foreign languagee, musiq history

<p>well now: </p>

<p>has anyone taken german, italian, etc.? i know they use vorsprung and the actuall propfessor teaches italian . </p>

<p>asdsaduoasjdoiasjdoaisjdsoadksadksadmaso5439iawodsakddas</p>

<p>how is vorsprung? non? perhaps i should take it one step @ a time tecetc </p>

<p>also, if you have taken a # of music courses ++ </p>

<p>do you have regular access to classical musical library et al + other resources consistent with a particular access to UCLA students? unfortunately, ive deleted or removed links to my previous and now i am perhaps... to cheap to buy placido eta la.ajsdasjdsakdas</p>

<p>I have Vorsprung, and I've taken German classes here. </p>

<p>The text's ok, but there is a <em>lot</em> of busywork in the exercises. What do you want to know about it?</p>

<p>what did you think of your instructors and finally, what level or fluency have you attained? also, do you take into any consideration of german-inspired languages (a la switzerland ) or devleop a particualry specific accent (not unlike say the discrpeancies of colombian/ mexican/ spanish diffences etccetcc)</p>

<p>I can only really speak for two or three instructors, but in my experience they were very knowledgeable with the language and had the accent down pat, which's really important. The accent isn't at all hard to learn for the /ch/ sound, though some students don't make the distinction between the hard and soft ch. The ü in some instances, eg. müde, can also be a little tricky. The course places a large emphasis on speaking Hochdeutsch, though in German 1 we did cover some regional differences, eg. Brot/Semmel (north/south), -chen/-l(i) for diminutives (Hochdeutsch/Bayerisch/Schweizerisch) etc. While Germans don't really 'speak' Hochdeutsch, if you do decide to go to Germany or a German-speaking country, it won't be a problem - you'll be understood, but there's an incredible diversity of accents within Germany. </p>

<p>Like with any other language course the rate at which you attain fluency obviously depends on how much you practice outside of class. I did a reasonable amount of practice, but the more I practiced, the more I noticed the lectures becoming less important. While some students might be particularly attracted to the social nature of courses (and I was, to an extent), the prevailing downfall of such courses, obviously, is that you can't go at your own pace as you please. I thought my courses were a bit too slow in this regard, and some of my fellow students, well, weren't exactly on the same level in their language capability, which was a bit frustrating. Overall it was a good experience, but I'm thinking it might have been a more efficient use of my time to study the language on my own. I can't really speak for the level of fluency that these courses have given me, since I had five years of prior experience with the language before taking the courses, and in retrospect, I probably should've taken the placement test.</p>

<p>One of the great things, though, is that your TA will keep you updated on opportunities to practice the language in group situations outside of class, like Stammtisch-sessions, movie screenings in German, and so on, though I suppose you could find this out from the department to begin with.</p>