my fall schedule??? take a look please.

[Doc.Holliday]

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-Cellular biochemistry
-Spanish conversation
-Elementary french
-Elementary german
-Elementary chinese

errr... it just looks funny to me, scary even. so far (im a sophomore) ive taken 85% science courses, and used up any extra time knocking out core curriculum requirements. so now im finished all that, for my cell major i need one bio class a semester, and otherwise i have absolute free reign. thats such a wierd feeling after having my first two years almost totally set out for me. anyway, my real passion (outside of biology obviously) is language. I have taken spanish for several years, and have an informal knowledge of french (i can understand a lot, speak some, but never learned grammar and such). so, naturally i'll be taking lots of languages. but for some reason it scares me and i need a second opinion before i register. i mean, id say being pentalingual is an obvious hook, and yes i do really plan on being near fluent in all of these, i have a very diverse group of friends and i plan on spending some time in the respective countries. anyway, thoughts?

 

[Blue Scrub]

Hey, if you've taken most of your science classes, and hopefully did well in them....then by all means, do whatever is your passion if you have the freedom to do so....that would be awesome to be fluent in all those languages, and would you make you a unique candidate were you to apply to med schools.....I say go for it! Good luck! 👍

 

[beep]

if i were you i would try to learn 4 languages more sequentially. maybe just pick, say, 2, and take a culture/history class to deepen the experience. as a practical matter, i think it'd be hard to keep all that straight, especially at a basic level. the closer you get to immersion, the easier languages are to learn, and 5 at once is far from it!

 

[ishaninatte]

Yea, I think that's good advice. It will be impossible to use all of those languages at once, and fluency necessitates constant use.

 

[Medikit]

Cellular biochemistry should be like a language class in its own right. I definitely would back off on your classes.

 

[Ambs]

Too many different language classes. You'll get confused! To learn a language, you must practice it, i.e. actually use it, daily, and I think taking those languages all at once wouldn't make this entirely possible.

 

[bbaek]

drop 3 languages. pick one. language takes a lot of time. you will be spread too thin.

take more bio classes instead.

 

[indiaberry]

Take more biology classes to fill up your free electives courses. Med school might be impress by that.

 

[biendesalud]

If you want to take more than one language, I would say to always keep the Spanish strong and improving (i.e. find a clinic that serves the Latino population and learn more medical Spanish), then take one other at a time. If you take Chinese, you definitely won't get them confused. If you feel that French or German is more interesting/useful then pick one of those. You might also look into taking a linguistics course that would give you some background and connections between different languages.

 

[Perrin]

Take french and spanish. Both are similar enough that you won't have too much of a problem. Take a class that deals with the culture of a language. I took business spanish and learned a lot about familial relationships, business practices, and society in the hispanic world. Plus, hispanic women are hotties. 😀

 

[Stax]

Great that you are taking some language. I was a Greek and Roman (with Latin concentration) studies major in undergrad and am now a 4th year medical student trying to match in dermatology. French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, and Romanian are all Romance languages and thus in some way compliment each other having all stemmed from Latin, etc.
I know that you don't speak Latin, and I know all the arguments against it but I contend it really does help you learn other languages if you have the time to spend...more for the long term than the short term, though.
-Stax