Extra Language Module

Kurtosis

Sorry to clutter up the board further with another Fresher's question, I know ye non-Freshers are surely sick of them all by now, so I shall try make this brief.

Got a letter giving me the option to sign up to do a language module apart from my actual degree (I'm doing something scienc-y). I was going to do a non-beginners French module but I'm just wondering if I'll have enough time/enough work.

Just wondering has anyone done this in previous years? I know the module classes themselves are 2 hours, but is there a large workload outside these classes. Any other info/advice on the matter?

Stargal

What course are you doing exactly? Cos maybe if someone is doing it they could tell you how much free time you will have for extra-curricular stuff.

To be honest though, I find that you can always make time for the things that you want to do. I did the beginners German module in first year and really enjoyed it and it only took about an hour a week in addition to the class time, which is nothing really.

Give it a go, see how you get on. You can always drop out if its not what you expected or if you find that you don't have enough time to concentrate on your course.

kazbegi

Yeah apologies for adding to yet-another-fresher's-thread™* - about non-beginners french, I only have a GCSE.. I know its not leaving cert standard, do you think they'll let me do it?




*not actually ™ed

dreambrook

Actually A GCSE is around the same level as ordinary level Leaving Cert I think they will, just put it in the form.

littlehedgehog

I began to do it last year, but dropped out. Most people I know dropped out, but I don't think it was because of the workload.. I just found the thought of going in for another two hours (when I was off for a few hours before) depressing. I wasn't a huge fan of the teacher, or the way the class was taught either.
An idea would be to actually sign up, go to a few classes and see how it sits with you - it's very different to how leaving cert was taught. If you like it, then maybe you won't mind the extra couple of hours work. Also, you'll get a card that allows you access to the CLCS library which has foreign DVDs, books, computer programmes and magazines and other stuff like that - it's a really cool place to pass an hour or two if you're waiting around for a lecture, or something, and you're improving your language at the same time!

kazbegi

Jean, was that non-beginners french that you didn't have a positive experience with? Starting to have second thoughts..

Can someone explain extra languages to me cos I'm rather confused. (I know, easily done..) First of all there was an evening courses booklet with things like greek and japanese and russian in it, running one or two evenings a week with a fee of about €500 for the year. Then there was a registration form in the orientation booklet for extra languages modules in things like french, german, italian, spanish and randomly turkish, for free. Then there is this page with things like arabic for €25 a class.

Think I might just take up fencing instead....

littlehedgehog

Yeah, it was the non beginners - but don't judge by me! You'll have absolutely nothing to lose by signing up. It's free, after all!
And that page is a society page - Modern Languages - they run classes too.. but at a price, as you've seen

If you're thinking about learning something new and language-y, don't rule out the Sign Language Society.

kazbegi

Probably a stupid question.. but anyone know if the modern language society is €25 per class or per course..? beginners arabic or spanish would probably be more interesting than french..!

sully-gormo

Ya im planning on doing the french one, anyone find them any good?

ApeXaviour

kazbegi wrote:

Probably a stupid question.. but anyone know if the modern language society is €25 per class or per course..? beginners arabic or spanish would probably be more interesting than french..!

I did beginners japanese two years ago with them. I cant remember exactly how much was paid but it wasn't much and it was paid per term as opposed to per class. There being 3 terms in trinity's academic year. Very affordable as it's non profit, they just pay the teacher (usually a tcd student themselves) a reasonable amount.

kazbegi

Do you reckon the course was worth doing.. I mean did you learn a fair bit of japanese?

Andrew 83

I did the French course you can do in BESS in first year but didn't take up the option to do it in second year too. I found it was based too much around talking about Business in French and related topics and wasn't mad on the teaching methods either so didn't feel like doing it again. A pure language course without a subject based approach (I wasn't expecting one) would probably be better. Maybe see if it's French about Science?

Stargal

kazbegi wrote:

Can someone explain extra languages to me cos I'm rather confused. (I know, easily done..) First of all there was an evening courses booklet with things like greek and japanese and russian in it, running one or two evenings a week with a fee of about €500 for the year.

That's an evening class taught in conjunction with the relevant language departments afaik. Don't bother spending that much money when you get do a similar course for cheap/free.

kazbegi wrote:

Then there was a registration form in the orientation booklet for extra languages modules in things like french, german, italian, spanish and randomly turkish, for free.

