French and German

e567

Hi,

I'm in 5th year and considering doing French and German in UCD. I already do French in school, and it's my best subject, but I've heard it's a very difficult course in UCD? I would be a complete beginner to German, so how would that work out for me? Any info you can give would be appreciated!

Hill St Blue

e567 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm in 5th year and considering doing French and German in UCD. I already do French in school, and it's my best subject, but I've heard it's a very difficult course in UCD? I would be a complete beginner to German, so how would that work out for me? Any info you can give would be appreciated!

I did French and German in UCD. I did a very good leaving cert in both, but tbh, looking back, for me I regret doing two languages in college.

Immersing yourself in a language, to the level that is required for a degree, can be difficult enough, without trying to do it twice! Two sets of grammar, two sets of classic literature, two sets of everything!

In hindsight, I should have picked one of them and then mixed it up by picking another, non language related subject to go along with it (for me, that should have been music). For me, I believe that would have made studying a lot more enjoyable and gave life a far better variety.

Saying that though, that was my experience and may not necessarily be yours! Given that you are not doing German for the leaving, it may be a lot of pressure on you to take it up in college, but nothing is impossible. Follow your gut, but have a good think first.

I would suggest sitting down with your career guidance counsellor and having a chat. If you have a real plan for using both languages in the future, then fair enough, but if you are just thinking about what sounds like it could be 'cool' to study, for the sake of kudos, then I would suggest you consider thinking about it further...there are plenty of subject choices available that you might love without having to take on the learning of a whole other language! (...and I say that as someone who went down that road and has since ended up teaching in a completely different area!)

Best of luck. Trust the process and you'll get there in the end!

e567

Hill St Blue wrote: »

I did French and German in UCD. I did a very good leaving cert in both, but tbh, looking back, for me I regret doing two languages in college.

Immersing yourself in a language, to the level that is required for a degree, can be difficult enough, without trying to do it twice! Two sets of grammar, two sets of classic literature, two sets of everything!

In hindsight, I should have picked one of them and then mixed it up by picking another, non language related subject to go along with it (for me, that should have been music). For me, I believe that would have made studying a lot more enjoyable and gave life a far better variety.

Saying that though, that was my experience and may not necessarily be yours! Given that you are not doing German for the leaving, it may be a lot of pressure on you to take it up in college, but nothing is impossible. Follow your gut, but have a good think first.

I would suggest sitting down with your career guidance counsellor and having a chat. If you have a real plan for using both languages in the future, then fair enough, but if you are just thinking about what sounds like it could be 'cool' to study, for the sake of kudos, then I would suggest you consider thinking about it further...there are plenty of subject choices available that you might love without having to take on the learning of a whole other language! (...and I say that as someone who went down that road and has since ended up teaching in a completely different area!)

Best of luck. Trust the process and you'll get there in the end!

Thanks so much! Will definitely have a think about it

currooney

I'm currently in first year studying Spanish and Italian in UCD. I took Spanish in LC and was a complete beginner to Italian. Not the same language I know but I presume they take a similar approach.

So in my non-beginners language (Spanish) we only have one lecture a week which focuses on grammar. Up until Christmas of first year this is all pretty much revision of tenses and different grammar points that you would have done for LC. Then in semester two, they begin to move onto new tenses. It can be quite fast paced as you only see your grmmar lecturer once a week and then the next week you're onto a completely new topic.
We also have one tutorial class a week, which is a small class of about 20 people and a Spanish native tutor. In the tutorial, we go through homework exercises, do listening exercises and so on. To be honest, it can become quite easy to slack off since you only have 2 hours class time in total for an intermediate language, which is really not alot. Fortunately, continuous assessment accounts for 50% and includes small in-tutorial class tests, a grammar test, an audio-visual test and an oral. The other 50% is the end of semster exam.

Personally, I think the approach for the beginner languages is much better. There are no lectures and 3 tutorial classes a week. Again, these are small classes with a native Italian tutor. I find the atmosphere in my Italian tutorials to be much more similar to a school setting. Being in the class 3 times a week, you get to know the tutor and it feels much more personal. It's also easier to get to know people in your class. The tutors are so friendly and understanding and no-prior knowledge of the language is needed. The main focus so far has been grammar and I'm really impressed at how much we've learned in such a short space of time. I would say we are a little higher than JC level.
In semester 1, my Italian tutorials were strictly beginners and now in semester 2, we are mixed with non-beginners which is a bit daunting but nothing too scary. After only a few months of learning, we are in the same classes as people who did it for LC.

To be honest with you, you'll find difficulty in any subject so it's best to opt for something you know you'll enjoy (even if it's a little challenging) than picking something you think would be easy.
Another thing to keep in mind is that by choosing languages, you will have to take certain culture or literature based modules correlating to the language. For example, I had no choice but to take a module in hispanic texts and an Italian history module.

Lemme know if you've any more qs