<p>Alright so I just realized a few minutes ago that I have a language requirement I need to complete. I need two semesters so basically 1 full year of another language and I'm not sure which one to pick. I'm looking at Latin,Japanese, and German. The lst two because I want to study abroad or just visit and be able to understand how the natives speak, and I want to internship in Japan or Germany. Latin because I thinks its interesting. I don't really want a difficult language as of now but I do want to complete this during the spring, summer or sophmore year before the classes get extremely tough.</p>
<p>I’ve studied all three of those, actually! Obviously there are some big differences between them, but I think you’ll find any one of them pretty fun. Are you only planning on taking two semesters worth? If so, I’d recommend Latin, just because you won’t be fluent in either German or Japanese after just one year, whereas you never need to speak Latin, so it doesn’t really matter. Plus, Latin is helpful for vocabulary, particularly if you’re going into something like law or medicine, so I think it’s the most useful to know partially. </p>
<p>On the other hand, German and Japanese are really fun! And I do think one year is enough to at least get a good taste for the language, maybe hold a simple conversation. The two are really different, obviously, and depending on what you find hard, either one could be more difficult for you. For German, you don’t need to learn much in way of a new alphabet, whereas Japanese basically has three and most people would say the most challenging part of Japanese is Kanji (the chinese characters). On the other hand, some people might say German grammar and things like gendered nouns and case endings make it more difficult. </p>
<p>That turned out kind of long. Oh well.</p>
<p>I also studied all of them.</p>
<p>Latin was pretty dry because, well, no one speaks it. A lot of memorization is involved in learning latin. You need to memorize vocabulary, grammar rules, etc, and apply them. That’s basically all there’s to it. Depending on what you want to do in the future it may be useful, but it certainly is not as fun as German or Japanese. I actually didn’t want to learn Latin but I was forced to do so.</p>
<p>Japanese and German, both of them are rather difficult languages, in different ways. German grammar is pretty complex, even people who have lived in Germany for several years are often not able to produce correct sentences. Japanese grammar is actually rather simple and logical, just very different from western languages. You will need to learn new writing systems and many different froms of politeness levels for Japanese (though usually not in your first year).</p>
<p>The learning curve for both languages is very different though. I feel that Japanese is only of limited use before you have at least reached an upper intermediate level. You may be able to hold (very basic) conversations before, but you won’t stand a chance of reading any native materials, be it magazines, signs, manuals, etc. German on the other hand can be put to good use with only limited experience.</p>
<p>Just go with what you’re more interested in.</p>
<p>I have also studied all three languages in question. (Disclaimer - I’m a classics major) It’s difficult to do much with any of these languages after one year. If you excel at German, you could definitely be ready to converse with native speakers, but definitely not fluently. I wouldn’t assume that one year would qualify you to study abroad - for many programs at my school, 4-5 semesters are required. If you’re taking Latin for the literature, which is one major reason to study it, many first year programs don’t read any real Latin. You’d improve your vocabulary, but you would do so as well with German. German grammar is easier than Latin grammar, but it can still seem strange to someone who has not yet studied an inflected language. I really like Japanese, but as mentioned above, it’s not easy to get to a reasonable proficiency where you can read native materials not meant for children (i.e. where the Kanji is not glossed over with kana). Taking only one year of a language won’t be enough to give you a thorough grasp of it, so you will want to keep that in mind.</p>
<p>I would go with the simplicity of Latin. Plus, you can sort of decipher other Latin based languages.</p>
<p>Hm, well, one year is a bit of a constrained period to try and gain any sort of real proficiency in any language. </p>
<p>I’ve been taking Japanese since high school, and I still can’t read much in the way of Japanese literature or fully understand Japanese TV. One year of Japanese will get you basic writing and grammar skills, but not much else. You wouldn’t be proficient enough to, say, go to Japan and converse with native speakers, nor would you be able to read Japanese texts (due to the aforementioned abundance of kanji).</p>
<p>I’ve taken Latin too, and it’s useful for the way you can learn to decipher its derivatives in several language. Also, if you like the classics, I suppose Latin would be a good thing for your interests. However, when I took beginning Latin, again, it was about basic vocab and grammar. If it’s just for fun, go ahead and take it. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about German, but I do know it’s inflected, and therefore, substantially more difficult than languages with simpler grammar patterns like Japanese. So, getting a good grasp on German in a year would probably be difficult as well. </p>
<p>Honestly, I would just take what interests you most.</p>
<p>IMHO Ancient Greek >>>>>> Latin </p>
<p>And classics are more fun than modern languages because you get to read the great texts, rather than focus on oral fluency.</p>
<p>@TheYankInLondon</p>
<p>While I agree that not needing to focus on oral fluency is helpful, it’s still incredibly unlikely that one would get to read the great texts in the first year. Certainly by the second year, but even readings then are incredibly slow.</p>
<p>Also… When you take ancient languages, most professors/teachers don’t really care for you to be proficient in the language by the time they boot you out of the class. They just want to make sure that you understand the grammar and the gist of the language. </p>
<p>I took Latin in HS and it was easy. I actually wanted to take Spanish, but it was required to take two years of either Latin, Greek (ancient), or Hebrew. I took three years of it total and had four different teachers. The main butt of the class was just Latin vocabulary with a tad bit o grammar. The purpose of the class was to further our understanding of English and to give us a building block to learn other Latin based languages. It’s pretty much the same across the board.</p>
<p>I also have a language requirement. I am about 75% sure I will go into learning French my sophmore year. In middle school I learned Japanese for 2 years, then went onto Spanish for 3 years in high school. Though when I got into college I seemed to have forgotten much of Japanese and Spanish and thought French might be a better fit ( also suggested to me by most). I think you should also look into the following three languages. As for your specific situation I would suggest for you to be absolutely sure before taking on a course.</p>
<p>I’d go German based on the usefulness factor combined with the level of difficulty. Japanese might be helpful but it’s really hard, I’ve heard. I have a language requirement as well. I took two years of French and thought I hated it, so my dumb ass decided to take Norwegian just on a whim. I absolutely hate it and cannot speak it - I just can’t make the words sound the way they’re supposed to. It also has a lot of weird complexities and it just kind of sucks in general, and now I’m stuck with it for two more semesters. And it’s essentially useless since I have learned that I don’t want to study abroad in Norway. Moral of the story - don’t take a language just because it’s interesting.</p>
<p>You should take Russian. Complex, but pretty useful and extremely beautiful. Failing that, German, though, as others have pointed out, one year of courses definitely isn’t enough to become fluent enough to talk with native speakers of a language.</p>
<p>Thanks, I think I’ll take Latin but I might need to ask another question when I it’s time for me look at studyabroad programs</p>