<p>i'm finding it very hard to pick between the two. I have always had a fascination with the cold war and with Russia in general (culture, art ,etc) but arabic is also appealing due to the need for it in teaching positions and government. I feel as if I LIKE russian more, but that I NEED to major in arabic instead so as to have a lot of job security and grants for graduate school, etc. Do those same grants exist for Russian, or is too far past the cold-war days for the US to realize that we should have other interests than in just the middle east? Anyone with any input please chime in.</p>
<p>pick russian. If you are interested, then you are more likely to like taking it.</p>
<p>Don't take something because of demand.</p>
<p>Are you following current politics. This practically is the cold war.
And some of the people in my department ( i admitt i am biased, b/c i am a russian major) got government grants to continue thier russsian studies. Apparently the CIA has put it on the current list of languages they feel are important for Americans to know.</p>
<p>i do believe that i would enjoy Russian more, and as one you said, the current situation is pointing more and more towards another "cold-war" especially with the recent missle placement prospect by the us, Russia wasnt at all happy about that. I also like the middle east, but frankly, i'm not sure if i'd want to study abroad over there in the coming future. Thanks for the info, i'm going to do some more searching. Does anyone know if Russian is still vital for teaching positions. I will either go into teaching, law, or government, so i'll prob. double it with history. alright thanks again.</p>
<p>do what you are most interested in !!
i am in same position but favor arabic, but thats only because i am more interested in that area.</p>
<p>I would say Russian. If you're genuinely interested in it, then there's a better chance that you;d do better in it. I heard CB was trying to get Russian AP! Maybe you can be a Russian teacher.</p>
<p>Your job security will not be any better or worse if you pick Russian over Arabic or vice versa. Both are considered 'exotic' languages and have lots of grant opportunities. Also, the whole thing about Arabic being 'the' language to learn is probably overblown. In the next 30 years, Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Hindi, and Farsi speakers will all be in high demand. </p>
<p>The real question is, which language/culture are you more interested in. Would you rather devote years to studying Russia or the Middle East? Pick the region that interests you more and go with it!</p>
<p>isint arabic more rare than russian?</p>
<p>There are a considerable number of countries that have Arabic as an official langauge. North Africa and the Middle East both use Arabic.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys. I'm still not sure about going into academia vs law vs government, but i figure that i will either combine my Russian major with Politcal science or philosophy. Russian and phil. seems pretty good for the law path, not sure for what else lol. thanks.</p>