French/German/Czech/Greek
OK, here's everyone's chance to vote on which language(s) I should take this spring. Maximum of 2.
French: the easiest, but also the most similar to English and Spanish
German: different and I know a good school, but I already spent a couple months on it
Czech: different and I could live way cheap in Prague, but obviously harder and useful only in one place
Greek: I have a head start on it from when I was 16, and Greece is warm, but fairly difficult and again only useful in one place (unless you count Greek root words.)
(This is what my professor at Illinois next year said, if it informs your decision at all. But I would probably use Spanish in my research, which I already know pretty well:
"With respect to the language requirement, it is really up to you. Any of the languages that you have mentioned should be fine. I would, however, go for a language that could potentially fit in within your research plans. Remember that we also have other non-western languages that are taught on campus and some of them come with financial aid. I am talking here about the FLAS fellowships, a federally funded fellowship program that support graduate students’ study of a foreign language (say Hindi, Arabic, Turkish, Quechua etc). Our students in Linguistics have usually done well in the FLAS competition and some of them have gone on to incorporate the languages they have studied in their research")
10 Comments:
I vote for German. For me, it's either German or French, and I think you would have much more fun in Germany.
I'll take your advice- especially considering that you lived in France... sigh, at least someone still reads my blog.
I vote for none of the above. Why take such boring languages?
Try something really different! Russian, Hindi, Mandarin.. I mean, why not? You practically know German and French just from English and Spanish, Czech and Greek would at least be something different and another culture to explore, but aren't you feeling a bit Euro-centric lately?
I vote for Greek or Czech. You can wow people at parties with your fine grasp on foregin tongues.
I'd vote for Greek or Czech. Both are non-Romance languages, so they'd broaden the base of languages you know. (Even German, while technically not a Romance language, is still pretty closely related to English.) All things being equal, I'd say Greek: it's cool, I hear good things about the country, and like you say, it made it into other languages as root words.
On the other hand, Prague is central so it's close to just about everything, and though I've never been, my impression is that its one of Europe's more cosmopolitan cities. Perhaps you could take classes for other languages there. Maybe even something non-Euro-centric.
I'm with Jon. Go for Mandarin, it has the best chance of being globally important, and you could probably get goverment funding for it too. Plus you've already got a fair handle on the main European languages. Except Gaelic. Dein Gaelic ist shcrecklich, und dein tisch tennis auch.
-Peter
Hey lady! Cheers from Copenhagen! I got your note, it's too bad we won't be in the same place at the same time. However if I remember correctly you are in Rochester and I'm in NYC... if you ever wanted to come down for a weekend we can go to Chinatown and pretend were still on the road ;)
Shannon
I say GO CZECH OUT PRAGUE!
For that, Emily must be killed.
(btw - first time i tried to post this comment the "security feature" was impossible to read - qwerqt or quarat or something..)
OK Jon, I'll fix the word identification feature as soon as you stop being a dick.
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