<p>I'm picking up 4 languages in college. My friends don't seem to approve my choice, saying that I'm wasting my college courses on things I can easily learn on my own, and that all those introductory language courses on my transcript won't look good. But I enjoy learning languages more than anything else, and I'm good at them. At first I thought learning 4 languages (3 of which from scratch) was a bad idea too, but naturally I fell into it and am now doing well in those languages. Should I be worried about my friends' caution, or should I be happy that I'm doing what I want?</p>
<p>this is YOUR life, not theirs. do what YOU want to do. I’m sure that employers will think very highly and have lots of respect for someone who can speak 4 languages, let alone 2!</p>
<p>As a fellow language lover, I am very happy that you are pursuing this interest so actively in college! Your friends are wrong to think that languages are something you can “easily learn” on your own - self-teaching takes a lot of discipline and commitment if you want to get good at the language. I just think you should remember that splitting your time between four languages means that you likely won’t achieve proficiency in all of them. What I would do is start focusing on the two you enjoy most out of those four. I think after college, you will feel better about having really strong knowledge of two languages rather than having average knowledge of four. Just my opinion, but do what makes you happiest!</p>
<p>Four languages is a mistake. Not because of what your friend thinks, which is ludicrous, but because you wont reach a good level of fluency in any (especially if you’re taking three ab initio!)</p>
<p>Well, two of them are Latin and Greek, in which I do not intend to reach fluency but simply to get a greater grasp of languages and perhaps to do research.</p>
<p>Still, it detracts time and energy you could use for your other languages.</p>