Language courses?

[Windmill]

I'm looking into majoring in a 2nd language perhaps. I hear its a very demanding sort of a schedules to learn a second language. Has anyone had experience? Do you come out of it fluent? To the point you could translate it easily?

 

[Fed]

I'm not majoring in a 2nd language, but I took 6 years of spanish in middle/high school, and I took a spanish lit class in college. My best suggestion is to try to get the vocab/grammar down as early as possible cause once you're out of puberty it's much harder to learn languages.

Based on what my friends said, learning a 2nd language in college is much more demanding simply because of the pace. Also, in the lit class I took, we read primary lit like Don Quijote and you were expected to understand a decent amount, so I'm assuming that a major would require fluency.

 

[aunt_kelly]

no tips for you, but I wish you all the best in searching for a major!

 

[seamonster]

I'm taking Chinese as my minor. It's definitely difficult, but the biggest thing I can tell you is to study, study, study and learn lots of vocab. Even if your sentence structure is iffy, if you know lots of vocabulary, you can usually communicate what you want/need/mean.

My DH took almost 2 years to become fluent in Chinese, but it was his job and he studied for 8-10 hours each day. I'm in my 2nd year of Chinese now and nowhere close to being fluent. I'm hoping within the next 3 years I will be, though.

Best of luck!

 

[Windmill]

Ooooh, good luck! Chinese is considered the hardest language of them all

 

[Trashionista]

I'm majoring in French.

Though its mandatory to take in school, up until Grade 9 in where I live.

So, I'm at the Post-Secondary level.

I have a bit of background already then. Right now, my French is... pretty fluent, conversationally. I can hold a decent conversation and translate easily enough.

I'm not a native speaker, and I never will be. [And I'm still kinda of annoyed my parents didn't send me to Immersion.] I am an Anglophone, so when I speak French, I still have an Anglo-Canadian accent. I don't speak French at home, and there isn't a large French Canadian prescence where I live. So, I'm pretty much only exposed to it in school, and on television. Immersion into the language is quite beneficial - so if you're in an area that has a lot of German immigrants, and you want to learn German, location could be very beneficial.

I definately suggest taking another language - especially if you're passionate about it. If you choose a language you can do an exchange program with, that would definately help as well.

Oh, and I'm not finished my degree.

 

[lawtonfogle]

I am planning a second major is Japanese. That should be a fun one.

 

[plantedoak]

I minored in Italian - it was almost a major. Studying abroad for at least a semester definitely helps. Otherwise, the language skills you pick up will be quite rough. I became advanced enough where I took a couple of regular classes taught in the foreign language and did very well listening to the lectures and writing papers. My speaking skills are not that great, though.

 

[MrsSeptemberPenguin]

I'm not doing this, but my best suggesting is to go somewhere you can practice it on a regular basis. I know even 10 days in Mexico helped my Spanish speaking a ton.

 

[Ainuhina]

I'm majoring in English and started doing Japanese about half a year ago as well...

can't say if yoiu will come out fluent...guess it depends on wether you already know the language when starting or how many hours the course is....I had 8 years of English in school before starting at uni...so I'm pretty much fluent...but I also had 4 years of Italian in school and I can't really speak it at all....

so I guess it realy depends on how much time you invest...best is to spend some time in a country where they speak it...that always helps you get fluent and you get to know the culture as well

 

[Windmill]

Indeed, thanks for the responses!

Ainuhina, I see you're taking Japanese, how hard is it?

 

[Apollo Celestio]

I'm going to take Japanese as well. My friend took it and it wasn't too bad for him.

 

[Windmill]

Thats good to hear

 

[Matt.9:22]

I'm looking into majoring in a 2nd language perhaps. I hear its a very demanding sort of a schedules to learn a second language. Has anyone had experience? Do you come out of it fluent? To the point you could translate it easily?

I'm majoring in Spanish and obviously English is my first language. I started learning Spanish during the second semester of my freshman year. I had no grammar or vocabulary foundation whatsoever except for the very tiny bit I had learned simply from living in Texas all of my life (which was not as much as you would think it would've been). It is very time consuming because you have to study a lot in order to memorize vocabulary and to learn the grammar structures. You have to spend a lot of time reading out loud to get a feel for the pronunciation and listening to television shows and music to hear correct pronunciation and practicing your ability to understand the spoken language. Some times you'll feel like you're never going to do it, or even like you're regressing but keep pushing. I also suggest spending time in a country where the natives speak your target language. It does WONDERS. I spent a summer II term in Mexico this past summer (6 weeks) and it was the most amazing experience of my life.
In 2 and a half very short years, I have learned a tremendous amount. I can hold conversations with native speakers for extended periods of times. I still run into patches where I don't have sufficient vocabulary to discuss something, but they're becoming fewer and farther in between. Oh, and yeah, I can translate pretty well if I'm talking to a live person. I still have difficulty with recorded voices, but I'm working through it. So I encourage you to do it. You'll never regret it.

 

[Windmill]

Cool, how do you plan to use it?

 

[Matt.9:22]

Cool, how do you plan to use it?

I'm going to be a teacher. I getting certifications to teach both Spanish and English as a Second Language. The world is quickly globalizing and the fewer languages you speak, the bigger disadvantage you are at. Americans are the only citizens of the world where the majority of the citizens only speak one language. Three languages are the world norm and in some countries people speak up to 6 or 7 languages.

 

[Rut]

I'm looking into majoring in a 2nd language perhaps. I hear its a very demanding sort of a schedules to learn a second language. Has anyone had experience? Do you come out of it fluent? To the point you could translate it easily?

Best way to learn a language are to go to the country.
When I learned my second language (english) my parents forced me one summer to travel to England and livve with a english family without any scandinavia people around.
My third language (german) I learned in school.I`m not so good at it because I haven`t practise that language so much.
My fourth language (arabic) have I learned in the country and I can that language more then german.
So as you see it best to learn a language in the country

 

[frenzy]

I am just starting a Japanese course this fall. Also, I took French in high school. I found that making and using flash cards really helps me a lot when studying a language. Good luck!

 

[Ainuhina]

Ainuhina, I see you're taking Japanese, how hard is it?

escept for the wirting bit and the fact that they not only use their 2 scripts but also the Chinese signs it's really easy....

they just have 2 tenses (past and present) and each has 2 forms (yes and no)...and the rest is just adding the right bits to the word - no irregularities