Econ paper

Wei 2

Keyao Wei

Dr. Raheem

Principles of Economics

3/18/2016

Choosing Optimal Elective Courses Using the Cost-Benefit Principle

At Emerson College, students are required to take 14 courses from the liberal arts curriculum and 12 major courses. The rest are elective courses, which allow individuals to pursue a minor or self-interest. Since I speak another language, I am exempt from the language class. My question is this: Is it worthwhile to use two of my electives to take a language class as my third language at Emerson College? The cost-benefit principle is the concept that is most useful in an analysis of my question. It allows me to list and weigh the marginal costs and benefits before I take an action. The cost-benefit principle means: no action should be taken unless its marginal benefits are at least as great as its marginal costs.

From basic observation, I recognize that I might incur several costs if I take a language courses. First, this would cost me the opportunity to take other elective classes in which I might be interested. The number of elective classes is quite limited, especially for those who want to pursue a minor. Before I make any decision, I would like to throughly considerate that if the marginal benefits are greater than the marginal cost. The direct costs is the financial considerations. Should I spend $5,040 on a language class or a class such as photography? The transaction cost includes a massive amount of time and effort spent on practice. If I spend too much time on homework, I will have less time to go out with friends, participate in any extracurricular activities. These are my opportunity cost because the limitation in time only allows me to do one then the other. Also, there will be less of a chance for me to declare another minor, since my electives are limited. Recognizing psychological effects, learning another language could cause stress and frustration.

The marginal benefits are abstract, but worthy of mindful evaluation. Learning a third language will give me more access to understand other cultural groups in terms of traditions, histories, and human behavior. I have already benefit from the experience of learning English. It has trained me to use a lot of deductive reasoning. Invest in a third language would help me to enlarge my worldview and to be more inclusive of other cultures. I became less subjective in my own opinions, and become more aware of implicit biases. Being able to understand how other people think and function while using their language and its grammatical structures is a good skill to have. I learned to respect and accept thoughts that are different from my original culture background. Therefore, studying a third language will help me communicate my ideas with other non-English speakers. Especially, it gives me more opportunities to make connections with other international students in the Emerson community.

My evaluation, based on the cost-benefit principle, shows me that the marginal benefits of learning a third language are greater than the marginal costs. I value the potential outcome of gaining new experiences and skills over the marginal costs of time and money. I think one’s language and logic influence each other. Therefore, comprehension of multiple languages could enlighten the brain and allow it to think in multiple dimensions, which reinforced one’s reasoning process. I would suggested everyone in the Emerson community to take a language course. Eventually, a student could get to know better about another student who came from a different cultural background. This cultural collaboration celebrates diversity in Emerson.