[Sequins]

Is anyone interested in majoring in a foreign language? And if so, which ones?

I don't know what field really interests me at the moment. I only know that I'd like to speak as many languages as I can. I'm thinking about German, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian. Of course, I'll probably have to narrow it down to two.

[Tamago86]

It can be hard to major in a language itself...Like if you wanted to study Japanese the only major available for that might be East Asian studies, which requires you to also take courses on the history and culture of Asia in addition to the language...And in college languages can meet up to everyday and usually 1 subject = 1 hour of homework. So it'd be very hard to take more than 2. (Japanese + Arabic are also the two hardest languages in the world)

Most colleges have a German major, some have a Japanese major, a few have Russian, never seen an Arabic major though. Pick one you can picture using for the rest of your life and living in the country of, make that your major. Then choose the next best one. Then later on maybe in graduate school take up others.

I'm a Japanese major myself, studying in Japan at the moment...I know what you mean by wanting to learn as many languages as possible, sometimes I wish that's all I had to do, but gotta do other things too...Once I get home I'm thinking of picking up German..

If you want to be different try learning Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. The languages are similar enough that if you learn one you can understand all 3 (good idea if you want to learn as many languages as possible) I speak Danish and can talk to Swedes and Norwegians in Danish and they'll speak in Swedish or Norwegian and we can still hold conversations

The harder the language the better the job you can get using it..The hardest languages are considered Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. All are in high demand except Korean

[idyllic]

I think you should take foreign languages at the side, and just like Tamago said, you have take East Studies major or something else to take a major in some kind of linguistic. You should major in something more practical, but not saying Japanese, German, or any other language isn't practical. You should try to major something to fall back on because if you want to learn a foreign language you should try to do yourself or maybe take an extra class or take it over the summer.

I want to learn Japanese and German by the time I hit college.

[Eddie]

I thought I'd major in Japanese, but I'm leaning more towards East Asia Studies now. Like you, I want to learn a lot of different languages!

[lilmizjae]

I'm going to minor in German depending on how my classes are when I get to college I might even double major. I learned German in high school for 3 years [didn't offer 4th year...] and I've been interested in the German culture since freshman year so I'm really excited to continue my German studies.

[akira53]

I'm thinking of getting a minor in Japanese or Asian Studies, but my major will be International Business

[atalamarche10]

I'm interested in German and Latin
I'm taking 4th year of German this year and I finished Latin II already
so it's hard to pick

East Asian Studies is really interesting....

[Sequins]

thanks for your replies!

Hm. I guess it would be smarter to have a different major, such as international law or business with a language minor on the side.

What colleges do you think would be best for it? Dartmouth? Amherst?

[Eddie]

I know Middlebury is really good for languages. For East Asian Studies-ish stuff, I know west coast schools (Berkeley, UCLA?) are good, as well as cornell and columbia. It depends what you specifically want.

I applied to dartmouth for EAS... It's my first choice and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[joogrlpekaun]

(Japanese + Arabic are also the two hardest languages in the world)

I speak Danish and can talk to Swedes and Norwegians in Danish and they'll speak in Swedish or Norwegian and we can still hold conversations

well, Japanese and Arabic might be the hardest that you can learn in school...but they're not necessarily the hardest in the world. for example, there's an aboriginal language in Australia that's pretty much dying out that has something like 4000 different classifiers for different types of plants/animals/objects/etc. (and you thought japanese was bad? ) but apparently Arabic has about that many verb stems. and you have to learn how to pick which vowel goes between the consonants when you read, apparently.

but arabic and chinese are in really high demand, chinese in business and diplomacy, arabic in diplomacy and all sorts of other translation work. lots of good opportunities there. i think for chinese the good west coast schools (well, more like just CA) are considered the best, though i couldn't tell you which ones would be best for, say, arabic.

Tamago86:
haha that sounds like this Romanian guy in orchestra. last year in NYC on our trip i sat at the same table as him and a Greek girl during dinner. they held conversations where one would speak in Romanian and the other in Greek and it was kind of amusing, especially when one time she thought he said something...bad...when he actually said something completely innocuous, but by then she'd already put an ice cube down his shirt. whoops

[sosays i]

i just want to take a japanese class as an elective or something
not as a major though

[Hoii]

The harder the language the better the job you can get using it..The hardest languages are considered Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. All are in high demand except Korean

Actually, that depends on where your viewpoint is from (in terms of what kind of jobs). I know at least for US government jobs (including CIA, US embassy, and military services), Korean is one of the top languages they're looking for. Arabic and Chinese are probably the most sought-after, but Japanese isn't as sought-after as it was in past years (because more and more people are learning it). However, this may be different for different fields of work.

