Hello,
I was wondering how many languages could I fit in four years of college? I plan on pursuing Classics, so I’ll be having Latin and Greek from the start, but besides that how many languages could I add ?
I am fluent in four(Romanian, English, Spanish and French) and I dabble in a few others ( Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian ) but I would like to get to a level of fluency in those as well. So could I fit 4 more languages besides Greek and Latin into my schedule?
Thank you!
Your college will have requirements for types of classes you have to take. Your major will have requirements. That will only leave you some slots for electives. I would think you could not add 4 more languages as classes. When you go to college you will talk to your adviser and work out a plan for what courses you can take.
For classics, Hebrew might be interesting.
Certainly not if you expect to get to any level of proficiency.
Thank you for your replies!
I’ll see if I can fit at least 2 and I will study the others by myself:).
First of all, you need to find out what is the maximum number of units you can take before graduation (at my university, it’s 225 units), and then see how many units whatever major you’re going into needs. Whatever units you have left, you can use them towards taking a language class. For example, I’m a Japanese major, and the major constitutes 40-70 units depending on how many courses you take. Before that, I was an East Asian Studies major, and that comprised of 48-78 units. Since I transferred from a community college with 90 units, I only had 135 units left to go before I hit the 225 limit, and I put most of those units I had left towards classes in my major.
Assuming something like a quarter system UC, you probably need about 30 units over 6 quarters from beginner to proficiency in each language that is considered easier to English speakers to learn (e.g. Spanish, French), and probably about 45-60 units over 9-12 quarters from beginner to proficiency for the harder languages (e.g. Arabic, Japanese). Of course, if you have some knowledge already in a language, you may be able to start in a higher level course than the beginner one.
Very impressive @BlairSt06! Could you share how you became fluent in four languages (especially given how the typical American school treats learning world languages)? Please PM me if this distracts too much from your post. Thanks!
^ There’s a possibility that he may have known those languages since a young age. Some people grow up being bi- or multilingual due to their family background. But fluency in a language generally comes from studying it well and using it as much as you can (i.e. conversing with native speakers). You also have to have a passion to keep on learning it, otherwise you’ll likely get bored of it after a while.
Hey, thank you so much for your advice!
@ChezCurie
I am from Romania and Romanian is my native language. I started very young with both English and Spanish and afterwards I learned French in school. Since Romanian, French and Spanish are quite similar it wasn’t that hard after a while. I can read and understand perfectly Portuguese but I have a very hard time speaking it. Same goes with Italian.
Maybe I managed to get to a level of fluency in Spanish and French because I constantly found opportunities to speak them. My mother knows French as well and we speak it at home sometimes.
Yes, it’s true @sweetlacecharm , using a language as much as you can is the key to fluency, but first you have to have a foundation. I do enjoy learning the grammar of a language but practice with native speakers (or proficient ones) is needed in order to achieve a level of fluency.
And another thing that has helped me with languages is the fact that I try to think in that language as much as I can. I actually chastise myself when I slip and think in my native language or in English.
Hey, kudos to you for knowing so many languages and for having such a passion for them! I think that’s great because I too love different languages and I think it’s always useful to learn them.
Like everyone else has been saying, it will be hard to study 4 languages in college in addition to your major. Since you’re studying classics, though, Greek and Latin will be useful, and I’m sure your French fluency can help as well (I study French and from what I’ve experienced, its Latin roots are strong).
You might be able to take summer courses if they offer them in the language you want to speak. I know that my university only offers the first 2 years of French, German, and Japanese over the summer while they offer the upper-levels in Spanish. So if your school offers summer sections of Hebrew or Greek or something, you could also do that and pair it with your own self-study.
I have a friend who is currently learning French, Greek, Hindi and Hebrew and he honestly inspires me because he’s so dedicated and so disciplined. Even if you can’t fit them all in your schedule, keep studying them on your own and do the best you can.
Good luck!
Your passion for language is wonderful; however, I would advise against trying to fit four additional languages into an undergraduate curriculum where you will also have non-major requirements to fulfill. Studying a language at university level requires much more than communicative skills. In other words, the concept of fluency is measured differently. Instead, you might want to consider an additional or side qualification based on what you already know, e.g. English Teaching Certificate, International Business or Relations, Translating and Interpreting, etc. Your linguistic abilities are already quite extraordinary that you have a lot of options.
As you mentioned, you can always do a bit of independent study in your free time. What you’ve learned on your own can then be validated by taking one of the language-specific proficiency exams (DELE for Spanish, JLPT for Japanese, etc.). White Rabbit Press is a great resource for Japanese language aids. Their kanji cards and poster are amazing!
Also, take some of the CLEP foreign-language exams. You can earn college credit this way for a fraction of the cost.
Another thing: When you get to your new school, join some clubs! Attend Spanish film nights, etc. You’re going to have an amazing time.
Best of luck!
Given that, you probably won’t find other Romance languages like Latin to be that difficult. However, it may be difficult to find course work that matches your profile in Italian and Portuguese (read and listen well, difficulty speaking), since most courses are designed for those with no knowledge to start (i.e. need to learn all of reading, writing, listen, and speaking) or sometimes for heritage speakers (listen and speak well, but weaker reading and writing).
Depends on the languages you choose to learn.
Deciding to learn Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian for example, would be challenging as each are vastly different and use different scripts. As someone who is fluent in several romance languages, you would find it much easier to learn Italian, Spanish, Venetian, etc. to name a few.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to learn so many in college. In any case, you can still learn languages after college, but of course you won’t have the same resources while in it.