<p>I'm an incoming freshman and I plan to take a language course in my first semester. Now I can't decide whether I should choose French or German. Basically, I just want to select a widely spoken European language, so I'm going to choose from these two. So which language is the more popular one? There seems to be a lot of different opinions in the web. Also, which language program is better in Cornell? And since I plan to study abroad in junior year, which language program is going to offer me more and better opportunities to study abroad? I'm not sure that's relevant, but I'm going to major in computer science.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your help!</p>
<p>im an incoming freshman as well. i speak french and i can tell you that it’s definitely dying out. im trying to decide between german and russian for business. i leaning towards german. when i visited during cornell days, everyone told me that the german program was solid.</p>
<p>I graduated with a German minor from Cornell and I love the department. All the instructors I had were fantastic. I probably learned as much German my first two semesters than 5 years of French in middle/high school. Be prepared to spend more time on German homework than your other subjects. Especially in the first year, average homework is easily 1-2 hours per night (and don’t get behind!!). But the classes themselves are fairly relaxed and once you get past your first year, the classes become a lot more manageable. Despite going for the minor, I never studied abroad, but know plenty of people who did and there are many opportunities to go abroad in Germany. I know people who studied abroad in France too so I don’t think either department offers an advantage in that area. Cornell generally has strong language programs and has a lot of resources to send students abroad.</p>
<p>That said, German or French probably isn’t all that useful. French is kind of nice to know because so much of Western history involves French and it’s a more global language (given its colonial expansion). There are quite a few countries in the world that have French as a secondary language. Within Europe itself, there are more German speakers and especially recently, Germany is more important in business. But a ridiculously high percentage of Germans have at least a functional knowledge of English and anyone in business would know English. Probably one of the most frustrating things in Germany is having someone pick up on your American accent and start speaking to you in English. The German Department offers “German in Business Culture” though which I took and enjoyed. Not sure if the French department offers something similar.</p>
<p>I’d recommend German. German really has an appealing culture / literature that you can open up once you learn it. </p>
<p>Not to hijack on your thread but I’d been thinking about languages a lot - it was my plan to learn one like you said in college - I’d been debating between Russian / German / Japanese - and decided to give German a try. However, then I found out ‘language’ isn’t really required for College of Engineering - and I already have 4/6 required humanities classes via AP credit. Would people recommend I take German, or would I be adding unnecessary stress - and it’s better to just focus on my math / science classes. If I am learning it - I want to learn it well - so starting from first semester was the ideal, but I’m wishy-washy now.</p>
<p>If you want to learn German, go for it. I had some engineering friends take it with me. Just be prepared for 1-2 hours of homework per night your first year. It’s won’t be intellectually difficult, but you do have to put the time in (not sure what you would describe as stressful).</p>
<p>Yeah thanks I do think I’ll go for it. 1-2 hours is perfectly manageable and a reasonable commitment. By stressful I was worried I might be overwhelmed by other classes, and on top of that adding a language - but I think it’ll be worth it in end.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I took two semesters of German, both with Frau Matthias. I intended to take more but I started fairly late and it continuing German conflicted with other courses required for my major. I really enjoyed my classes and after just one semester I went to Germany with my family and was able to communicate in a small town where no one spoke English. The German program is fairly small but stable and I’d definitely recommend it.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys! Seems like everyone has a high opinion of the German department. So I guess I will just go for German~</p>
<p>Before you make up your mind, I would really consider Russian. I took Russian both semesters and I am going to take it again next year. I absolutely loved my professors (3 professors teach intro Russian, each teaching 1 or 2 days a week). The class is a lot of fun and you learn a lot. Just like intro German it is a lot of work, especially if you don’t pick up languages quickly. To be honest, I feel there a quite a few more opportunities if you go with Russian instead of German. One example is the Critical Language Scholarship from the State Department which would send you for free to go to Russia for a summer to study the language.</p>
<p>Either language is wonderful; both offer a spectacularly rich literary heritage. Keep in mind that one of the great benefits of mastering a great language is the door it opens into that culture’s greatest writers and thinkers. </p>
<p>To that end, the two greatest literary traditions outside of English are probably French and Russian. Hard to go wrong with either.</p>
<p>Just something to consider … My son REALLY wanted to take German at Cornell. (French in lower school, Spanish in middle school, Latin in high school - he’d wanted to take German for years), but it would not fit with his schedule. There were insurmountable conflicts with the beginning German course and some courses necessary for his major. So he ended up in Latin again, not very happily. To make it worse, he took the Latin placement test and qualified for an upper level course – but that wouldn’t work with his schedule, either. So he had to start all over again in Latin I and take it for three consecutive semesters. I don’t know how common such conflicts are, but he was very disappointed. I have no idea whether he’ll ever be able to take German – and he had originally considered studying abroad in the junior year. Oh, well!</p>