<p>Since I only had one year of foreign language in high school, I have to take four semesters in college. This semester I am taking Latin I, which I am getting 100% in right now. Next semester I want to mix it up a little and take Italian or German, but I can't decide which one. I was considering Mandarin Chinese, but I ruled that out after I was told that it is absurdly difficult, which leaves me a choose between Italian or German. Which would be more useful for job placement, which is more enjoyable, and which one is easier to learn?</p>
<p>More useful for job placement? Neither, really.</p>
<p>I took a summer of German and really enjoyed it. I expected it to be somewhat easier, since it has closer ties to English, and in some ways it is (but in many many ways it is not!).</p>
<p>You won’t be worse/better off either way methinks. Just take what interests you and practice.</p>
<p>German may be easier than Italian - closer to English anyway.
I took German for 5 years and Italian for 1 year, and I preferred German. I also like how it sounds, although that seems to be the minority view!</p>
<p>My German has faded to almost nothing since I finished with it 4 years ago, but I often think about studying it again.</p>
<p>Do you need to take four semesters, or reach the fourth level in a single language?</p>
<p>Italian is generally agreed to be one of the easiest languages to learn for those who already use a Latin writing system. Though German is in the same language family as English, Italian will almost definitely be easier for you to learn.</p>
<p>What do you want to do with your life? German is fairly big in some professions (I encounter it from time to time even as a beginning CS major), Italian not so much. I agree that Italian will probably be easier, especially if you are currently taking Latin.</p>
<p>As a purely personal opinion, I’d add that Italian is just an inferior form of Spanish, while German is an inherently cool language with a lot of linguistic significance.</p>
<p>Italian is an inferior form of Spanish? How is that?</p>
<p>Anyway: Io penso che tu devi imparare l’italiano! :)</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t say inferior, but I have a fairly good command of Spanish and was able to pick up a surprising level of Italian with less than 50 hours of studying the basic grammar and vocabulary. I’ve heard Portuguese is the same way.</p>
<p>Yes, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese are closely related, but I wouldn’t say Italian is inferior. If anything, Spanish would be the inferior one because it is by far the least complex of the three. But still, that doesn’t qualify a language as inferior…</p>
<p>“Do you need to take four semesters, or reach the fourth level in a single language?”</p>
<p>^^ This is a good question. I’m thinking unless indicated otherwise that your school wants you to complete 4 levels of a single language (my school has the same requirement).</p>
<p>Don’t rule out Mandarin so quickly. Yes, it is an intense language, but it is immensely fulfilling. As long as you have decent study habits and don’t get behind, you will be fine.</p>
<p>But if I had to choose, I would take German.</p>
<p>I wasn’t being very serious about Italian being inferior to Spanish. It probably is less useful, though.</p>