That's the one that most people here are talking about. Usually taught by a Teaching Assistant from the relevant department, the standard varies depending on the instructor. You get use of the CLCS as Jean pointed out which is handy if you want to do some extra work. Class is two hours a week and then you'll usually have homework which should take under an hour. I did the beginners German class in first year, liked it a lot, got a 2:1 and a nice certificate at the end of the year.

kazbegi wrote:

Then there is this page with things like arabic for €25 a class.

The courses being offered by the ModLang each year varies, as it depends on which teachers they manage to get and if they get enough people for each class. Talk to them at their stand in Freshers Week to get more info, or email them.

ApeXaviour

kazbegi wrote:

Do you reckon the course was worth doing.. I mean did you learn a fair bit of japanese?

It was a conversational based class with 8 students. The teacher was a japanese girl in the same year and course as me, but she did different subjects so I didn't know her that well. Learned how to read hiragana and katakana (two large japanese alphabets in which each symbol represents a constonant and vowel eg "ka" "pi" "sho" etc) and how to have a very basic conversation: greetings, about yourself, politeness, grammer, syntax, conversation practice etc. Was just starting on verbs when we finished up.

It's probably the best value for money language course you can get.

Papillon87

If I'm doing English and French as my course is there any way I can do Irish at college? Or would I hae to do it outside college? Thanks

d4gurl

Can you pick up two languages?

kazbegi

stargal wrote:

That's an evening class taught in conjunction with the relevant language departments afaik. Don't bother spending that much money when you get do a similar course for cheap/free.

Would that be the general consensus among everyone with experience of these things? (That the quality / content isn't much different between the paid evening course and the free undergrad module?)

Makes sense.. the thing is that I want to do Russian and it's not offered under the free departmental thing, and also a relative who speaks russian has offered to pay for it for me so money not really an issue, for once =>!

jimhendrix

I'm confused. Did everyone get one of these letters because I'd definately be up for an extra language module. It was mentioned that there would be an option to study French or German with my course (restriced to a certain amount of students) but I've heard little about it. Is this meant to be sorted out before registration?

kazbegi

Yeah as far as I remember the form had to be in by the 25th sept.. might vary between faculties

jimhendrix

Where can you get these forms? I never got one!!!:eek:

nervous_twitch

Righto, quick question, if I'm studying French/Spanish, can I take up Irish in the Extra Language Module?? - the form said something about these classes only being available to students who arent studying anouther language

Kurtosis

I'm doing Pharmacy, which will take up a fair bit of time as it is (32-35 hours I've read), so hanging around waiting for evening classes shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I'm gonna sign up and give it a whirl, see how things go. Thank you all very much for all the advice!

---

Righto, quick question, if I'm studying French/Spanish, can I take up Irish in the Extra Language Module?? - the form said something about these classes only being available to students who arent studying anouther language

Nope you can't. I was in the same situation. It's grossly unfair TBH. Just because I study 2 languages doesn't mean I don't have the right to do another one. The reasoning behind it is ridiculous. They don't offer free evening courses in business, or computers or sociology for people who study languages do they? Yet people studying those things can take up a language which will be of benefit to them. Not fair at all.

What I did was take up Italian classes through the modern language society, but be aware it's nowhere near as good as the language modules. There's only 6 classes per term or something, no homework and you don't get anything at the end.

Crash

Hrmm - beginners german this year for me methinks

Papillon87

Gianluca Fluffy Goose-step wrote:

Nope you can't. I was in the same situation. It's grossly unfair TBH. Just because I study 2 languages doesn't mean I don't have the right to do another one. The reasoning behind it is ridiculous. They don't offer free evening courses in business, or computers or sociology for people who study languages do they? Yet people studying those things can take up a language which will be of benefit to them. Not fair at all.

What I did was take up Italian classes through the modern language society, but be aware it's nowhere near as good as the language modules. There's only 6 classes per term or something, no homework and you don't get anything at the end.

If I'm doing Eng/French I assume the same applies to me then? Gah that is so unfair! Anyone know of any good places to do Irish around town?

jimhendrix

I'm panicking here, I was told I have an option to do French with my course but got no form or anything. How do I sign up for these? Do I have to go in to Trinity?

Kurtosis

First I heard about me being able to do it was when I got the info pack from Trinity. What course are you doing? You might want to ring up in Trinity and enquire if you are eligible and if there was perhaps an error made in not sending the form out.

I don't think English would count as a 'language' but I'm not sure. I think they mean people studying foreign languages who therefore have access to the CLCS room.

sully-gormo

jimhendrix wrote:

I'm panicking here, I was told I have an option to do French with my course but got no form or anything. How do I sign up for these? Do I have to go in to Trinity?

