Russian or Japanese?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm currently a college Freshman finishing up my first year. I've studied French intensively this year and will continue with it, but I really want to begin another language my second year of college. However, I cannot choose between Russian and Japanese. I'm completely torn, and I thought some advice might help. Major/Career-wise, I might go into either Computer Science, Linguistics, or Creative Writing. I live in New York City and plan to remain in New York City.</p>

<p>Regarding Japanese: I used to be one of those people who watches anime day and night and was absolutely in love with Japan's culture. I don't watch anime quite so much nowadays (practically never), but I am still fascinated by Japan's history and the linguistics of its language. I know the difficulty of learning kanji will be balanced out by a relatively simple grammar system and a phonetic structure. I'd love to visit Japan one day, and I've always wanted to live there for a couple of years.</p>

<p>Regarding Russian: I think Russian history and culture is the most fascinating out of all of Europe. Also, I think Russian is one of the most beautiful languages I've ever heard, and I would love to be able to speak it, because it's gorgeous. I don't like the Cyrillic alphabet as much as I like kanji, but I could get past that. I'd love to visit Moscow, St. Petersburg, and take a ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, but I do not see myself living in Russia long term at all. I know Russian would be more useful for someone living in New York City (we've got some high Russian populations) as well as the US in general (FBI, CIA). </p>

<p>The problem is, I am fascinated by both countries and both languages make me happy. I wish there was a way for me to study both, but I love French too and I want to study that as well, and I just can't study three languages.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice as to which language would be more useful? Or how I could go about deciding? Because every time I start to lean towards one language, I start to vacillate again and begin leaning towards the other. I'd love it if anyone could offer me pros/cons, personal experiences, or any sort of advice.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I am going to try to learn both Russian and Japanese in college.</p>

3

<p>Japanese definately. It is more practical nowadays.</p>

4

<p>[The</a> Twelve Most Useful Second Languages for English Speakers - a knol by Dominic Ambrose](<a href=“http://knol.google.com/k/the-twelve-most-useful-second-languages-for-english-speakers#]The”>http://knol.google.com/k/the-twelve-most-useful-second-languages-for-english-speakers#)</p>

5

<p>Cyrillic is VERY easy and the Russian spelling system is a lot more consistent and phonetic than English. If I’m listening to Russian radio or watching Russian TV and I hear a word I don’t recognize, I can usually transcribe it and look it up without much trouble. Russian grammar is a beast and is monstrously complicated but it is a beautiful and rewarding language. It’s also a very “tough” sounding language. A simple conversation about the weather or sports can sound like hostage negotiations to a non-speaker. Russian also gives you access to other Eastern European languages. With some difficulty I can understand some Ukrainian and a bit of other languages like Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian etc. </p>

<p>But if you can see yourself living in Japan, then you should go with Japanese. It’s really cool-sounding and I’ve heard the writing system (apart from the Kanji) is pretty simple. </p>

<p>then again there’s nothing wrong with doing both - next semester i’ll be taking advanced Russian and intermediate Arabic :P</p>

6

<p>Russian. I love the sound</p>

7

<p>It depends on what language you see as being more useful to you later in your life.</p>

8

<p>If you want to do linguistics, you’ll need a non-Indo-Eurooean language (like Japanese).</p>

<p>I’m deciding between Russian and Japanese too, and I decided to start with Japanese and add Russian later, if I can.</p>

9

<p>I really like Japanese. You need to find what’s going to be most relevant to you and not theoretically, such as doing a language just because a large population of the world uses it but you wont be using it nearly enough to keep it.</p>

<p>I am studying French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese to help accompany my real estate degree at NYU because well… NYC. If it was LA, then it would be Spanish and Korean mainly. If it was Seattle… well you get my point.</p>

10

<p>I would personally take Russian because it’s so beautiful, but if you could see yourself living in Japan that would probably be the better choice.</p>