<p>With a schedule consisting of degree requirements and third year Japanese, I have 12 credits of classes. I want to take another class; I was going take International Relations but the professor has gotten some less than glowing reviews; the students I've talked to say there are much better classes that fulfill that GE (1 of the 2 I haven't fulfilled). (I was orginally going to take honors Literature class, but it doesn't look like they're going to be offering that one).</p>
<p>So I've decided I pretty much want to take one of these three foreign language intro classes--all of them 5 credits--Russian, French, or Turkish.</p>
<p>French is the most "useful" of the three, but it's an early morning class amd probably the language I'm least interested in taking for the sake of taking, but I could actually see real possibilities in it.</p>
<p>Russian is at a good time schedule-wise and fairly interesting to me, but not my first choice. Decent usefulness. There's not much to say here either way.</p>
<p>Turkish seems really interesting to me, out of the box, etc. I know it's not really in-demand, but I just want to take it. It's a bad-ish time, late afternoon M-R (Others are M-F). I have classes for three straight honors T-R, 5 straight M with the Turkish class (no classes before 12 noon), but I could rearrange an hour's break in there at the cost of getting up earlier. Really, really small class (single digits).</p>
<p>Onegai, furansugo benkyo. It's a wondeful language which you'll come in contact from time to time and there are so many resources out there to help you. Ganbatte!</p>
<p>What do you want anyone to say? That's a pretty idiosyncratic set of choices for someone studying Japanese now. I'm sure you have your reasons for coming up with that list, but I can't tell what they are, and without knowing that it's hard to give meaningful advice. </p>
<p>You've obviously thought through the class-time and economic importance elements, though. If you care about literature, the order is probably French, then Russian a close second, then Turkish. Strategic importance: Russian, then probably Turkish (The Turkish-speaking world is pretty important strategically, and there isn't any shortage of French speakers). Impressing dates in restaurants and movies: French all the way. If you have a good enough ear to handle Japanese, you shouldn't have trouble with French, but it's a lot harder phonetically than Russian (and of course I don't know much about Turkish). Which do you like best? Vodka, wine, or thick, sweet coffee (or, you know . . . )?</p>
<p>Given that you're studying Japanese, why isn't your next move Mandarin or Korean, which have somewhat similar structures, share a character set with Japanese, and are obviously complementary in terms of regional issues? If you're branching out, how about Parsi, which is probably a culturally richer and more geopolitically threatening language than Turkish, and also gives you a platform to move into Arabic or the Hindi/Urdu/Sanskrit group?</p>
<p>Cornell_Alum, it took me a second to read "furansu." It's odd that Japanese has become much harder for me to read in romaji than the orginal script. Watashi no sensei ha romaji ga dai kirai ;) Furansugo mo nihong mo wo hanaseru? Sugoi! sumimasen ga, donna shigoto wo suru?<br>
(If anyone wants a translation, just ask!)</p>
<p>JHS,
Those are the classes that seemed interesting to me and have the potential to fit into my schedule. My school offers madarin but the tonal aspect seemed too difficult; korean, which I would probably like to take, is not offered. My school also offers classes in Farsi and Arabic, which are either already full or that I have time conflicts with.</p>
<p>Actually, Japanese is very simple phonetically and not that complex overall (not the easiest language but definitely not the hardest like people seem to think). I have found Japanese fairly useless, though quite enjoyable, in the years I've taken it, and I am looking at utility when starting a third language, which is why French came up. Turkish seems the most interesting to me, and I guess with the possible entry of Turkey into the EU it could grow into importance; still, I thought something more economically common maybe a better choice. (Not interested in comparative literature)</p>
<p>What I'm I looking for? Post like yours, experiences, and the like.</p>
<p>In terms of pure utility, there's no way to beat French. Lots of older literature is sprinkled with French expressions. There's a lot of material originally written in French for both science and history. Like it or not, many educated Westerners (including Russians) assume some knowledge of French is a sign of "culture or sophistication."</p>
<p>The bigger question is: How likely is it that you'll study this language till you know it well? If you abandon it after a year or two, my guess is that you will still have gotten something from studying French. And, being a Romance language, it will give you insight into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you want bragging rights, Turkish is hard to beat.</p>
<p>Russian or French-
The top languages now are English, Chinese, Russian, Urdu, Arabic, Korean-and French never hurts.
