<p>I'll be entering college this fall, and I've been debating taking two languages at the same time (I plan to major in one of these languages, along with a second major). Has anyone done this, or do you know anyone who has done this? How difficult would you say it is? Do you recommend it? Mind you, I studied Spanish for all four years of high school, so I'm no stranger to intensive language study (though I'm sure any classes I take in college will be much more intensive than whatever I did in high school).</p>
<p>If it matters, the two languages I'm interesting in studying are Russian and French. I'm not sure how "new" you could say these two languages are to me, since I'm fluent in a language that is somewhat similar to Russian, and Spanish and French are both Romance languages.</p>
<p>I want to do this in college too!! But I want to study Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German, and Portuguese and I can not choose!!! I am going to keep and eye on this thread…What colleges are you considering? I might just go to sfsu and do the presidential scholars program or something so I don’t have to pay and I love SF!!</p>
<p>If you’re good at languages, it shouldn’t be a problem. My uncle took two languages in college (at University of Arizona), neither one of which he majored in. He also graduated with honors, and learned four languages after graduation through the military. </p>
<p>French and Russian in particular shouldn’t be too difficult.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you are (except i’m still in high school). I really want to take Portuguese and Arabic in College, but I also think I should take spanish to improve it (Since I am from Cuba and all, lol). I think you should go for it, if you end up not liking a language then at least you’ll have another one to fall on. Good luck!</p>
<p>Since it appears that you’re very strong in languages, I wouldn’t worry about balancing the workload between the two courses. I speak French fluently and it’s a beautiful language. I’ve tried to study Russian and I hope to pursue it again in the future, even though it’s a tough language to learn. I say go for it!</p>
<p>Based on the responses, it doesn’t seem like it would be <em>too</em> difficult to study two languages at the same time. Now I’m just worried about not having a balanced course load that covers various areas of study.</p>
<p>I think a bigger concern might be time. Intro language courses often assign a lot of work (challenging or not) and some meet for more time than a normal class. I took 2 intro language classes freshman year, and a third, advanced one as well. It was a lot of time, but not excessively challenging, except for trying to change the language I was thinking in every hour.</p>
<p>When I was taking Russian in college, I knew three language majors who were taking Russian and French. They all seemed comfortable with the combination.</p>
<p>I speak Spanish (since birth) and English. My freshman year of HS, I took French I and II. My sophomore year, I took French III. French was too easy for me, so I decided to take German I along with French IV my junior year. By my senior year of HS, I was so bored of wasting my time in high school that I took Japanese I as well as German II and French V. </p>
<p>Then I went to university and did nothing with the languages. At all. </p>
<p>I know that HS classes aren’t hard at all, but I can tell you from experience that taking 3 languages (while speaking two already) isn’t hard at all. If you can focus on French when you’re in French class and focus on German when you’re in German class, it’s insanely easy.</p>
<p>I studied two languages at a time in high school… not too difficult. I’m planning on double majoring in French (my current major is Theatre). One girl in my French class studied three languages at a time.</p>
<p>In total, I’ve studied three languages. Personally, I think that each language you study helps you understand English more and helps you make connections with other languages.</p>
<p>Since you don’t seem to struggle with language, then you should be okay.</p>
<p>I studied Spanish three years in high school and in college decided I wanted to learn French. Iam told that I sound 100% percent American and do not pronounce the language well. I can not master in the language and now will immediately convert back to learning Spanish.</p>
<p>^I am a firm believer that if you study French long enough, you will eventually learn the pronunciation. It definitely is not easy, but once you get a handle on it, it kind of clicks.</p>
<p>I say this because there was this one girl in my French class for five years and at the very beginning, she was just this straight up southern hick sounding girl trying to pronounce French and it just sounded so weird and by the fifth year, she sounded like everyone else in the class when pronouncing French. And personally, I think that the Canadian accent is easier than the French accent, but it sounds more like Southern English to me than it does French… so maybe that’s why I think it’s easier. lol</p>
<p>I was raised bilingual in Vietnamese and English. Although I speak only English now, I used to speak/learn how to speak Vietnamese at home while learning English at school. So I’m pretty much used to learning two languages at the same time. </p>
<p>I took Japanese 2A/2B and Chinese 1A once during summer session in college, and let’s just say because both use the same characters (referring to hanzi/kanji), I often mixed up the readings. Also since I had taken Japanese before Chinese, I often ended up reading the number characters the Japanese way instead of the Chinese way. For example, I’d read 一 as “ichi” instead of “yi”, 二 as “ni” instead of “er”, and so on. The characters was the only setback for me when studying both Japanese and Chinese at the same time.</p>
<p>Totally agree about Chinese/Japanese as I did the same thing, but they’re the exception. Other languages don’t have that problem, I have found. You might occasionally forget a word in one language and try to substitute the equivalent word in another language, but once you have some practice it’s not hard.</p>
<p>haha im taking french, spanish, chinese, swahili and italian. i definitely get confused on a regular basis (going from tanzania to chinese camp was probably not a good idea), and sometimes don’t know what language i am thinking in, but it is doable. also, the more languages you learn, the easier they become. two at a time will be no problem.</p>
(except i’m still in high school). I really want to take Portuguese and Arabic in College, but I also think I should take spanish to improve it (Since I am from Cuba and all, lol). I think you should go for it, if you end up not liking a language then at least you’ll have another one to fall on. Good luck!</p>