<p>Hi! I'm going to be attending Harvard in the fall and I'm like 90% sure i am going to have to take a foreign language (I don't think my Spanish is advanced enough to place out). </p>
<p>I am fluent in Mandarin (but can't really write it), I took Spanish in high school (finished up to AP), and I'm thinking of taking either Russian or German (or possibly Arabic) for my foreign language, or continuing Spanish. </p>
<p>I am a prospective CS major and not sure what is going to benefit me the most. I am leaning heavily towards taking a new language (leaning towards Russian).</p>
<p>Any advice or experiences with taking any of these language classes at Harvard?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>So I took the Russian intensive, aab and bab, during my freshman year, and I took Slavic 101 in the beginnings of sophomore year. I also studied abroad in Moscow. I’ve since stopped taking Russian as my academic interests led me elsewhere.</p>
<p>Here’s what you need to know about Russian: it is hard. The Russian intensive especially so. It is a frustrating language for English (and Mandrin, as far as I know) speakers to learn for a variety of reasons, it is very grammar heavy, and you will learn it at a far slower rate than you will learn Spanish or German. If you don’t understand things like “declension” and “conjugation,” or if terms like “indirect object” or “accusative case” sound unfamiliar, you will be in for a rude awakening in Russian class very quickly. Also keep in mind that you will be a very slow reader of Cyrillic for a while, which will slow down your pace of learning. </p>
<p>German will be more grammar-intensive than Spanish but less so than Russian.</p>
<p>I say all this not to scare you–Russian is a beautiful, wonderful, rewarding language, and the Russian language teachers are awesome. I’m just telling you all of this because I watched a bunch of people epically crash and burn in Russian.</p>
<p>If you have no idea what “indirect object” or “accusative case” mean (which was many people in Russian 1), consider taking time to familiarize yourself with grammar in English, in your own language. Come September, you will have a far easier time with things.</p>
<p>PM me for more deets if you want.</p>