Language courses

College Majors
1

<p>I don't intend to major in languages but my International Studies major will include language coursework, and I intend to take at least one all four years to gain fluency, and additional languages for four or less years. I expect to well exceed the language requirement because of my interest. I have two questions:</p>

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<li><p>For those of you taking character based Eastern languages, how daunting is it to memorize the characters? How many are you expected to memorize at the college level each day/week/month? And for anyone brave enough to be taking more than one of these - do you get the characters confused? Also, how daunting are Arabic and Russian for those of you learning those?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the maximum number of languages practical to take in college? I am extremely interested in languages. Anyone taking two or more at once? I am really struggling with the decision of which ones I want to take - there are so many I want to learn, and beyond a beginner level. I can even see myself taking at least two all four years. Far fetched or not so much for an international studies major?</p></li>
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2

<p>Wow! Sounds like you found something you really like! I like languages (and am transferring to be a Linguistics Major) but I want to stick to learning languages slowly as a hobby haha.</p>

<p>As far as characters go, I can say that I took Mandarin and found characters difficult. It’s a difficult thing, as many will agree, though I’m sure it’s achievable. For me, the hurdle was that I like to be able to break things down - grammar, words, syllables, etc. I couldn’t find a good way to break down what the Chinese characters meant, so I struggled. My teacher also said there isn’t always a correlation between similar-looking symbols. So I found it tough.</p>

<p>But, you seem very excited and dedicated, so I would imagine you’d do much better than me =)</p>