Should I skip foreign language class in junior year?
if you do skip taking the class your junior year, make SURE you fit it into your schedule senior year. having three years of language looks great on your transcript. when you go to apply to college, your senior year schedule will show you are taking three years, and the university will note this. however, in my personal opinion, i think taking the course junior year will be far more beneficial. having the course completed on your application will prob look better. it will be easier on your brain takin it junior year but don't worry, if you do end up taking it senior year, you may have trouble remembering everything in the beginning, but it will all come back. i went three years between spanish 2 and spanish 3 and i ended up with an A. (i think if you have a little trouble or you find it irritating, stick to taking it in high school rather than a local community college). you seem to have a high academic interest, so im sure you'll do fine with any decision you make :)
Is it worth learning languages at a college/university when it is possible to learn them without having to pay money to take a class?
It depends why you are learning a second language. The biggest advantage of University is that your learning is certified. This opens certain doors embassies, translation, etc.You can can get a similar advantage by getting something like TOEFL, IELTS or HSK. Not all language have tests like this which makes University the only way to get a certified proof that you know the language.If you don't want to use it for work then University is generally not worth it. Often there are uncertified courses that will teach you for significantly less money. Being uncertified the quality varies so you need to do your homework.If you have time then you can just use tools like Duolingo to get started.My experience so far is that:At the start you don't really need a teacher. There are lots of resources for beginners.Once you get past this initial phase a teacher/tutor is great to help understand why.After you have a basic understanding then the teacher/tutor becomes less valuable again as you try to increase your vocabulary.Then a teacher/tutor becomes valuable again as you move from conversation into formal or business use of your second language. Now the nuances of the language start to really matter.The best program is immersion where you live in a country where everyone speaks the lant you want to learn and you have a teacher.
Do you really need to take a foreign language class to get into college?
So I used to take Spanish at my school and after one semester I dropped out because it was a waste of my time and not having a study hall was bringing down my grades. All of my friends say that most 4-year colleges require two years of a foreign language, but I keep telling them, "My brother is in college right now and he never took Spanish." Is it that the rules have changed since then or is it just that the 4-year colleges that require foreign language aren't in majors I'd appeal to. Why would you need to vaguely know Spanish to become an engineer, or a chemist, or a doctor, or a lawyer. Those are basically the only jobs I've ever considered going to college for. I come from a gifted family, we're all pretty smart. I don't want to take Spanish because there's so many other electives I want to take and next year I'm not even taking a study hall and still filled up all my slots. Should I drop a computer class that I'm sure I'd learn way more in than any stupid foreign language class and re-take Spanish or not? Two years of it means that I'd be done in 11th grade which won't be easy because I plan on taking community college courses alongside school to earn High School and College credits at the same time.
Taking a foreign language in college?
It will not benefit you after "academically." The only good reason to take a language is if you have an interest in it (i.e. you are interested in Japanese culture, media, etc.). Younger students tend to speak of some intangible quality about how learning languages like arabic or chinese will be "useful" but none of them even know what that means. I studied lots of languages in college, I never use them, no one does. Try and contrive such a specialized scenario in your career where you will find yourself thinking "whew, good thing I learned Japanese." You will be hard-pressed to even imagine such a fantasy. Even if you study something vaguely "international" like "international business, it is not like you are going to communicate in Japanese or ever use it (beyond that, actually using a foreign language in work contexts require you really have cemented a sound understanding and fluency in the language to a high level and that you really get the culture, etiquette, and how to comport yourself accordingly. This is far beyond a university level course of study. In other arenas, you would have to learn say, specific vocabulary outside of the usual body of "learning the language", for example medicinal vocabulary if you were to want to work as a doctor, or technical vocabulary in any science or engineering field). Anyway, it is not so accessible to work in Japan unless you want to teach English or are Japanese by heritage (they have their own people they want to hire, any foreigner they sponsor a visa for would have to be some superstar scientist or something, but again...they have their own). I went too much at length with that probably. It will just be like learning any other language. You go to class, maybe you have "picked up" another language by the time you are done with college and can watch anime and read manga pretty great, that is personally good for you, but academically meaningless. It is understandable to wonder, but even for reasons like "Japan is really pioneering in robotics" and you wanted to work on those topics, you would still never find yourself using Japanese. Same thing with something like Chinese, people say things like "China's economy will take over" and so learning Chinese is a "good idea." How? Just take the language if you have interest, that is more and all that is enough :). There are no academic or career benefits to it. If you want to learn it, go for it.
Would it be a waste of time to learn a language that I won't be able to use often?
Why not?There's a lot of benefits to learning languages, and there's no guarantee Korean will not come in handy. In fact, a lot of Korean companies export abroad so it might come in useful. If all fails, use it when you visit the country.Honestly, I don't see a problem if a person is actually interested enough in a language to be willing to sacrifice that much time in it.I'll give you an example of a friend, T. She loved Japanese culture and liked anime, manga, jpop, etc. While Japanese is quite commonly taught over here and is a lovely language, a lot of people discouraged her, saying ‘Chinese would be the promising choice’, ‘Why are you learning Japanese when you'll never need it?’ etc.Guess what? She persisted for 5 years and now goes to university there. She's quite happy with her choice I must say, and is seeking job opportunities despite being a freshman.Now, let's call another friend M. He did Spanish briefly in highschool, because it seemed ‘useful’ despite his lack of interest in the culture and language in general. After two years, he ditched Spanish for Arabic, and doesn't remember anything except a few introductory phrases. He's still pretty monolingual in English.Who do you think had the better deal?Language is not only about seekig qualifications and opportunities. Don't learn it just because it seems useful. If you love the language and culture enough to learn it well, the opportunies will come as long as you know where to find them.
Is majoring in a foreign language in college a bad idea?
So I'm a college student and I was wondering if majoring in a language (like spanish or japanese or whatever) is a bad ideal. It always seemed to me that people who picked language as a major was 1. wasting their time, 2. wasting their parents money,or 3. lazy people. Now before anyone begins to crucify me.... that was just how i viewed it and of course i could be wrong. I probably am wrong and that is why I'm asking this question. Also a little more info the major requires me to learn 3 languages. I'm also pretty solid on the ideal that I want to either go to medical school or pharmacology school. I don't think I'm smart enough to major in something like neurobiology.. (though it could help :P). I thought about majoring in psychology but I'm afraid since I'm so behind that i'll end up being swallowed up in work by trying to quickly catch up. So i thought maybe I should pick a major that's 1. less stressful (overall i don't think psychology would be hard, its just so many requirements) and 2. something I will enjoy. There's really no other major that my school offers that I like. I mean there's art history (but I'm afraid it'll be to Booooring), then there is creative writing (don't think so though) and then there is the language option. I would enjoy learning some different languages, but like what this whole post is about... I just don't know. PLEASE ANY ADVICE AT ALL IS HELPFUL (except for the doucheboys & girls who just want the points) Please, I'm pretty much begging don't answer unless you are gonna say something intelligent. Thank you very much! :D