<p>I wasn't really sure where to post this, so I figured I'd do so in the forum of my dream college to be safe.</p>
<p>I'm looking to begin teaching myself a language, that being either Greek, Latin, or German. My first choice is Greek, but there are two problems: I don't know of a major standardized test for Greek that I could take, and I wouldn't know whether to learn ancient Greek or modern Greek. Latin and German both have Regents exams for them, so that wouldn't be a problem. Should I abandon my first choice for the sake of standardized testing? I want to be able to show my achievement on a test for college admissions.</p>
<p>I've informally studied Hindi and Italian outside of school and took Latin during my sophomore year and am now in my third year of Spanish.</p>
<p>My advice to you is to just study the language you want and not decide on another just because you think you're more likely to get into Yale that way. If you want to learn Greek, then learn Greek and just put it down on your application as a language that you've self-studied and put the number of hours and what-not, and I'm sure they will see your passion for the language, even if they don't see a test score that demonstrates profiency.</p>
<p>Edit: Greek and Latin eliminated as options. Now it's between Arabic and German, and I'm leaning strongly towards Arabic, but I'm still unsure. Any advice?</p>
<p>Well, I personally think German is a really ugly language, and would much rather learn Arabic, but I here it is really hard, but it would still be really cool, and useful.</p>
<p>I think German is beautiful, but I'm already learning French in school, and I'd rather have a broader experience than two easy European languages (I say easy because they're closely related to English linguistically).</p>
<p>Sie mussen Deutsch lernen! As a 5th year German student, I have to say that the language is extremely useful. By learning German I have come to understand the gaps between romance and "rough" languages. These connections thus assist me in problem solving and logic, although I might be the exception to the rule. Perhaps you should learn both German and Arabic, German is fairly easy to initially pick up. I have no basis for an evaluation on Arabic. Good luck though.</p>
<p>For self-study, I'd recommend German. It's relatively easy to pick up, and it's pretty useful if you plan to do anything in the humanities (as is French). Arabic is more difficult to learn, especially because it has a different script and multiple dialects.</p>
<p>I dont think arabic is a good idea if your goal is to test. You can self study arabic for 3 years and still not do well, whereas if you self studied German for only a year you could ace it. But, it is still neat to learn Arabic as best you can. It is not a difficult language. It is just so different. Mastering the sounds and script alone took about a month of 8 hours a day guided instruction. But, even if it took you a couple of months to get that far it is pretty commendable. Only a handful of people in this country can read arabic script. Good luck, any questions, please ask.</p>
<p>Arabic is hard. I explored the idea of self-studying it last year and quickly abandoned it. I think without a good teacher, it would be near-impossible to learn on your own.</p>
<p>Not to discourage you! I'm sure it really is possible, it will just be very difficult.</p>
<p>If we self studied a language, and we're okay at it but not EXCELLENT, and we never took any standardized tests on it, should we still put it down on our app?</p>