Languages in Uni

[ReVeL]

Hmm, I've always perceived languages impossible to learn after my 8 years of Italian only leading to me knowing how to count to ten.

However I'm seriously considering giving it another shot.

But... Not Italian.

[cara.mel]

If you're passionate about learning one then you'll probably do a lot better than something you're forced to (I'm assuming a lot of those years are from primary school? After 4 years of Indonesian I can't even reach the count to ten hurdle )

It'd be good for filling up your breadth. If I was forced to do it I'd probably be a copycat and go with japanese - so many smart people there

[ninwa]

That's because primary school language learning is rubbish

At uni, the speed is a lot faster. By the end of this year I would have gone from absolute beginner (i.e. only knew bonjour and merci) to the equivalent of year 10 French level - that's how fast it is. But the teaching is very good, so it doesn't really FEEL fast

[costargh]

how do they teach languages at uni?

I'd be worried that I'd pick up an language and not progress with it no matter how hard I tried.

[ninwa]

Well at monash it's 1 or 2 chapters from the textbook per week, which is then reinforced in a workshop and a tutorial. But a lot of the work you do on your own. That's how it can move so fast without too many contact hours (4 per week for French).

If you're not sure if you can handle a language, you can always go to lectures for other subjects and if you find you just can't learn the language you can always drop it within the first 2 weeks or so and do the other subject

[costargh]

Ah ok. But what I mean is "how" do they teach you French say?

Do they do the alphabet, nouns, verbs etc... or what is the sorta learning structure.

[ninwa]

ummm .... well they teach you the basics of grammar .... and each chapter has a theme to it, for example "food" so all the vocab from that chapter (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs etc.) will have something to do with food .... that's only for French though, I can't speak for the other languages til next year when I do German as well

[costargh]

wow cool

[hard]

considering french

[bturville]

they introduce a (or several) new "structures" each chapter. so one chapter might have basic verb conjugation "i eat, he eats, etc", then something like "there are", and they will add maybe 5 new verbs each chaper (to eat, to speak, to find, etc).

then later on they teach past and future tenses, such as "i will leave", "i was visiting", "i visited". then theres conditional stuff, like "I could", subjunctives, relative pronouns, antecedents, imperetives, adverbs auxillary and participles, imperfect, modal, tenses, indirect and relative pronouns, prepositions, genders of nouns...not to mention vocabulary.

...then you realize how much you've taken speaking english for granted! But really, its not hugely difficult at all, i just wanted to demonstrate the depth that one needs to eventually learn to become fluent in any language.

[costargh]

wow cool. thanks

[Fyrefly]

If I was @ Melb, I would have done Jap as my breadth.

Coz I'm @ Monash, I've chosen 2 do a DipLang (Jap), starting next year (if my re-application is successful ...should b, unless I failed B.Law).
I've had a look @ the 1st semester coursework 4 Monash Jap beginners (JPL1010 ...aka JPL2010, JLG4010 and JLG5010), and it's do-able.
I've been told that the trick 2 doing really well is getting some1 good @ Jap (preferably a native-speaker) 2 practice with u, or make a study group where once a week or something u get 2gether and practice ur conversation and stuff.

[clinton_09]

I'm really keen to learn spanish, next year i'll probably do a short course in beginners spanish at RMIT

[Fyrefly]

ummm .... well they teach you the basics of grammar .... and each chapter has a theme to it, for example "food" so all the vocab from that chapter (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs etc.) will have something to do with food .... that's only for French though, I can't speak for the other languages til next year when I do German as well

As I understand it, with beginner Jap the emphasis is on basic communication ...the grammar and stuff falls in2 place once u get the hang of correct word orders and stuff.
Also... coz Jap words don't exactly have genders (though there are differences in the words females and males use), the real challenge is learning as many bloody kanji as u can and getting ur pronunciation right.

Same contact hours, 4 per week.
1 hr lect, 1 hr tute, 2hr seminar.

[reg]

I 'spose I should mention my experience

I did post-vce French at uom this year, and it was an overall good experience, apart from one thing. It may just have been my bad luck, but for some reason there were quite a few people in my classes who did not belong in the post-vce stream and struggled with basic exercises, often making the classes frustrating to be in. Dunno if this happens in intermediate or even beginner the other way around, anybody else ever felt this way? =\

Perhaps it will go away in 2nd year ...