Is it worth it to take a single semester of spanish?

College Life
1

<p>I’m planning out my schedule for next semester, and originally I was going to take spanish 101, as I’ve never taken any spanish before, and there’s a good chance I’ll end up living in CA, so it could have helped to know some. Now, though, I’m seeing that as an engineering major, I won’t have a chance to take another spanish class after. Is it worth it to take the one spanish class? Otherwise, I would probably take a class that would help out with my requirements, which could ease the stress later on.</p>

2

<p>I don’t think a single semester of Spanish will help you all that much when it comes to interacting with Spanish-speaking communities in California. If the class itself doesn’t resolve a general education requirement and is just a random elective, I’d opt for something else. Spanish is relatively easy to learn compared to languages like Mandarin or Arabic - you could always take it at a community college over the summer or try self-study programs/regimens. </p>

3

<p>I don’t think one year of Spanish would be helpful, I would self study it, that’s how I learned Italian.</p>

4

<p>If you are taking one semester of Spanish, you will just be learning the mechanics and will not be able to carry on a conversation. You will learn to say your name, identify days of the week, months of the year and conduct basic greetings, but, there is no way you’ll be able to understand and interact fluently in our bilingual Spanish communities with 1 semester of college Spanish. You could live in Mexico or Spain for a semester without any English help and learn by trial and error? Cuernavaca program has some Spanish language programs but you need basic spanish coursework.</p>

5

<p>One plus is that with a semester of Spanish you might at least be able to pronounce Spanish words nearly correctly upon reading them. Many place names in California are Spanish. If that is something you can already do, then there’s probably not much benefit. </p>

6

<p>You probably shouldn’t bother. One semester of any language will be forgotten in a year. (Unless of course you continue education as preamble1776 mentioned.)</p>