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Choosing a language at college | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Jake Day Newbie United States Joined 5028 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 6 29 June 2013 at 9:39pm | IP Logged |
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Hello, HTLALers!
I need some advice regarding which language to study (in college courses) while I study math at graduate school. I'm trying to decide between Spanish and German. ** Case for Spanish: * I already knew enough Spanish to CLEP out of all the introductory courses. * I don't know any German, other than a couple of greetings and counting to ten. * The college is in the Southwestern US, so I'd probably get good Spanish teachers. ** Case for German: * It's far more widely used in science than Spanish. * It's the 2nd most common language of scientific papers (behind English). So, which language would you recommend I study? Edited by Jake Day on 29 June 2013 at 10:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bbcatcher 08 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4417 days ago 130 posts - 154 votes  Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian | Message 2 of 6 30 June 2013 at 4:13am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I would choose the one I felt was more helpful. To me, either is a good
choice (I would actually choose German, because it would be more helpful/interesting to me). A problem I would see, is since you said you will be in graduate school, how long has it been since you have studied any Spanish? If it has been a while, I would feel like you would still need to be in an introduction course, so I think you may be at the same level in terms of what class you will register for. Just my 2 cents. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4307 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 3 of 6 30 June 2013 at 2:38pm | IP Logged |
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This is so personal, and since there is no necessity to your plan, it can only be asked what sorts of experiences you've had. Whether or not you've met particular people whom you've admired from those countries, for example. Or whether you admire the books, music or fashion of those foriegn-speaking countries. Or whether you think it'll lead to a wider job market for a Maths Postgrad etc.
If it helps, and also because I'd like to, I'll give my reasons for choosing German (though it wasn't chosen in favour over Spansih): I'm learning German in part opportunistically (the opportunity to talk with a German friend), part from a respect for German culture and part out of interest in my own language's history. I would personally rather learn Spanish not before learning French (to speak in the long term) because of this last point. Also I'm conscious that because fewer native English speakers learn German, I would be placed in a smaller pool of employees with that skill. I hope this helps somehow. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4261 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 4 of 6 30 June 2013 at 4:02pm | IP Logged |
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1. Choose the language you feel more of a passion for.
2. If you are equally enthused about the languages, pick the more personally useful. I would assume that Spanish is much more practical for you unless you have some special circumstance like your grandparents being German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zimena Tetraglot Groupie Norway Joined 4591 days ago 75 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish Studies: Czech, Mandarin | Message 5 of 6 30 June 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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In my opinion, the deciding factor when choosing a language to study should be simple: Which one would you enjoy the most? Language learning should be fun, as it's much harder to study anything if you don't enjoy it.
Do you have a personal preference between Spanish and German? Does one of them appeal to you more for whatever reason? In that case, pick that one! Also, do you have any interests or activities you could easily do in any of these languages? For example, do you have friends who speak any of the two? Perhaps that would also be a motivation for you to learn? As for what you said about German being the most common foreign language for scientific papers, it's worth remembering that even if there might be a lot of stuff available in German, that doesn't mean that there won't be good scientific papers for your field of study available in Spanish as well. Also, again, if the scientific papers are important for you - which language do you think you would enjoy reading about that topic in? Language learning should be first and foremost about interest and joy, so I'd say that you should let that be the decisive point. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4796 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 6 of 6 30 June 2013 at 6:21pm | IP Logged |
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I think there is no simple answer to your question. But here are some points I would consider:
University studies are difficult for a lot of people. In such a case one wants to pass the exams successfully and to graduate. It is usually the major subject which needs most effort, in your case mathematical disciplines. Do you have a lot of free time and enough learning capacity? Otherwise I would recommend the easier way. What is you motivation? In the USA you have more native speakers and language material for Spanish than for German. But maybe more importantly, if you learn Spanish, you will have more opportunities to use the language actively. If you want to know a language for scientific purposes, you can get along with passive knowledge. You can learn German without a teacher. You do not need to practice conversation for such knowledge. In fact, you do not have to drill the grammar. The grammar rules in German are simple. It is difficult to use the grammar rules actively. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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