<p>i was wondering if anyone knew information about the foreign language departments at UT Austin.
i wanted to know about what languages are considered 'harder' to learn and whatnot.
i was thinking about studying hindi without any prior knowledge, i was wondering how that would go. it seems like a very interesting language and culture.</p>
<p>A language you have no background in is going to be hard to learn.</p>
<p>If you don't know any cognate languages (like Urdu), than Hindi is going to be hard to learn.</p>
<p>If you know any Romance languages, or even English, it won't be as hard to learn a Romance language than if you don't.</p>
<p>It really works for any language.</p>
<p>Every foreign language has an intro course available. Remember though that these are 5 hour classes so they will eat into your schedule.</p>
<p>The Arabic department at UT Austin is top-notch. You may consider studying this language. However, and this is true for any language which is foreign to English speakers, Arabic takes a serious commitment of long-term study if you really want to be proficient. Don't think you will be able to take three semesters and be able to work your way through a newspaper.</p>
<p>Hmm, glad to hear that about the Arabic department.</p>