I'd like to take both Spanish and German in college. How should I space it?

**DaGeek** · 09-30-2007, 02:46 PM

Hey, I'm planning on going to college within a year or two, and I'd also like to take both German and Spanish in college. My main question is this: Should I take them at the same time, or take one, then the other? Is there an advantage to either method? Thanks for your time

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**JayCarrFan** · 09-30-2007, 02:58 PM

I see no real advantage to taking them at the same time. The don't have the same language group, so I can only seeing it being more confusing to take simultaneously.

What major are you going for?

**DaGeek** · 09-30-2007, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayCarrfan

I see no real advantage to taking them at the same time. The don't have the same language group, so I can only seeing it being more confusing to take simultaneously.

What major are you going for?

I'd like some sort of Computer Science major. I haven't really 100% decided or anything, and college is still a year or two away.

bobthecockroach · 10-01-2007, 07:53 AM

I would say not to do them at the same time.

Dr. Worm · 10-01-2007, 11:51 AM

I would say that it probably won't make as big a difference as one might think, and you should do whichever works out better with scheduling your other classes.

**DaGeek** · 10-01-2007, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

I would say not to do them at the same time.

Any particular reason? If it helps, I've taken a little bit of Spanish already, so I have some of the basics of the language structure down.

Reedolo · 10-01-2007, 03:09 PM

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DaGeek

Hey, I'm planning on going to college within a year or two, and I'd also like to take both German and Spanish in college. My main question is this: Should I take them at the same time, or take one, then the other? Is there an advantage to either method? Thanks for your time

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Go right ahead! I am a Spanish major and I'm thinking about adding a German minor or major in addition to that, or perhaps a German minor and a business double major. I've already started learning some German on my own and it isn't confusing my Spanish at all. Learning two languages like Spanish and Portuguese at the same time might be confusing because they're so similar, but since Spanish and German are quite different I don't think you will get the two confused at all. At least, it hasn't been a problem for me.

What do you want to do, exactly? Do you want to study languages exclusively, or are you going to major in something else, too?

Reedolo · 10-01-2007, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayCarrfan

I see no real advantage to taking them at the same time. The don't have the same language group, so I can only seeing it being more confusing to take simultaneously.

Actually, I think the fact that they're not in the same language group would make it less confusing to study them both at the same time.

**DaGeek** · 10-01-2007, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reedolo

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Go right ahead! I am a Spanish major and I'm thinking about adding a German minor or major in addition to that, or perhaps a German minor and a business double major. I've already started learning some German on my own and it isn't confusing my Spanish at all. Learning two languages like Spanish and Portuguese at the same time might be confusing because they're so similar, but since Spanish and German are quite different I don't think you will get the two confused at all. At least, it hasn't been a problem for me.

What do you want to do, exactly? Do you want to study languages exclusively, or are you going to major in something else, too?

I'm planning on majoring in something like Computer Science or Physics. However, since I'm very interested in learning a few languages (such as Spanish, and maybe German, haven't really decided yet. I may want to do Arabic instead of German.), I'd like to take them on the side, not necessarily for a minor or anything (though that would be an interesting prospect I'm going to look into), but because I want to learn them.

Reedolo · 10-01-2007, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaGeek

I'm planning on majoring in something like Computer Science or Physics. However, since I'm very interested in learning a few languages (such as Spanish, and maybe German, haven't really decided yet. I may want to do Arabic instead of German.), I'd like to take them on the side, not necessarily for a minor or anything (though that would be an interesting prospect I'm going to look into), but because I want to learn them.

Have you considered doing an exchange program and studying computer science or physics for a couple of years in Germany or a Spanish-speaking country? You'll learn a language much faster if you spend time in a country where they speak it. I have a friend who lived in Germany for 2 years going to school there, and now she speaks fluent German and she's finishing her degree at my university.

If you take something like Arabic, I would recommend taking it by itself, because unlike Spanish and German it's not even in the same language family as English and it will be much harder for you to learn.

**DaGeek** · 10-01-2007, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reedolo

Have you considered doing an exchange program and studying computer science or physics for a couple of years in Germany or a Spanish-speaking country? You'll learn a language much faster if you spend time in a country where they speak it. I have a friend who lived in Germany for 2 years going to school there, and now she speaks fluent German and she's finishing her degree at my university.

Depending on what college I go to, an exchange program doesn't sound like a bad idea. I wonder if that would coincide negatively with an Army ROTC program...

Quote:

If you take something like Arabic, I would recommend taking it by itself, because unlike Spanish and German it's not even in the same language family as English and it will be much harder for you to learn.

That makes sense. Perhaps I'll just focus on one language, such as Spanish, during college, then maybe try to learn another afterwards. I once tried to figure some Hebrew out with a book and tape I was given... It didn't work out very well. It was so different from our alphabet, I wasn't even sure how to pronounce anything whatsoever.

Reedolo · 10-01-2007, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaGeek

Depending on what college I go to, an exchange program doesn't sound like a bad idea. I wonder if that would coincide negatively with an Army ROTC program...

That makes sense. Perhaps I'll just focus on one language, such as Spanish, during college, then maybe try to learn another afterwards. I once tried to figure some Hebrew out with a book and tape I was given... It didn't work out very well. It was so different from our alphabet, I wasn't even sure how to pronounce anything whatsoever.

If you want to get used to non-Latin writing system, i recommend learning Tolkien's Tengwar script for English. It's a system for writing in English with Tolkien's Elvish script. I like it a lot.

It's pretty. And it's especially useful if you want to keep a diary that you don't want anyone else in your house to be able to read.. and they won't be able to unless of course they also learn how to read Tengwar, which is unlikely cause only super-geeky people learn it.

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengwar

http://www.geocities.com/tengwar2001/pubs.htm

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar_eng.htm

http://www.skymind.com/~ocrow/tengwar/intro.html

It's not like learning another language because you're just learning how to write in English using a different script other than the Latin one that we usually use.

There are different modes and stuff, but I won't get into that unless someone is just really interested and wants to ask me about it.