Russian v. Chinese major

College Majors
1

<p>I recently enrolled in the LAC Bryn Mawr. Like most, this college is really expensive and I didn't have the grades to get a great merit scholarship. Because of this, I'm headed for Air Force ROTC (like my parents), specifically for their language scholarship. They have specific ones that I need to major in, and I've cut it down to to languages: Russian and Chinese. I would really, REALLY prefer to major in Russian, as I enjoy its literature, sound, and see it as a growing market. My father, on the other hand, is pressuring me to do Chinese, because as everyone knows, Chinese is the number one spoken language, it has the the fastest growing market, that's where everything's going to be in the next ten years, etc, etc. The issue is that I see myself enjoying and succeeding in Russian more. I plan on double majoring with economics anyways, so I won't be entirely dependent on Russia's growing economy.</p>

<p>Could anyone who has any experience in either major explain the pros and cons of each? I'm trying to cut out China's strong advantage in business, especially since I had no plans to work with it after graduation. </p>

<p>Also, please no, "Do what you think is best" type answers. I have no backbone when it comes to my dad, even when he's technically not paying for MY education.</p>

2

<p>Russian. You’ll never learn a foreign language if you don’t want to.</p>

3

<p>Your father is thoroughly misinformed and completely wrong on just about every count. China may well be the fastest growing economy, but virtually all its international business is conducted in English. The Chinese language, no matter how important China becomes, will always be confined to China; whereas English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic all have enormous value and worth internationally. Russian is spoken in eleven countries, Chinese only one.</p>

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<p>English is actually the worlds most spoken language, and as for everything being in China in a decade; that’s what people said about Japan in the 80s, it’s all rubbish. It is foolish to even consider studying Chinese when you obviously have a genuine interest in Russian.</p>

4

<p>Russia is still a strategically and economically important country. It still has enormous energy resources and is a key player in certain areas of the Mideast, specifically in dealings with Iran. </p>

<p>BTW, Bryn Mawr has a Language Flagship program in Russian.
[The</a> Language Flagship - Russian](<a href=“http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/russian]The”>http://www.thelanguageflagship.org/russian)</p>