College Class question

So i need to take two foreign language classes. I am a native Spanish speaker. I moved here and finish 9th grade in the US. I feel like the easy thing to do is take Spanish, but i feel very unoriginal by doing that. The other language im interested in is Arabic, but obviously it would be hard. But i need to seem appealing to the prospective Law Schools that i will be applying to in the future and i feel like if i take the easy route itll seem lazy and pure convenience.

I am sure someone has been in my same spot before, does anyone care to give me your opinion?

Thanks in advance!

Are you also proficient in reading and writing in Spanish? I've known a lot of people who speak Spanish but can't write in Spanish - at least to the point of being able to teach a class on it. If they offered a class in my native language, I would jump on it just because I only went to school until the 5th grade there and know little academically about it.

If it were me for the 2nd language, I'd pick something I could actually practice once the class had ended. I took German in High School and never had a chance to work on it...probably should have took Spanish. A lot of people do take Chinese, Arabic or other non-western alphabet language. Chinese is probably useful with businesses that have companies there.

My situation was rather unique but similar to yours. Grab a coffee its a long one.

I was dual enrolled in the local community college in High School. I was going there full time working towards an associates and my HS Diploma simultaneously. Unfortunately, I hadn't finished the 2nd of my two required foreign language credits. Because my HS at the time only offered Spanish, the obvious route that the admins set me up for was to complete the second Spanish credit at the CC (and for whatever reason, the CC insisted I start at the Elementary level since I had only taken Spanish I)

Anyway.

At the beginning of the class the professor handed out a questionnaire. We weren't required to fill it out. But were strongly encouraged to if we met one of the following criteria.

• are of Hispanic/Latino heritage who grew up in a Spanish speaking household
• Lived in a Spanish speaking country (even if didn't attend school there)
• or took AP level Spanish courses, even if never sat the AP test.

The reason for this was that saying yes to any of these, per the school's policy, would require a placement test be taken to determine if you are sitting the appropriate level Spanish class.

I took the test and tested out of all of their classes (the High School wasn't happy with the CC or me for not telling them I placed out. They had to scramble to register me for any BS class to keep my full time status, and made me take Spanish II online over the summer, lol).

Here is the flaw I find with this kind of testing though. I can't actually write well in Spanish despite passing the test. I was only able to pass it because I read a lot of Spanish football (soccer) articles. Read enough and you get an idea for what "sounds" right. The test was fill in the blank and these kinds of tests can be gamed if you have an idea of what the excerpt is talking about. So I tested out of the advanced classes even though I would only be able to string together a small paragraph with no regard to grammar or accent conventions what so ever.

What does this mean for you??

Find out if your college offers a language placement test. Or sit the CLEP (a College Board exam, same as the guys who issue the SAT) and recive credits that are recognized nationwide instead of just at your college. (I never sat the CLEP).

If you don't place out of all the classes, take the spanish class. On your transcript it will show that you tested out of the lower level Spanish classes.

On it will read something like

SPA 111 - NCCE (non course credit equivalency - basically meaning you tested out of it)
SPA 112 - NCCE
SPA 211 - NCCE
SPA 212 - NCCE
SPA 251 - A
SPA 252 - A (for when you actually take a class)

There is no shame in "perfecting" your Spanish competency at a starting point that is appropriate - no college will ever fault you for this. Its like faulting someone for taking additional English classes beyond whats required for a degree. Advanced classes get more nuanced, and you'll be writing more papers.

With that in mind, lets address the topic of Arabic

If you want to learn Arabic, go that route. Forget everything I said above. HOWEVER, I don't think you'll get a particularly enriching experience, given that 2 language credits is a poor way to dedicating to getting started on a language. You'll likely get more out of the 2 credits upping your Spanish level if there is any room to, than you will learning the elementary Arabic.

BUT I have another caveat for you. What I said above is academic enrichment. If you want to do Arabic for personal enrichment, learn Arabic.

I am a language hobbyist. In addition to Spanish, I speak Portuguese, German, and Japanese, but am [partially] illiterate in the latter. And I have no plans to become literate either. Why? Because as the label implies, I'm a hobbyist. I find the real reason people have difficulty with a language is because they wind up picking up a language they have no interest in learning. I'm often told to learn Mandarin, because China's economic power or whatever. But I don't care about that. Nor do I care if it looks impressive for an employer or a graduate school. I can't list my languages on a resume as I have no formal education or certifications in them. Though, if I ever need to it'll be easier to power through grammar already having a working conversational knowledge of the language whilst being able to comprehend what I read as well.

Which brings us to the last point. Law School. You should be more worried about researching what it takes to get a Merit-Based scholarship at at Top-14 School. If you want to practice law, I think California is the only state where you can actually be licensed atm. Though to be honest I don't know how DACA affects our ability to license in other sates. So getting into a T-14 school in California (due to the networking connections) would likely be optimal.

To get a scholarship your LSAT score has to be above your target school's median LSAT scores, as this affects their US News Rankings. Which as you probably know is THE ranking system for schools in the country.

A 4.0 will not get you a scholarship. An LSAT of 170+ will for lower table T-14 school, and a 175+ will get you a scholarship pretty much anywhere as even Yale and Harvard LSAT medians are only 173. The Spanish vs Arabic will be a moot point. Decide what is more important to you. Having a solid career level Spanish, or working conversational knowledge of Arabic? Neither is right or wrong. You just have to know what you value more. And if your Spanish is good enough to test out, 75% of this post can be ignored. As from there you simply take the CLEP or learn Arabic.