Back to the topic, I also want to major in a foreign language... I'm learning Korean right now, but not many colleges offer it as a major. If a school offers it just for classes, I'll take it, but I'm interested in learning Russian as well. If I can speak Korean + Russian fluently... I'd be happy.

What applications can foreign languages have in job fields? For people interesting in majoring in foreign langauge, are you double majoring in something else to apply your language to something? I'd like to learn langauages, but I'd also like a job I could use the languages in.

[Tamago86]

well, Japanese and Arabic might be the hardest that you can learn in school...but they're not necessarily the hardest in the world. for example, there's an aboriginal language in Australia that's pretty much dying out that has something like 4000 different classifiers for different types of plants/animals/objects/etc. (and you thought japanese was bad? ) but apparently Arabic has about that many verb stems. and you have to learn how to pick which vowel goes between the consonants when you read, apparently.

but arabic and chinese are in really high demand, chinese in business and diplomacy, arabic in diplomacy and all sorts of other translation work. lots of good opportunities there. i think for chinese the good west coast schools (well, more like just CA) are considered the best, though i couldn't tell you which ones would be best for, say, arabic.

Tamago86:
haha that sounds like this Romanian guy in orchestra. last year in NYC on our trip i sat at the same table as him and a Greek girl during dinner. they held conversations where one would speak in Romanian and the other in Greek and it was kind of amusing, especially when one time she thought he said something...bad...when he actually said something completely innocuous, but by then she'd already put an ice cube down his shirt. whoops

Well I guess they mean the hardest languages that people can actually use in the business world, haha...The east coast schools have some pretty awesome Chinese & Japanese programs as well, quite a few that have been around for over 100 years due to the age of some of the colleges in places like Massachusetts. I'm from Boston and it's kind of amazing how some of the old little colleges here have affected the world, for example a long time ago one of the head professors at Amherst who fought in the civil war was recruited by the Japanese emperor to pick a good strategic location for the city of Sapporo (where I'm living right now), so he picked it and helped build it and now there's a huge statue of him in the middle of the city..You can imagine my surprise when I found it and saw Amherst mentioned o_o

Oh yea..I know what you mean about getting misunderstood with similar languages like that o_o;; haha..The Danish word for beer is 'bajer'..But there's a word in Swedish that sounds the same, 'bajar', which means to take a sh!t..Poor Danes can't order a beer in Sweden without getting laughed at, har har

Actually, that depends on where your viewpoint is from (in terms of what kind of jobs). I know at least for US government jobs (including CIA, US embassy, and military services), Korean is one of the top languages they're looking for. Arabic and Chinese are probably the most sought-after, but Japanese isn't as sought-after as it was in past years (because more and more people are learning it). However, this may be different for different fields of work.

Unfortunately getting good CIA jobs is a tad competitive, you'll need to have alot more than fluency in Korean or Arabic. I say Korean isn't that in demand because outside of certain government agencies that's the truth, unless you plan to live in Korea or work for a company that does business with Korea. I'd say Arabic is alot more valuable if you want a job with the government, but some of the jobs aren't the greatest...I said Korean wasn't as useful because as Japanese or Chinese because Japan is the 2nd largest economy in the world, and China's market is going crazy, so wherever you go you can find any number of companies that do business with these two countries.

Japanese isn't as sought after not because more people are learning it, the truth is that less people are learning it while more are opting for Chinese...Japanese is a popular language in college but it really stops there, you'll see alot of people in Japanese 101, half of them in 200, a handful in 300 and almost none in the 400 levels. One of the main reasons is that Japan's economy is kind of dying right now, while China's is going BOOM, and the other main reason being that most people just jump into Japanese because of anime and manga and then drop out when it gets too hard. I still say someone with a good 4 year college degree and fluency in Japanese, Arabic, or Chinese will be very competitive and preferred over those who are monolingual and in the same market. With Korean it all depends..

What applications can foreign languages have in job fields? For people interesting in majoring in foreign langauge, are you double majoring in something else to apply your language to something? I'd like to learn langauages, but I'd also like a job I could use the languages in.

Foreign languages can have any application in any job field...Most people who choose to study a language usually major in a program related with it, or double major in something like X language + business, or business major + X language minor. If you want to use Korean for a job, maybe you'd take business and korean in college and end up working for Samsung...I don't know much about Russian though. You'd also need to find a college with a good Korean program, because alot don't offer Korean, or if they do they're usually crap.