My son is a junior this year and is thinking about applying Cornell. His passions lie in Languages, Linguistics and Music. He is in his fourth year of both French and Spanish and plans to be fluent in both Languages before college and then plans to learn one or two more in college. He has some Swahili and Hebrew under his belt, but I think his plans are to pursue Arabic and German next. He also loves linguistics and studies that on his own time. He is thinking about a double major in Language and Linguistics (perhaps a minor in music although he really plays for himself and doesn’t plan to make a career of it). Can any of you out there give us any information on the Language and Linguistics programs at Cornell? Is it particularly strong/big/small etc. How are the professors in these areas? We would love any and all info anyone has to offer. Thanks!
@jrtgsdrule My daughter is a freshman at Cornell and is going to declare linguistics. She is also passionate about languages and it sounds like your son has the same interests as my daughter. PM me if you want and I can give you her Cornell email and your son can ask her for himself. She is a wealth of info. She is also a Cornell Ambassador and she can answer any other questions that you may have.
My daughter is a soph at Cornell, planning on declaring linguistics. She seems to enjoy all her professors and classes. Her language focus is Mandarin, and she’s applying to do a semester in China in the fall. A great thing about Cornell is that there are so many languages there to pursue.
As to size…when we were looking for colleges, it seemed that no college had a linguistics program that could be called “big.” (It’s pretty likely that Tiggy’s daughter and mine know each other 
.)
Does your son do NACLO? The annual competition is at the end of January and DD found it great fun. Google NACLO and see if there’s a site near you.
I went through the Hebrew sequence at Cornell with Professor Shalom Shoer and they were my absolute favorite classes I’ve taken here! You mentioned he knows some Hebrew; even if he didn’t know any (I didn’t speak a word of it when I started) I would highly recommend he study it here!
@Ranza123 although I originally stated my S is interested in pursuing Arabic and German, he has now changed his that plan to include Hebrew and not German. So in that respect, can you tell us something more about the experience you’ve had with the Hebrew Dept. at Cornell? I am a Cornell grad myself and took two Hebrew classes while there, but that was 30 years ago! And I am far from fluent now. My son likes to learn language to full fluency so if you can speak to the depth of the study in Hebrew that information would go a long way with him.
Absolutely! So in order to fulfill the Arts & Sciences language requirement for Hebrew, you need to take the first three courses offered in the sequence (or, if you are proficient already, pass an upper level Hebrew course). The first three courses cover three semesters and are Hebrew 1101, 1102, and 1103. All three courses are taught by Shalom Shoer, who is my favorite professor I’ve had at Cornell. Along with being a wonderful instructor, he genuinely cares about each of his students and will cater his teaching to the individuals in order to help them succeed.
I went in not knowing a word of Hebrew or the Hebrew alphabet or anything. The program is fairly immersive (or as immersive as you can get without going to another country) and by the end of the first week I could talk about my morning and write a fair amount. The first two courses are five days a week, and Shalom encourages you to try to speak Hebrew the entire class period (especially in the third semester). By the end of the sequence, I could sustain long conversations, read stories and newspapers, and write essays in Hebrew. After the three semesters with Shalom, you can move on to take upper level Hebrew classes if you choose to. These courses were some of my favorites I’ve taken and I looked forward to them every day. Shalom is absolutely wonderful and I would highly recommend studying with him.
Well I have to say the same goes for French. My daughter tested into a higher level of French and has completed her first semester and is now into her second semester, French 2095, and LOVES it, and her professor. It’s quite immersive, as @Ranza123 says and my daughter is amazingly fluent and her vocab is getting quite sophisticated, as students are expected to discuss politics, philosophy etc. in French. Language classes are quite a bit of work, but if they are your “thing”, then they are enjoyable.
DD also loves her language classes in Mandarin. Her one complaint is that while the entry level classes are 6 credits, the upper level ones only count as 4 even though they involve at least as much work!