<p>I'm in highschool now (senior) and I was wondering if anyone's had any experience with taking two languages in college. I take four now (Ancient Greek 4, Latin 6, French 1, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs 3), but I don't know how much harder/time consuming college language classes are. I want to take Japanese for sure, and am considering either Korean or German.</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in cognitive science or linguistics and possibly Japanese. I would not necessarily minor in the second language (depending on the courses required for the minor).</p>
<p>i’d love to take an applicable language (like spanish or french) and another language because I am jsut interested in it (latin). I am worried that my major requirements won’t give me the time to take extra courses or that the school I’m going ot (large public) has restrictions as to the number of language courses I can take.</p>
<p>I may see about taking the extra language over the summer or something.</p>
<p>I took four years of high school French and have done four quarters in college. It’s not much more difficult, though I obviously can’t speak for other languages or other schools.</p>
<p>A note on language minors: usually only upper-division courses will count towards a minor, and you often can’t take those unless you’ve done the equivalent of two years of lower-division work (AP credit often helps).</p>
<p>I have not taken a college language course myself, but I frequently hear that intro language classes are among the most intense classes at my college. They meet five times a week for lectures, 2-3 times a week for drills and assign another hour’s worth of homework each night. I guess that makes sense - it does take a lot of exposure to pick up a language from scratch.</p>
<p>Language classes at your college might be taught differently though.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, it depends on the college. Here at my school, language classes meet 3-4 times a week in addition to assignments that need to be done at the language lab outside of class.</p>
<p>But it’s not hard to juggle two languages. I know a girl who is majoring in 2 languages (Spanish/Portuguese – it’s considered one major here though) and minoring in another, so yeah …</p>
<p>Not too difficult to learn Portuguese after Spanish though isn’t? </p>
<p>Hmm, it can be confusing learning two languages in the same language family sometimes… but if you’re motivated sure it might not be a big deal. </p>
<p>I am studying an Austronesian and Romance language in my own time - the languages are so different that it isn’t too much of a big deal. </p>
<p>I had a friend who was studying French and Spanish at the same time - it was kinda funny seeing her mix up vocabulary and some conjugations. :)</p>
<p>^ At my school the Spanish and Portuguese major are combined so you can’t take just Spanish or just Portuguese unless you are minoring in them. I was tempted to take a Spanish course this semester along with French which I just started learning last semester, but I found myself mixing up words on occasions. It’s similar and can be frustrating at times! So I figure I’ll just continue learning Spanish on my own . . .</p>
<p>To the OP: Perhaps, you should take Japanese and German since they are totally different.</p>
<p>Do most people taking two languages take the classes in the same semesters or different semesters? I want to take two languages as well but I’m somewhat worried the load may be a lot in addition to my requirements. (I’m thinking of Mandarin and Japanese.)</p>
<p>I would say that learning them both in the same semester would be very difficult (as they are both really difficult languages), but taking them different semester would mean you’d never really learn either. So I’d say either be ready to work hard or just pick one.</p>
<p>DD is taking Japanese in college after German in high school, and she wants to start Russian some time. Her advisor suggested only starting one new language at a time, but it looks as though you have a foundation in several already. The issue she runs into now is that her first-year Japanese classes are five credits with seven contact hours. Her lecture is twice a week and there is only one section. Her recitations are five times a week and she does have some flexibility with recitation sections. She is having a little issue with scheduling because she also take an honors science class that has only one section.</p>
<p>Anyone have any opinions on taking Chinese & French at the same time? I can understand and speak basic Mandarin, but I cannot read it. I have no experience in French. However, I would really like to be able to speak and read/write both.</p>