All freshers got a form in those orientation packs they sent us a week back.

If ya want to study irish you could always join an cumann gaelach, they do weekly conversation sessions which would be great for improviing irish. If you have good irish already that would be a great way to keep it all up.

estilos

Not all fresher's were sent forms, I wasn't, but you can email the people who run the courses at clcsinfo@tcd.ie if you want to apply.

Papillon87

Gianluca Fluffy Goose-step wrote:

I don't think English would count as a 'language' but I'm not sure. I think they mean people studying foreign languages who therefore have access to the CLCS room.

Yes, but because I'm doing French as well would I still be ineligible? I'm so confused, I might just ring in the morning.

sully-gormo wrote:

If ya want to study irish you could always join an cumann gaelach, they do weekly conversation sessions which would be great for improviing irish. If you have good irish already that would be a great way to keep it all up.

Great, thanks! Still hoping I might be able to do it in Trinity tho!

No I think it's only if you do 2 languages. It's a really stupid rule. My friend did History of Art and French, and she was able to do the Italian course, so I think you'll probably be OK!

NADA

I am doing COmputer Science, Lingusistics and German. Will I be able to do the beginners Italian. By the way I got no forms.

You might be able to. Not being sent any forms doesn't really mean anything since I got them despite not being able to take the modules. Best to ring them and see.

kazbegi

Sorry to bring up the evening courses again - can someone tell me does extra-mural ('beyond walls'?) mean that you do it just for the craic but don't get a certificate or classification for the course?

Thanks - you people are great.

Sawa

i'd love to do beginners german as an extra module but im doing classics and greek, its ancient greek.
does this count as a language insofar as im not eligible for german classes?
i should call up but seeing as there is a thread here and all!

Stargal

kazbegi wrote:

Sorry to bring up the evening courses again - can someone tell me does extra-mural ('beyond walls'?) mean that you do it just for the craic but don't get a certificate or classification for the course?

You do get a certificate at the end of the course which shows the grade that you got, but extra-mural means that it's outside of your curriculum so won't count towards any part of your actual grade for your course.

Sawa wrote:

i'd love to do beginners german as an extra module but im doing classics and greek, its ancient greek. does this count as a language insofar as im not eligible for german classes? i should call up but seeing as there is a thread here and all!

Think you really would be better off just ringing the CLCS with that one, cos don't think anyone will be able to answer that one for you!

CLCS Tel: 896 1560

Aside: It's strange that not everyone got the forms about the language courses...

Dave Larkin

Thanks for all the information on this, guys. I'm planning to do the non-beginners French one, so I'll be seeing a lot of you there, I suppose.:D

Crash

actually whats the story with returning students applying for said courses?

cianclarke

I didn't get an info pack either - but was def. interested in the German for non-beginners. Rung the above number (N.B. 01 prefix incase anybody misses out on that bit) - they signed me up over the phone.

Pitseleh

I applied for the German course for beginners myself - I assume they don't count English Literature as a language...right? Anyhoo, did anyone hear back whether they were accepted for the course yet? If not, any idea when we'll know, those non-freshers who've done these courses before?

Papillon87

Ok I'm signing up for Irish, but there are three levels :elementary, intermediate and advanced. I'm not sure which one I should go for as I'm not sure what to expect standard wise from each of the three. Does anyone have any idea?

nervous_twitch

Gianluca Fluffy Goose-step wrote:

Nope you can't. I was in the same situation. It's grossly unfair TBH. Just because I study 2 languages doesn't mean I don't have the right to do another one. The reasoning behind it is ridiculous. They don't offer free evening courses in business, or computers or sociology for people who study languages do they? Yet people studying those things can take up a language which will be of benefit to them. Not fair at all.

What I did was take up Italian classes through the modern language society, but be aware it's nowhere near as good as the language modules. There's only 6 classes per term or something, no homework and you don't get anything at the end.

Bah..! That is so incredibly redundant - I sort of had my heart set.. maybe I'll just kind of turn up for every class.. or stand outside and stare through the window until their empathy gets the better of them

Cheers for the info.

Black_Couch

don't do the german extra language module.

NADA

Black_Couch wrote:

don't do the german extra language module.

Reasons?

cianclarke

Black_Couch wrote:

don't do the german extra language module.

Bit late now, I've already signed up. I'll second the above - why, exactly!

Dagnir Glaurung

cianclarke wrote:

Bit late now, I've already signed up. I'll second the above - why, exactly!

Thirded. I signed up already.