time.</p>
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<p>In some situations, knowledge of a language short of full fluency may be useful. For example, PhD programs in math often require students to pass a reading test of a non-English language that math papers may be written in (e.g. French, German, Russian); such tests are mainly concerned with whether the student can read a math paper written in that language and understand the math, rather than being able to converse with a native speaker in that language.</p>
<p>Note that, in the real world, some people may have “uneven” ability in the various aspects of the language. E.g. someone may be better at listening and reading, but not speaking and writing. Or may be fluent but illiterate.</p>
<p>@CSIHSIS
I would still be interested in the language even if I don’t go to Japan right away so it wouldn’t be a waste in my eyes.</p>
<p>@calabria2012 take italian so u can communicate better with them italian chicks</p>
<p>I think it’s clear that Japanese is where your heart lies right now. You’re right in that you can probably learn a good deal of Italian from your family, and also, it is a romance language and so easier for English speakers to learn.</p>
<p>As far as your university only offering two years’ worth of Japanese classes, you never know what might happen. The Modern Languages Department at my school is growing tremendously and will be soon be offering minors in the languages where they only have the first four semesters. They’re also trying to make a minor-only language a major as well, and in two years from now, I bet the entire program will look pretty different.</p>
<p>Depending on where you live, having some experience with the Japanese language might even make you more marketable. I recently went to a campus event where employers and companies from around our area came and spoke about the advantages of having a foreign language education, be it a full major, a minor, or even just some experience. There was a company with a Japanese headquarters, and they said they really like to hire people with Japanese skills so that they can communicate with their higher-ups, translate some documents, or maybe even make business trips out there. I’m sure that can be true with other languages as well, but Japanese influence is growing, so that’s also something to consider.</p>
<p>It’s clear OP is more interested in Japanese, but in regards to post above, two years of Japanese (leaving out the slim possibility that higher levels are eventually offered) is not enough to translate documents or communicate with higher ups, which requires grammar/vocabulary that even Japanese people have trouble with.</p>
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<p>Probably not in the OP’s case, though. Japanese programs are shrinking, not growing. Arabic and Mandarin are the hot less commonly taught languages.</p>
<p>Yes; this is all true. It really does depend on where you are. I guess my geographical region has a lot of Japanese and other foreign companies, so that’s why my university has a full Japanese major program along with other other expanding options. </p>
<p>@CSIHSIS Again, I’m only interested in teaching and not working for any big company so I won’t need specialized vocab. I’m just looking for the basics to be able to get around a little when I get there. Fluency will come with time.</p>