Which 2 languages would be most useful to learn at uni?

See, I've been thinking about doing Russian at uni (with German, which there is NO WAY I'm dropping ) and now I'm wondering if I should go for Czech, Polish or Swedish instead, with this stuff about niche languages. Hmmm.

Depending on the amount of work you're prepared to put in and the university you go to, you may not have to choose one or the other as many places offer modules in Eastern European languages to students of Russian. For example, at Bristol I'll be doing a French and Russian degree, but will also be learning Czech from the second year onwards (you can do it from the first year if you're a sole honours or post A level student). I also nearly applied for French, Russian and Polish at Sheffield.

Another point to consider is that in a languages degree as well as the language itself you also learn the history, politics, literature and culture of the country/countries of where the language is spoken. Personally I think Russia's history and literature are second to none, and primarily why I chose to study it as opposed to any other language. So, if you don't fancy studying both and would prefer to pick just the one language to study alongside German (great choice btw ), then consider which of those appeal to you. It's not a great idea to base the decision on employment prospects either, particularly because Eastern European languages are tricky and require a lot of motivation, and all languages are useful in their own way

chinese is impossible. russian and arabic are bloody hard. You could easily never be fluent in those 3. French and german are the most useful within europe. Spanish is so easy that's is almost a waste of time. Depends why you want to learn them and what kind of job you want.

Are you joking/trolling or being serious?

Serious, I think. I have atempted all of these languages at one point or another and that's my opinion. It's not worth doing a degree in spanish as you can learn it in a summer holiday and it's not as well-respected. Anyone will tell you that chinese, arabic and russian are fiendishly difficult. french and german are useful and do-able.
Of course, if you don't like a language then you shouldn't choose it just because it's useful or easy but i don't see what's so shocking about comparing languages in terms of career prospects and how proficient you're likely to be. Degrees are expensive and if you can't get a job afterwards or if you still can't read a chinese newspaper after 5 years of study some might regret choosing the language they love over a more marketable one. I personally love the mapudungen language but it would be pure folly to devote years of my life to its study.

I think the difficulty of Russian is slightly overstated sometimes, I really do. I can't say what I'd be like at French or German at the same point from the same starting point, but... still...

I hope this is true!
I haven't found it too bad yet, but then I haven't got onto the tricky grammar yet, and all languages are easy at first...

Verbs of motion and aspects are the nastiest I've came across so far. They're really, really nasty, but the rest is definitely manageable with some work.

Oh dear, I'll watch out for those then
Out of interest, what did you find the most difficult about learning English?

Phrasal verbs are the bane of my life

However, and in short, Russian or Arabic would definitely be useful, and combined with French, German or Spanish, it's an excellent degree. However, you have to consider the amount of grammar you will have to put up with those two languages (trust me, it's a lot more than you could ever imagine), and if you're still up for it, try taking evening classes to see which one you prefer/if there's another you'd rather have instead.

A bit about Arabic as well: At university you will learn Modern Standard Arabic, which is one of the gazillion different Arabics you can find, and is one of the closest to Qu'ranic Arabic, meaning it's reaaally heavy on grammar. Problem is, it's used in the media and… well, that's about it. Each Arab country will speak its own dialect, and if most of the population can understand MSA, you won't be able to understand them with just that. So, unfortunately, you will have to specialise and choose one area of the Middle East:

East Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia
Egypt
Levant: Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria
Gulf: Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain

It seems ok, but when you end up at university, you sometimes wonder why you decided to go through the hassle of learning MSA when it's not *that* used and causes so much troubles…

Russian, on the other hand, is completely different but equally fascinating. If you've had experience of German, Latin or Greek, you'll find the same declensions system, and the language is a lot closer to European languages than Arabic is (and a hell of a lot less confusing as well).

However, for both those languages, don't expect to reach an amazing level at the end of your degree, even with a year abroad. They're the kind of languages that take ages to speak correctly, so don't put your hopes up too much, you won't be nearly as good in them as you would in a European language, but that shouldn't make them any more useless.

EDIT: Oh and if you have any question about Russian or Arabic at uni, just ask

what's your first language?

Wow I can't believe you study both Russian and Arabic! Did you know either before university or did you start from scratch?

I've applied to do Spanish and Russian, but I was torn between choosing Russian and Arabic when applying, I still really want to learn Arabic. I was just wondering which do you prefer? And which do you find harder? I know people say they're both exceedingly difficult!

I was born and raised in England but my parents are from Hong Kong, so I can speak Chinese (Cantonese, the less spoken one unfortunately but similar enough to Mandarin!), so I am familiar with a different writing system etc. I agree with the others your English is really good! I didn't even realise you weren't a native speaker and I was a bit confused at one point in the thread lol.

xxx

my voice doesn't really agree with French somehow, I don't sound beautiful and romantic, haha.

Phrasal verbs are the bane of my life

I know this is ridiculous, coming from a native English speaker, but what are phrasal verbs? Example, please???


Also, I was wondering, seeing as youre a french speaker, when translationg something from russian, do you put it into french first, then english? or straight into french?

French

this is so me. SO ME.

i actually cant pronounce french words.