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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| CoYu Newbie United States Joined 4511 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Korean | Message 1 of 15 22 July 2012 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've become rather interested in the Greek language lately, and when I saw that a school I'm interested in offers it as a major, naturally, I was overjoyed. My problem is, the school also offers a German major- A language that I intend to learn as well.
My question is, should I stick with Greek? What exactly can I do with a Greek major? I was thinking, since it's so hard to actually find places that offer Greek, let alone as a major, I should take advantage of it while I can and just learn German on my own. I have two years worth of knowledge on German, so I wouldn't be too bothered with self-teaching that language. I would just take both of them, Greek and German, together and double major with the two, but I plan on majoring in something else, so a triple major is definitely not something I would like to do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2 of 15 22 July 2012 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Try to find out as much as possible about the studying process and its quality. The German program is likely more established, though this might also mean they've not bothered to switch from outdated materials to newer ones.
Also, a Greek major might involve Ancient Greek (or they may even call it Greek without meaning modern Greek). Make sure you know what you get. And will you have to take German from scratch if you major in it or is prior knowledge required? Having to go through the basics again is very, very frustrating. Finally, why do you want to major in Greek or German? Do you want to major in something you like and would study on your own anyway, or do you like the opportunity to take language classes? (Have you taken them before? Your opinion on them may well change. Mine sooooo has :( If you get disappointed, it'll certainly be easier to continue trudging through German than Greek) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4635 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 3 of 15 22 July 2012 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Why don't you major in something else then double minor in those languages?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| CoYu Newbie United States Joined 4511 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Korean | Message 4 of 15 22 July 2012 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well, the school offers study abroad for Greek, so I would hope they wouldn't send us there after teaching Ancient Greek, haha. I'll e-mail the professors just to be sure, though. I think you can take a test if you've had German teaching within the last four years, and, depending on how well you do, you can start from scratch, or very high up in the lessons. That is a good point, though; I would hate to not do well, and end up starting in German 101. When it comes to majoring in them, it's a bit of both something I like as well as taking language classes (and the possibility of actually finding others to speak the language with. Alabama is not very linguistically diverse, unfortunately.) I did take two years of German in high school, and I did enjoy it, and wanted to go into more depth, so I'm not worried about finding I don't like classes.
That was a thought, but I'm not sure if I would have the time for two languages as well as my major. I plan on also majoring in Theatre Costume Design, which would be very time consuming, so I probably would not be able to devote the amount of time necessary to both languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5297 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 5 of 15 22 July 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Frankly speaking, nobody needs a college (that's what we are talking about, isn't it?) in order to learn a language. So if that's your motivation you are much better off buying one of the usual language courses and just learn Greek. It will take some time but can easily be done in your free time, so that you have an additional qualification beside your main subject, whatever this may be. Or do you want to become a translator or interpreter? For Greek?! Totally different subject then, again. Please do yourself the favour and get as much information as possible what the major you are talking about actually is, because it may turn our as something very different than you are expecting. Good luck, maybe you can come up with some concrete questions about language learning, then this is the right place :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 15 22 July 2012 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Get in touch with current and former students!!! Ask about the learning process, what they enjoy and what frustrates them; what they think of the quality of teaching; how well the students do on the whole. (If there are motivated students who suck, that's pretty bad) Two years, one teacher? Hehe. I had 6 years of English with 3-4 different teachers at school, then 4 years with about 15 teachers at the lyceum affiliated with the university I wanted to enter (there were separate weekly classes for grammar, "practice", home reading, culture, literature). Then I entered the aforementioned university and it was a huge, huge disappointment. Nobody cared about your actual level in the language. All you had to do was "work hard". The quality was much lower than at the lyceum. In the first year we even learned plenty of texts by heart, "because this way you'll find yourself using the structures automatically." At our level, that was just ridiculous to hear. Way too much attention was also given to prepared speech. That's something most people just wrote and learned by heart (they got corrections only in class). ARGHHH. I'd often try to speak impromptu but instead of acknowledging (even in a sarcastic tone) that for an impromptu speech this wasn't too bad, nobody would even listen to me as soon as they realized I hadn't written this shite down. Unfortunately I never got in touch with anyone directly before choosing; the complaints I heard only made it more exciting (strict morphology prof? too much maths? yay! :D) so I spent almost 4 years struggling there, skipping classes as I kept losing my motivation. Now I'm at a less prestigious uni where they use modern methods rather than being proud of using "traditional" ones. And I'm finally enjoying my English classes again though by now they're more of a formality for me and I've put aside my dream of reaching native fluency. So be prepared for possible disappointment, as even if the descriptions you get from the current students sound fine to you, one of your profs might turn out horrible. And as I've said, even if you enjoy the beginning, your opinion might change later. Especially if you keep on exploring this site and discovering various wonderful techniques;) Although the beginning of my uni studies was the worst objectively (no learning by heart after that, among other things), as I became a better learner my demands changed as well. Disaster was bound to happen. So yeah. I hope you'll like your classes. But I won't be surprised if you don't and/or if they don't make you fluent (which may or may not mean you won't be fluent by the time you graduate). How flexible is the system? Would it be possible to sign up for two minors and change them for one major, giving yourself more time to decide? Edited by Serpent on 22 July 2012 at 11:25pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4846 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 7 of 15 23 July 2012 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Did you say Alabama? My birthplace!!! Also, home of my alma mater, UA. Roll Tide!!! It's true that Alabama is not as linguistically diverse as, say, New York, Florida or California. However, for what it's worth, as an elementary kid in Birmingham, Alabama, my three best friends were born in Vietnam, Iceland, and Japan. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| CoYu Newbie United States Joined 4511 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Korean | Message 8 of 15 23 July 2012 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Oh, man, that's a horror story if I've ever heard one. Hopefully, I do learn methods from this site that work wonderfully for me, and, if I end up with a prof that is just horrible, I can use them.
I think I could do that; that's a plan I hadn't even considered. Thanks!
Hey, Alabama is the school I'm talking about here, too, haha. How about that? I'm surprised that your friends were from such diverse backgrounds. The two places I've lived here haven't been half as diverse. Bums me out. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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