<p>Hey-</p>
<p>Just curious, but would that degree be very valuable post college? As of right now I'm really thinking I'm going to do that. Major: International and Area Studies, Minors in Chinese and Arabic.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Possibly, but you’ll have to go to grad school. Getting fluent in one of those languages will be more valuable without grad school.</p>
<p>Why both?</p>
<p>Why not pick one language and actually get good at it? Doing two really difficult languages is hard, believe me.</p>
<p>And I agree. You are looking at grad school if you want a job.</p>
<p>Unless you’re bilingual from childhood or you’ve successfully learnt a language to fluency (NOT high school language classes; real fluency), you’re going to lack the tools and skills necessary to tackle those two languages at the same time. Or even separately. Just going to classes and completing your requirements will not get you fluent, it’ll give you a start. You need to spend many, many hours outside of classes perfecting your fluency. Do you really think you have the will and time to do that for two of the hardest language for English speakers? If you do, go for it but it’ll be very, very difficult. Otherwise, be a little more realistic and drop at least one of the languages.</p>
<p>I’m just doing Arabic through 200 level because the program isn’t great but I just really enjoy learning the language. I’m focusing more on Chinese (I spent the summer there, plan to study abroad there) and will take that most likely through 500 level. The arabic is more of a plus.</p>
<p>Ahhh. Well in that case I say go for it.</p>
<p>I’d consider double majoring in chinese and IS then.</p>
<p>I originally planned on majoring in Chinese as well but decided against it because it simply limits my schedule and study abroad plans way too much. I feel that as long as I’m fluent the minor will be sufficient.</p>
<p>Do international relations and major in one of those languages.</p>
<p>Why bother with the Arabic minor if you’re just going to learn it through “where’s the bathroom?” You won’t be fluent enough to put it on any job applications and they jobs that hire IS majors tend to test for native-like fluency. I’d say drop the minor and do IS and Chinese.</p>
<p>all of those degrees vary in benefit depending on what you actually want to do.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would major in international relations, minor in chinese or arabic.
I say this because during the summer there are excellent programs in china that you can even get scholarships to attend. It is not necessary to be fluent in both of those languages by the time you leave college (but if you want to do it go for it) as there will be other opportunities to learn them. I say major in International Relations, because you can only do this at college (whereas language courses you can get much more cheaply after if you wanted to) [The</a> BEST place to study Mandarin in China is Shijiazhuang](<a href=“gatewaychina.net”>gatewaychina.net) for xample. My uni specialised in IR- I majored in a Language- and now I’m off to china to learn mandarin (I love languages too)before I apply for grad school. It’s more of an effort for me because I majored in a language instead of IR. (I’ll get there-but it’s easier and cheaper in europe to change your degree studies).</p>
<p>You don’t HAVE to minor in a language. If you’re fluent regardless, it’s still the same kind of bonus for employers.</p>
<p>Yes, but if there is no hassle/extra money in minoring in it I don’t see the problem. Even though language classes don’t equal fluency it’s good to have a structured class to learn the basics like the alphabet whatnot.</p>
<p>mandarin doesnt really havea n alphabet.</p>
<p>Arabic does. A somewhat complicated one.</p>
<p>Actually, it has an (impure) abjad, not an alphabet .</p>
<p>Whatever. You have to learn a lot of letters. No one else is going to know what I mean if I don’t sat alphabet.
Jeeze.</p>
<p>Arabic is complicated? Really? The alphabet has only 29 letters.</p>
<p>^Try pronouncing those letters if you have no experience</p>