Language electives & language societies in UCD

sheepfrog

Hi, i'm a first year student and i'm thinking of taking a language as my horizons elective next semester. I'm thinking of taking spanish or maybe german as a structured elective. Can anyone who has done these give me some insights into the modules? Eg, class sizes, workload, teachers, if you can actually speak it to some degree of fluency afterwards, timetable etc?


I have never spoken spanish before but I have a real interest in learning the language and have been doing spanish lessons on duolingo the past few weeks. I would really like to take proper classes in UCD. However I have seen a lot of people on boards saying that the intro to spanish is one of the easiest modules for people to take. Is there many dossers in the class?!? Will I actually learn anything !?

On the other hand I got a H1 in german in the leaving and I love it so much, I wanted to do a degree in german but I have no interest in learning about the country's history or reading german literature etc, I just love speaking it. I assume I can join an intermediate german class instead of the german class for beginners? What is it like to take german as an elective with some knowledge already? What type of stuff do you do in class? (eg do you have to do presentations and stuff auf deutsch??)

Secondly, can anyone tell me the difference between taking a spanish language structured elective and taking the applied spanish structured elective? And same for german?

Can I pay to take one of these classes at the applied languages centre even if it doesn't count towards my degree?

Lastly, does anyone know anything about the german and spanish societies in UCD? If i don't take the spanish electives, can I join the spanish soc even though I'm a complete beginner in spanish!? I can't find much about either society online, just that the german soc has coffee mornings sometimes. Is the spanish society even still in existence?? :P What type of stuff do they do? I heard the german soc goes on a trip every year, but i'm not sure even if that group is still active.

I know there is a lot to answer here so if anyone could even help me out just a little bit i would appreciate it very much!
Thanks!

sderref

Hi,
best way: contact the Applied Language Centre Module Coordinator.

All of you answers will be answered.T: +353 1 716 8302 contact: 9710

or General Enquiries Applied Language Centre alc@ucd.ie

Best of luck!

Sam the Sham

sderref wrote: »

Hi,
best way: contact the Applied Language Centre Module Coordinator.

All of you answers will be answered.T: +353 1 716 8302 contact: 9710

or General Enquiries Applied Language Centre alc@ucd.ie

Best of luck!

While that may be the best way to get answers to the questions about the Applied Language Centre, you won't be getting any answers about the Spanish or German programmes there. Try the School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics: slcl@ucd.ie

By the way, the idea of learning a language independently of the culture is a nonsense: the two are always intimately tied together. You might be able to string a few words together but you wouldn't have a clue what anyone was talking about (or how to behave around them, for that matter).