What Language Should I take?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>So I recently started college and I have an extra slot in my schedule thanks to APs. I've spent a month getting high anxiety over the thought of picking it. The problem is that my school allows you to not commit to a major or school until your junior year, so you can take a class wherever you want. However, I have a limited number of electives if I want to finish in four years. I have no idea what I want to major in, but my school is made up of half a dozen schools (School of Education, School of Communication, School of Arts and Sciences, ect). The biggest school, the School of Arts and Sciences requires four semesters of language. I believe a few of the other schools do as well. </p>

<p>I thought it would be fun to take a language. My school offers Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Latin. </p>

<p>I took Spanish at my high school and in middle school, and it was not a well-regarded program. The two teachers that taught the first two years (8th and 9th) were awful, so none of us really had a solid grasp on the language. Both teachers were considered "easy." In my sophomore year, my class had a fantastic teacher, but we all struggled anyway b/c we were not as proficient as Spanish IV students should be. I chose not to take a language as an upperclassman. </p>

<p>I text my parents fairly often, and I mentioned in a text that I was thinking about taking a language, maybe French. My mom hit the roof. She left a 3 minute message on my phone, then when I called her to talk to her, lectured me about it nonstop. She wants me to take Spanish b/c it is the most marketable. She gave this speech about how she uses her four semesters of college Spanish everyday (her proof of this was her ability to understand the Spanish version of a form she uses regularly in English and her questionable ability to speak to our cleaning lady). I have literally never heard her speak Spanish or give any indication that she can understand it. In fact, I didn't even know she had ever taken a college class on it until she told me so on the phone. </p>

<p>I understand that Spanish is the most marketable, especially given that I grew up in a heavily Latino state. But I didn't like it and I really don't want to take it again. Placement tests would most likely (rightly) place me at level one, and I can't stand the thought of repeating Spanish classes again. While she was lecturing me, the thought of taking Spanish was making me want to cry.</p>

<p>She called me the next day with a halfhearted apology and then immediately launched into a speech about how if I didn't want to take Spanish, I should take the always useful Mandarin. I'm not sure if I told her this (I know I have told others), but I have said from the getgo that I wanted to take a Latin-based language (especially because I don't think I'm very good at languages in the first place). This conversation was very short because a) I had to study for a quiz and b) I was having a small panic attack. After she hung up, it took me about ten minutes to calm down before I could start studying. </p>

<p>On the one hand, people are telling me to "follow my passion" and take whatever language I want. But on the other hand, I know my mom is right. I know that Spanish and Mandarin are the most useful at this point in time. So I would have a hard time pursuing a language with no specific use.</p>

2

<p>It depends on what you want for being ‘marketable’. If you want to work domestically, Spanish will probably be the most relevant. If you want to work internationally or with the government, Mandarin and Arabic are highly regarded. Basically, any language you take can be advantageous to you, so go with whatever you feel the most like doing. Keep in mind that the language you like best is probably the class you’ll do the best in. It sounds like French sounds interesting to you, so my advice would be to go with that, especially since learning languages in general makes you better at it, so you could always take Spanish later on (and learning French will definitely make learning other romance languages easier). If you can’t find a language that’s considered ‘marketable’ and that you like, my advice would be to go with the one you like because you’ll be much more likely to succeed if you’re interested in what you’re doing.</p>

3

<p>If you’re not good at languages, you’d probably be better off taking Spanish just for practicality’s sake. Starting a new language in college can be rough because of the pace and the high number of students who’ve taken courses in the language before coming to college. You think you’d be repeating courses in Spanish, but the truth is you’d be normal for a college student studying a language; TONS of people already know half the content in intro courses. The reason you’re in the intro course may be to perfect the grammar rather than to learn it from scratch, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You wouldn’t want to get dropped into a 200 level course you can’t understand anyway.</p>

<p>I mean, if you have a specific language you’re highly interested in, you could probably take that and succeed, but that’s not what it sounds like. You need to be highly motivated to learn a language quickly, and it sounds more like the motivation you have is simply to not take Spanish because of a bad experience in high school (which honestly shouldn’t influence your choice of college courses so much).</p>

4

<p>Two years of Mandarin isn’t going to get you to a level of proficiency that’s going to help your job prospects.</p>

<p>If you want to take French, you should take it. In terms of being a useful language don’t forget that Africa is an up-and-coming continent and French is going to help you there way more than Spanish or Chinese.</p>

5

<p>I’d second Kudryavka in saying that having prior experience in Spanish will be helpful if you go that route. If you chose a different language, I suggest you at least get one of those “crash course” books from your library and familiarize yourself with the language ahead of time.</p>

<p>Personally, I love the Spanish language, so I’m a bit biased, but if you do anything in the US it will be the most likely to be of practical use to you after college. But if you really dislike Spanish and like French take French, as learning a language you dislike is no fun at all.</p>

6

<p>German is definitely going to be a lot easier to learn. It’s closely related to English, whereas Japanese is completely unrelated to English. Taking a class is certainly better than learning on your own, but with Japanese you may find that the class proceeds at an agonizingly slow pace.</p>

<p>Is there any reason you can’t take both? I took Greek and Latin and Russian all at the same time in college. Or you could take one language for two years, then the other language the next two years. Two years should be enough time to get a solid foundation in the language upon which you can build by teaching yourself the rest.</p>

7

<p>If you knew the answer what would it be?</p>

8

<p>My parents weren’t too excited that I wanted to take French in high school instead of Spanish. We got in a bit of an argument over it. Well, we got in a lot of arguments about foreign language classes for me over the years… but anyways, they’ve come to accept it, and I’m now very proficient in French and am double majoring in it. If you want to take French, it is a useful language. If you go to Europe or Africa, you’re much more likely to get by with French than you are with Spanish. There are many places in Canada where you can’t even find anyone who speaks English, because they all speak French.</p>

<p>Now, if you want to take French, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn Spanish. In my opinion, because the two link very closely together, it will be a lot easier for you to understand Spanish later down the road if you want to learn it.</p>

9

<p>I’d say go with what you’re interested in.</p>

<p>The real point of learning another language isn’t to use it; it’s to help you organize your thoughts in more abstract terms. It’ll help you communicate more clearly.</p>

10

<p>From a utility perspective you should learn a language that the federal government deems critical. </p>

<pre><code>* Albanian

  • Arabic
  • Caucasian languages
  • Chinese
  • Dari
  • Farsi
  • Hebrew
  • Indonesian
  • Korean
  • Pashto
  • Punjabi
  • Russian
  • Urdu
  • Vietnamese
    </code></pre>
11

<p>That’s only true if you want to work for the government. Languages like Spanish, Japanese, or German aren’t on that list because plenty of people already know them, but for that exact reason they may be more useful for the average person in everyday life.</p>

12

<p>I am studying French, Spanish, Swahili, Chinese and some Italian, and French is definitely my favorite. In terms of usefulness, Chinese can help in some situations, but it requires a lot of commitment. Aside from certain areas/ situations, in the US none of these languages are going to be extremely useful. I would think about where you want to go in the future. French gives you a much wider range of countries/ cultures, but spanish is essential if you have any interest in Latin America, as are Chinese, Hindi, etc in their respective countries. Never start a language you have no interest in, it will slow the learning process and you won’t enjoy yourself. I would do research on some countries and decide what interests you the most.</p>