<p>okay i was thinking of doing chinese, but i already placed out of the language requirement at andover because i've done chinese for like... 14 years. </p>
<p>So i was thinking of taking spanish... or russian...or german... </p>
<p>what do you think? which language is the most useful/practical/impressive?</p>
<p>Take spanish, if you don't already speak it. Especially with the growing hispanic population in America, you're going to need it.</p>
<p>Spanish is a very useful and fun language. There are many opportunities to speak it in the US plus Spain, Mexico, Central and almost all of South America. In major cities, you can find Spanish television, radio, magazines, etc. The lterature is rich and enjoyable too.</p>
<p>spanish is useful, but not impressive or exotic. german and russian and japanese are impressive, and the latter is very useful (if you're going into business), and if you already speak chinese, japanese would be easier because japanese borrows many chinese characters, i believe. french is exotic, not very useful/practical, and not particularly impressive.</p>
<p>i'd say spanish as well, because andover has agreat spanish program and hispanic social service organizations.</p>
<p>What about Latin? How useful do you think that is?</p>
<p>latin is great! It helps you understand English better. It will increase your vocab by introducting you to root words and you will do GREAT on your SAT.
Im switching to latin next year from French. I just can't pronounce the stupid RRRRRR</p>
<p>It's not really useful, though. You do learn some words in English from it, but English's roots are west germanic, not latin.</p>
<p>You'll do much better taking a language that isn't dead. Preferrably Spanish.</p>
<p>im taking german next year
=]</p>
<p>Chinese/Russian...</p>
<p>I can't decide :(</p>
<p>Which do you think is better/more useful, and which do you think is harder?</p>
<p>Take chinese, Anti-thesis. Chinese is probably harder, but when are you ever going to need to use Russian!?</p>
<p>Here is the order of importance for conventional languages for me:
English- Spanish- French- Chinese- Italian- German- and that's it. By the way, conventional languages in this case means languages that are available at most prep scools. Russian counts, but it's so far down the list I didn't even put it up here.</p>
<p>And I think I'm taking French, by the way. I would take Italian, but I'm already on the AP level for French and I should take it through that before I start another language. I was thinking about taking Chinese, but it has the same problem as Italian- I'd be a beginner.</p>
<p>Chinese! :)</p>
<p>yeah take chinese! </p>
<p>it isn't THAT hard trust me.</p>
<p>French and Spanish, then French, Spanish, and Chinese for 10-12.</p>
<p>Jonathan, when do you have time to take three languages? are you dropping other normal classes like science?</p>
<p>Nope. There's seven periods in a day. Next year I'm taking:</p>
<p>English I
French II
Spanish I
Geometry Honors
Intro to Biology
Foundations of Civilization
Concert Band</p>
<p>And for grades 10-12 I'm probably going to drop band for school and just do this youth band this at the university of michigan, which I'm going to try out for in September. Then I'll take Chinese instead of band.</p>
<p>Don't listen to PurpoisePal. Russian is considered to be a very useful language. Perhaps not as useful as Arabic, but, then again, what is? The State Department declared Russian as a critical language along with Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, etc. These languages are ones that they have high demand for. The other thing about Russian is that far fewer people take it than some of the other critical languages because it is not an "in" language right now. Arabic and Chinese have just opened up in the world, whereas many people feel that since the Cold War is over, they have no use for Russian. But really, Russian is useful for intelligence, especially with the increasingly authoritarian behavior over there once again; it's useful for business because of the developing economy; it's useful for work in a variety of other nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (another fascinating area for international development) because people were taught it in the soviet times and in many of these countries it is still an official language. Basically there are a lot of great things about studying Russian and from what I have been told, it does tend to look good because it's unusual. I have never taken German, so I can't tell you much about that, but if you are interested, take it!</p>
<p>But this is what I tell people who are deciding on languages in high school:
Take it because you are interested in it, not because people tell you it's useful or whatever. To become fluent in a language takes a lot of work and it is easier to devote time and energy to a subject you love than to a subject you don't really care about. I am so happy that I switched from spanish to Russian when I entered high school because I found a language and culture that I love and it really made language come alive for me. I am going to live in Russia for a gap year next year because I like the language/culture so much.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck with your choice. I am sure you will find a language that's right for you.</p>
<p>Think about how a language will fit into your life before you decide to take it just because it's going to look good for college. If you are fascinated by South American art, take Spanish or Portuguese. If you think you'd like to work in the financial markets, take Chinese. If you are gadget-minded, Japanese might be a good choice. If you want to be a historian or a doctor or a botanist, choose Latin. A great many people wind up being exactly what they thought they'd be when they were 15. A language that is related to your future plans can only help you achieve those plans.</p>
<p>I agree with Noelisto, except that most people do NOT end up being what they wanted to be OR planned to be when they wre 15. They don't even end up at the college they wanted to go to. And they haven't even begun to think about majors.</p>
<p>Take a language whose culture you think you would enjoy for the next 4 years.</p>
<p>Horse Whispering.</p>