<p>I am an incoming sophomore and am not sure which way to go. I really, really love languages, and want to study two in college. I started freshman year with Chinese and Arabic--- I got As in both, ended up LOVING Chinese (planning on majoring) but HATING the Arabic department (bad professors). For next year, I want to study either Japanese or Russian. After college I'm interested in getting involved with business most likely, or maybe law school. Really not sure which way to go, but definitely something that would involve speaking the languages.</p>
<p>Pros and Cons-
Japanese-
Pros: very interested in Japan, great for business
Cons: professor for Japanese is known for picking favorites and being rude to students and not helping them learn</p>
<p>Russian
Pros: don't know much about Russia but think I would love it if I learned more, new alphabet would be fun, professor is known as "internationally known" "best professor i've ever had" "will make you LOVE russian", etc. etc.
Cons: is Russian useful for anything other than gov't? and... its a 5 day a week class at 9 am.</p>
<p>Oh gee. This is tough. I’ve taken 3 years of Japanese and an intro to Russian xD. Personally, I like Japanese more, and the connections it has to Chinese are very useful and interesting.</p>
<p>Japanese:
Easy pronunciation
useful for business
wonderful culture to learn about</p>
<p>Russian is so different (being a Slavic language and all) that it really takes a lot to get used to the pronunciations. However, it’s a very interesting language to learn.</p>
<p>i’ve taken a bit of russian, so obviously i’d recommend it. I don’t think russian grammar is hard, the trouble you’ll have is remembering vocabulary. i’ve had russian classes at 9:40, 9, and 10 am. it wasn’t too bad.</p>
<p>If you’re planning on living in Russia, Russia is rather dangerous, especially for foreigners, so keep that in mind. Japan may have a reputation for being slightly xenophobic, but at least it’s not nearly as violent as Russia.</p>
<p>If you don’t plan on living on the country, then just go with whatever interests you more. Both Japan and Russia have very rich bodies of literature, and both would be immensely rewarding in that sense.</p>
<p>I am Russian, and took one year of Russian at my college while taking Japanese (kind of in the same boat as Rixs). Both are very fun languages to learn, but I would say that my Russian class was harder (not sure I can assume because the language is harder, or because I took 3 years of Japanese in high school and this was my official first time learning Russian in a classroom).</p>
<p>Stop thinking about which language is most useful. Both languages are probably on the same level of usefulness: the CIA wants people who speak Russian/it’s good for diplomacy, the Japanese language will be useful for dealing with Japanese businessmen. You can never predict why are when you’re going to use it, so choose a language based on interest. </p>
<p>Russian history can be dark, tumultuous, ranging from the deaths of the Romanovs to the fall of the Soviet Union. The United States, in particular, has poor relations with this country. The Japanese culture is interesting because it was secluded until a certain point, when it launched itself into imperialism. Currently various types of technology and strange fashion trends are coming out of that country.</p>
<p>I would say I would choose the class with the best professor. A bad prof can really turn you off from a language, and since the Russian prof sounds amazing, go for it! Russian would be useful for understanding other small European countries, not just Russia. Is there any way you can “try out” the class for a week before deciding whether you can stick to it or drop it? At my college you are allowed to do this, so maybe consider doing that before you make your definite decision. Plus, 9 am isn’t that bad. :]</p>
<p>PS: I wouldn’t say that Russia is dangerous for foreigners, like any other country you have to be careful in revealing that you are American in public in order to avoid being pick pocketed (if you are American), but that’s about it. When I was there they were fascinated that I was from America, and were very friendly.</p>
<p>I’d say Detroit and East Cleveland are much more dangerous than Russia! Seriously, just be smart about when and where you go. You aren’t really in much danger in a lot of Russia. When you go to slummy areas, just like in America, you are putting yourself in danger.</p>
<p>I’m taking Russian. Some people really struggle with it, but I didn’t, easy A. My language background probably helps me a lot. (Spanish from K-8…forced, bad teachers though, so didn’t learn too much. Latin in high school, high level English in high school). So I knew how to attack a language class.</p>
<p>With Russian, the only really barrier to entry is the alphabet. The people who never learne the alphabet, obviously struggled. But it’s really not that hard to learn. Learn the alphabet, and you’ll be good.</p>
<p>I never found the grammar to hard to grasp. I’d call the grammar, for the most part, a mix between Latin grammar and English grammar.</p>
<p>lol russia is completely manageable to visit as a foreigner without getting killed or injured or taken into custody or whatever (just carry documents with you if you’re a foreigner)… i’ve been there twice and it’s not been a problem.</p>
<p>and the alphabet can be learned in a couple hours… and like I said before, the grammar isn’t very hard… there are some fine points about it, but you probably don’t even learn those in first year russian, the vocab is the hard part IMO.</p>
<p>Well, I didn’t mean to make Russia sound like a statewide Auschwitz, but its homicide rate <em>is</em> nearly three times that of the US. There is of course regional variation, and it doesn’t make sense to pick and choose cities from the US as a way to override the general national rates.</p>
<p>vocab isn’t any different, except that russian is more distant from english than spanish or german, so it’s harder to remember… although maybe it’s no easier than japanese vocab.</p>
<p>Japanese is one hundred percent phonetic. The letter ki says the letter ki. “Okashi” means sweets, and it is spelled with the letters o, ka, and shi. The only non-phonetic example I can think of is with the letter su - when at the end of the word, the “u” is dropped off (“desu” is really just “des”).</p>
<p>As to Russia being dangerous… there’s quite a lot of mob activity, so, yes, the homicide rate is high. But the mafia doesn’t generally gun down tourists or visiting college students. You need to be careful, just as in any other unfamiliar place (especially an urban place), but it’s not that big a deal.</p>
<p>Though the OP never mentioned actually traveling to the country…</p>
<p>I would suggest Russian, just because you are already taking Chinese. It might help to have a Slavic language in the mix as well.</p>
<p>Do you feel that Russian will be a useful language to pair with Chinese? I know that Japanese obviously would, but am unsure about russian. And I’m really much more interested in business work than government.</p>
<p>…the first four columns have to do with these languages’ Wikipedias. In other words, their intellectual depth, as well as their prominence in terms of global Internet usage. The other three columns are self-explanatory.</p>
<p>In all columns, the higher up, the better.</p>
<p>The calculations at the end average their overall scores. The highest are the best, and the lowest are the worst. Keep in mind that this is skewed by non-economic/financial factors (i.e., intellectuality). If you’re concerned solely with GDP, just stick to the two relevant columns.</p>
<p>Of course, you would just focus on Japanese and Russian.</p>
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Homicide-world.png[/url]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Homicide-world.png%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