Save Turkish for later
(I am a former foreign language major)</p>
<p>Here's why I continue to have a bad reaction to this question: Taking one semester of a language is almost useless, unless you are really skilled at language study and already have a bunch of related languages. (I am reasonably fluent in French and Spanish, and have studied Latin, Catalan, and Italian (and Hebrew and, long ago, Russian). I can read a newspaper in Portugese pretty well; I could get a lot out of one semester of Portugese. But I probably couldn't get much out of one semester of Turkish.) So deciding which language to start based on how convenient the class times are next semester is nuts. It's a several-year commitment.</p>
<p>One reason, from what i've heard from others is that they don't want to have to communicate and learn the language of a poorer class of people. </p>
<p>As if spanish automatically forces you to be poor and uneducated, give me a break!</p>
<p>Since you are interested in pharmacy, Spanish might be the most practical language to learn as you may be dealing with Spanish-speaking customers.</p>
<p>The issue of tones in Chinese is only a first-year concern. Once you have mastered them, the fact that you have already learned Japanese will be of immense help. Conversely, knowing Chinese will also enhance your mastery of Japanese. Some universities have courses in Chinese specifically for those who have already learned Japanese because the students already have a solid foundation. Most polyglots learn languages by building on those they already know rather than learning totally unrelated ones. </p>
<p>French will be useful if you want to pursue an academic career. Otherwise, its utility to you will be more limited than either Spanish or Japanese. And you would not be able to draw on your knowledge of Japanese to help you learn it. Same thing with Russian or Turkish.</p>
<p>Take the language that interests you the most - Turkish. College is a time to explore interests - it's not just about acquiring 'useful' knowledge. Plus, you never know, sometimes a mere hobby can became a life's passion & career.</p>
<p>I have nothing against Spanish, really; I'm offended that some would even alledge any bias because I'm not jumping to study it. Heck, I speak Spanish daily with my mother, though both of us are far from fluent. It's just that there are tons of native/ heritage Spanish speakers to fill that gap better than I ever could. I'm so tired of people telling me to take Spanish 'and then assuming there's something wrong with me when I don't. Espanol es una idioma aramosa ma yo no quiero studiar espansol en la clase de la universidad ahora!</p>
<p>JHS,
I intend to keep up with the language for an extended peroid if I "click" with it. Class times do matter because getting ready in the morning will be hard for me, and I don't want to take a very early class for that reason.</p>
<p>I've prertty much decided against Turkish and have it narrowed down to French and Russian.</p>
<p>I have studied all these languages and I can say that Turkish is the easiest one. The morphology is logically structured with very few affixes and there is almost nothing to study except words. You will advance very quickly.
Russian is the most difficult (I have to admit that although my mother's tongue is Slavic as well).</p>
<p>Just back from a visit to Nouvelle France (Quebec, eastern townships) ... and wish I had studied some French in my lifetime. However, the cognitives with English and Spanish helped my navigate roads and read menus and rudimentary conversation.</p>
<p>I have three years of high school Russian which have only been useful in speaking with cabdrivers in NYC and showing off reading the headlines in the Polish newspaper to impress my FIL. My Spanish gets a real workout talking with the landscapers and the stable help, as well as shopping in the big box stores of Fairfield County CT.</p>
<p>If you're only taking it for one semester, take French. It will help enormously with understanding early English literature, as it has alot of French influences (not surprisingly). It is also a beautiful language in itself, and if you ever decide to study other Romance languages it will provide an excellent foundation. </p>
<p>But if I were you, I'd take Turkish. Mainly because it's random. But also because college is a time to branch out and discover new interests. French speakers are a dime a dozen, but competence in Turkish (or at least a foundation) will make you stand out. </p>
<p>Russian grammar is EXTREMELY difficult. It's awash with a multitude of tenses, aspects, cases, moods ... ugh.</p>