I'm in! Now what?

keld
Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:56:58 +0000

New post for length (sorry, my really long post was bothering me).

Marite: I completely hear you that I shouldn’t take more than one language course at a time. I think this definitely holds true for introductory courses, because you have to put so much time into them. But the languages I’m considering are an introductory classic language (no speaking component) for later years, an intermediate/advanced course for my freshman year, and another advanced course in a different language. The first language is one that I really hope to take even though it has seemingly little to do with my field of focus thus far; it’s just a personal childhood dream and a promise I made to myself to fulfill upon gaining entrance to this particular college. The second language is possibly integral to my major (haven’t decided yet) and I intend to take it for at least two years. The last language, Chinese, I have spent four years of high school and countless hours on and I am capable of reading full-length novels in my free time. As I have achieved a degree of proficiency, it’s not necessary that I take it all four years of college, for example, but I hope to retain my fluency, and of course, especially with something like Chinese, there’s always room for improvement.

I tell you all this to give you a better idea of what the time commitment might look like when I say that I may have to take two of these languages at the same time due to time constraints, most possibly the two advanced courses. Are two advanced courses “easier” than two introductory courses, in your opinion, as the student is already relatively fluent? Or would an advanced course and an introductory course be better?

The other option I am looking at is study abroad. For example, I could take Languages One and Two at college, not at the same time, and then spend a year or a summer abroad in China or Taiwan. Does this option look more feasible? I guess I’m just saying that I know that I definitely want to pursue languages, but I don’t want to drive myself into a corner in terms of options or workload.