<p>I am majoring in Political Science and Economics and I have decided I would like to major in a language. I have taken Spanish in the past and I am not really interested in picking it back up. I also do not want to do Chinese. Right now I am thinking about Arabic or French, but I am really up for anything. What do you think I should take?</p>
<p>You should take whatever interests you. I personally took French in high school. While I didn’t like my teacher, it’s a neat language and a lot of countries speak it. Arabic is also good to learn, but it’s probably more difficult than French. I would talk to a few of the professors who teach the classes and see what they say. Just take whatever interests you, that way you’ll be motivated to do well in the class.</p>
<p>You should do whatever interests you the most, because you will probably work harder on something you like rather than something that is boring to you. I’m taking French at the moment, and I find it quite intriguing. I think you would probably use Frech more in the long run.</p>
<p>With your degree in Poli Sci & Econ, are you interested in working for the government? Arabic speakers are higly sought after in many jobs in security and national defense. French is great for the diplomatic, European-bound worker. Try to think of where you’d like to be working in ten years- a language fluency can open many doors.</p>
<p>^^ Doubt it. Arabic is just as useful to him and would open up a COMPLETELY different world to him.</p>
<p>Im not really sure which i am interested in, thats why i posted lol</p>
<p>You should note that to actually achieve fluency in a language, you have to be motivated to learn it. It doesn’t seem like you’re motivated at all… </p>
<p>But there are other cool languages, such as Italian, Russian, and Japanese to name a few!</p>
<p>But you can’t go wrong with French or Arabic. Actually, the combination of both of them would make you incredibly sought after.</p>
<p>Arabic! The Middle East is growing really fast! I’m a Middle Eastern studies major just in the hopes of learning Arabic!</p>
<p>If you’d like some information about introductory Arabic, feel free to pm or ask publicly. I am finishing the last two weeks of my first year of introduction to Modern Standard Arabic. It’s an extremely intense, difficult language, but I feel as if I have learned an incredible amount over the course of two semesters. I look back to my first week of college and think, “hey, I can read the newspaper in Arabic now. neat, huh?” There’s an special sense of satisfaction you reap from those thoughts and experiences.</p>
<p>Honestly Arabic is probably a better choice because of the prevalence of the middle east in current political issues and because it’s different. More people speak French, so in applying to grad/prof school the fact that you took Arabic could give you a unique edge. (especially since you’re a poli sci/economics major) However, if you plan to travel in Europe or Africa, French would probably be more practical.</p>
<p>Between Arabic and French, I suggest Arabic.</p>
<p>^If DMOC says Arabic, you pick Arabic. No questions asked.</p>
<p>Coming from someone who has taken Russian, French and Arabic: </p>
<p>Do not take Arabic unless you are 100% dedicated to it and plan on studying it for years after you graduate, otherwise it’s not going to usable for a career. My fluency in French is far far far better than Arabic and I’ve been taking it for a shorter amount of time.</p>
<p>I kind of feel that nowadays, if you take Arabic you are automatically pigeonholed into a set type of career (counter terrorism, national security, etc). If that doesn’t excite you or fall into your goals it would make a ton more sense to take something else.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that everyone is suggesting Arabic. I grew up in a tri-lingual house so I learned to speak, read and write Arabic from a young age, and it has never come in handy. People keep insisting it’s great if you want to work for the government in a national security type job, but fewer than 1% of people want that job - if you do, I guess Arabic is a good choice. But if you’re one of the 99.9% of students that don’t plan to work for some Govt job that requires Arabic, then it’s useless and unnecessarily difficult. </p>
<p>I think Spanish is a great language to learn - practical for the average American and fairly easy. I don’t know why you’re set against it, but I guess French then.</p>
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<p>If NuclearPakistan1 agrees with me, you agree with him. No questions asked.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with Mandarin?</p>
<p>Short Answer: Take French.</p>
<p><em>Take a deep breath</em></p>
<p>Long Answer: I am basically echoing twizzlers’ response. </p>
<p>I am a native speaker of a (latinate) European language, learned English at an early age, understand French and can get by with it due to living in a French speaking city, and at university studied Russian and Arabic for two semesters each.</p>
<p>The problem with Arabic versus all the other languages I’ve had contact with is that it is NOT a single language. It is a family of languages. If you take Arabic at an American university you will go through the Al-Kitaab program developed by Georgetown et al. For those of you who have studied with this book, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the program, I was fortunate enough to study under a prof. who had close connections to its developers. The problem is that you absolutely need a minimum of two years, or most likely the entire three to get anything remotely usable out of it. The first year class is usually quite intensive (mine was 6/hrs of lecture per week), and while you will learn a lot, the progress will be MUCH slower than learning a European language.</p>
<p>You will learn to read/write the alphabet in a Naskh-like script that is pretty much the equivalent of children’s handwriting (think block letters). Then you will learn grammar and vocabulary of Modern Standard Arabic, which no one actually speaks as a native language. You won’t be able to get anywhere near reading newspapers and the like until the second year or beyond (I most certainly can’t). The grammar is logical, the problem will be the vocabulary. It is completely foreign, English will help you tremendously for French, not for Arabic.</p>
<p>Ultimately the best you can hope is to learn a very formal register of the language, which will help you read, but it will not help you converse. Educated Arabic-speakers will likely speak better English or French than you will Arabic, and uneducated ones will probably understand your Arabic, but reply in their own dialect which you will not understand. </p>
<p>Therefore, if you seek out something practical pick French. It is widely spoken in Europe and former colonies, and will arguably help you out more than super formal MSA in places like Lebanon or the Maghreb anyway.</p>
<p>If you want to study Arabic for fun, but understand the limitations of what you will learn, then by all means pick it.</p>
<p>/ rant over</p>