Winter Intensive- Languages

[clarke54321]

As the title reads, has anyone had much experience with language, winter intensive subjects? If so, I'd greatly appreciate your insight- both the good and the bad 

[esile52]

I know quite a few people who have done intensive languages over the winter and/or summer and they have really enjoyed it! It's good in the sense that you will have  two or so weeks of class where you're really immersed in the language and you're more likely to be able to focus your studies on that one subject. I've been conflicted in the past regarding how much time to spend studying my language subject during semester as it was significantly easier than my engineering subjects and hence I prioritised them. So, I would strongly recommend the intensive! What level of language and which language are you planning on doing?

About me: during VCE I did a week-long course for French, and found that my French improved significantly over that short period due to the near-constant stimulus. I've also done Italian 1-4 at uni and beginning Spanish 1 this semester, all as breadth subjects.

[clarke54321]

I know quite a few people who have done intensive languages over the winter and/or summer and they have really enjoyed it! It's good in the sense that you will have  two or so weeks of class where you're really immersed in the language and you're more likely to be able to focus your studies on that one subject. I've been conflicted in the past regarding how much time to spend studying my language subject during semester as it was significantly easier than my engineering subjects and hence I prioritised them. So, I would strongly recommend the intensive! What level of language and which language are you planning on doing?

About me: during VCE I did a week-long course for French, and found that my French improved significantly over that short period due to the near-constant stimulus. I've also done Italian 1-4 at uni and beginning Spanish 1 this semester, all as breadth subjects.

Thanks very much for the insight, esile- I greatly appreciate it

Your experiences regarding the French intensive course is particularly encouraging for me, given that I'm intending on undertaking intensive French (beginners). I've been trying to learn some basics over the past couple of weeks and haven't found the grammar structures as overwhelming as initially anticipated. I think that's partly due to my knowledge of the German language, which I also seek to start up again in the second semester.

During Italian 1, did you find that the main things covered were grammatical structures, basic phrases and maybe some cultural background? I'm just trying to gauge the general outline of the beginner subjects.

[esile52]

Level one languages at uni usually focus on the present tense, the past tense (passé composé in french) and possibly the imperfect (imparfait) tense. You'll spend a lot of time learning the articles (le, la, les) as well as numbers and basic adjectives (e.g. big, small, tall etc.). Overall, I think you'll find it rather easy as you've already learnt a language and that will put you ahead of most of the class as most people entering the level one language probably haven't learnt a language before.

If you want a run-down of exactly what you'll learn, check out the unimelb handbook for the subject

Hope this helps and best of luck (:
If you have any language/French questions, feel free to message me

[esile52]

The most important thing is that you keep up with the work. Just like all subjects, if you fall more than a few classes behind, the workload becomes quite large. It should be one of the easier subjects you take during your degree, and I think you should absolutely do it! You'll be fine, especially if you have a little interest in learning languages already (:

The assignments are usually small (e.g. 300 words) which is quite easy to do if you elaborate a lot. i.e. if the assignment is about describing your family, don't just say 'My family consists of two sisters, a mum, and a dad.' Elaborate by saying 'I have an older and a younger sister, one is 20 years old and studies x, the other is in year 10 of high school and enjoys playing netball...' Do you see how quickly that one sentence summarising your family turned into a larger one that only spoke about your hypothetical sisters?

Being able to study a language is a wonderful opportunity so I would definitely encourage it !

[vox nihili]

As the title reads, has anyone had much experience with language, winter intensive subjects? If so, I'd greatly appreciate your insight- both the good and the bad 

Hey sorry I missed this! I’ve done one of these! I’ve done a summer language intensive (Spanish 3/4...doesn’t exist anymore) and a winter language intensive (Ancient Greek). Two very different experiences, the latter being a lot more intense.

What were you thinking of doing? (Sorry if you’ve already said and I missed it!)

[clarke54321]

Hey sorry I missed this! I’ve done one of these! I’ve done a summer language intensive (Spanish 3/4...doesn’t exist anymore) and a winter language intensive (Ancient Greek). Two very different experiences, the latter being a lot more intense.

What were you thinking of doing? (Sorry if you’ve already said and I missed it!)

Hey- no worries!

I'm fairly certain that I'm going to do the French winter intensive. Wow, Ancient Greek and Spanish must have been fascinating languages to study. Do you find that UoM manages winter/summer intensives, and languages in general for that matter, well? Lack of structure is probably my main apprehension.

[vox nihili]

Hey- no worries!

I'm fairly certain that I'm going to do the French winter intensive. Wow, Ancient Greek and Spanish must have been fascinating languages to study. Do you find that UoM manages winter/summer intensives, and languages in general for that matter, well? Lack of structure is probably my main apprehension.

Wasn’t even aware there was a French winter intensive. That’s great! They introduced an Italian winter intensive in my last year which would have been fantastic in hindsight


In terms of organisation, it very much depends on the person in charge and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the school. You’d hope that those who put together the intensive were a little more alive to the idea that their subject can be very high pressure and thus more likely to organise things well. This was certainly the experience I had with Spanish and Ancient Greek, both of which were very challenging but also very well structured.

Intensive Spanish was probably my favourite subject in my degree. The feeling of improving your skills so quickly and being able to devote so much to one subject was actually really great.