1st Year German

AllInOne

Hey all,
I'm going into first year and plan to do German as I want to be a language teacher, but I'm worried about going into the lectures. I was just wondering if anyone who has completed first year German in UCC has any advice for me on what I should brush up on German wise before I start college?

Thanks in advance

brian1991

Good questions. I want to do first year German too so would appreciate any advice. Large focus on grammar, literature etc?

rebel girl 15

Not sure what combination of modules that you can take, but there us info on all the modules here. GE1xxx is a first year module, GE2xxx is a second year module etc!

Crosswalk

You do two modules in 1st year; a literature one (GE1102) and a general written and oral one (GE1101). There's no optional modules. At the start of the year, a list is put up showing you which tutorial group you're in. There's about 15 people in each one. I had a one hour grammar class, a 2 hour general written/oral class (kind of similar to German class in secondary school), a one hour literature lecture and a 3/4 of an hour literature tutorial every week. Don't hold me to that timetable though, it might have changed!

For the first semester you revise everything you did in secondary school. You don't really need to brush up on anything beforehand - just make sure you go to the grammar and oral/written tutorials! In the second semester you move on to stuff you may not have learned in secondary school (especially grammar-wise).

The focus is mainly on grammar and oral/written stuff. The majority of your marks will come from that module. Literature isn't that important but you still have to pass it!

If you guys have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

77DeeDee77

I've just completed 1st yr of German and Crosswalk has summed up the workload above perfectly.

The German is divided into two groups: beginners and advanced. In 2nd yr the beginners, many of whom just started German on entering UCC or haven't done it since Junior Cert, are merged with the advanced class, who have done it for Leaving Cert. My observation is that they keep the standard of German amongst the advanced class stagnant, or almost disimproving, while the beginners get an intense crash course, so that everyone is on an almost level playing field by 2nd yr..

So really there isn't any need for you to brush up on anything before going in! .. Keep on top of it as it's done in the lectures though as it can be quite fast paced and there's quite a substantial amount of work covered / revised as the case most probably will be.

Hope this helps!!

Any more questions lemme know!!

curlynettie

it's been 10 years since i did it, but you needed a C in Honours Leaving Cert to get into German so I guess that makes sure you are at the right level without having to brush up.

but maybe it's changed....

we did language and literature, and there were 3 exams - oral, language/grammar and literature.

would recommend brushing up if you can though, it all helps, there is a huge jump from first year to second year i thought (i changed to something else in 2nd year)