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Learning a second language in college/study abroad

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appa
Posts: 2249 - Karma: 1,739
have any of you done it on the side while working on a separate major/minor? just trying to feel out if it'd be doable to begin enrolling in foreign language classes for my elective credits and after a few semesters gain enough knowledge to submerge myself in a language either through travel or study abroad. anyone with study abroad stories?? anyone have experience with rosetta stone?

for the record i'm interested in travel in asia and the middle east so i'm leaning towards japanese, arabic, or farsi. my school unfortunately doesn't have a thai program.
Sep 26 2013 11:13PM
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Wallisch_pl
Posts: 5260 - Karma: 1,022
Well my sister went to Italy, and she never took a language class, she used Rosetta Stone and it helped her a lot, I'd suggest the same thing
Sep 26 2013 11:18PM
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DasGoatenshafter
Posts: 580 - Karma: 307
I don't know how much I can tell you about learning a language off the bat in college, but my brother enrolled in french immersion at my university (University of Ottawa) to try and master french and he still managed to get the top mark GPA in his program despite something of a language barrier. He also was fluent in spanish because he spent a year in Argentina in high school and did a lot of french in high school too so that helped.

I'd say that if you can manage a full 8 month exchange or an international coop followed by an exchange (my brother just did one in Paris) and spend time working on the language there's no reason why you couldn't learn the basics. Lots of schools will let you pass/fail your credits if they aren't in your first language too.

As long as you work really hard at it, there's no reason you couldn't pick it up.
Sep 26 2013 11:23PM
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Rachy
Posts: 4355 - Karma: 2,761
I'm currently learning French, German, and starting on Russian. I'm doing it all on my own though. I downloaded a learn french book and a learn german book. Found a Level 1 German workbook. Downloaded a bunch of french music and a bunch of foreign films.

The biggest help is that I downloaded this app quizlet and have a ton of french, german, and russian flashcard sets that I do when I'm waiting for anything. It's making a HUGE difference. The app speaks the words as well, so I'm learning pretty fast.

I also reached out to my friends and have a few french speakers, a few german speakers and a russian speaker that send me messages/talk to me on Facebook and so forth.

I'm learning a lot more and retaining a lot more than when I took actual Spanish classes in school.

If you aren't getting credit for it, I wouldn't take a class because being forced to learn at a certain pace will only stress you out. If you can get credit, go for it, but start learning as soon as you can because if you already have a difficult workload and you want to maintain your grades, language classes take a lot of work.
Sep 26 2013 11:26PM
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SteevJee
Posts: 1916 - Karma: 144
First off, Rosetta Stone will get you next to nowhere. It's good for learning some things like words, but to actually learn the language it won't get the trick done. Second off, it will only be worth it if you can actually spend a good amount of time submerged in the language. So, if you can take the classes and spend a good amount of time with native speakers then i'd say go for it. One other thing, do you fully understand how difficult it is to learn some of those languages that you mentioned. I know plenty of people that have spent a year or so living in Japan, and barely had the language down. However, if you're determined to do it then go for it.

There is so much more to learning a foreign language than simply learning a few words and sentence structure. I spent a few years down in Chile, and it was far from easy to learn spanish and then be able speak it fluently. It took me months of not speaking a word of English, and only Spanish to get to a point where I felt comfortable expressing myself.
Sep 27 2013 3:02AM
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Wallisch_pl
Posts: 5260 - Karma: 1,022
I don't think many people really want to learn the language fully considering that will take you 3+ years
Sep 27 2013 9:51AM
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