Foriegn Language Requirement - LSA

<p>What is the requirement if any for a BSA in LSA?</p>

<p>If you are in LSA, I believe the requirement is 4 semesters of a language. No matter what the degree, but I’m not 100% on this.</p>

<p>FOUR SEMESTERS?! that is crazy.</p>

<p>4 semesters can be negated if you do well on your language placement exam. I passed out of my first year of language. I have one semester left.</p>

<p>Personally I find it funny that they require more credits of a foreign language than English.</p>

<p>Foreign language tanks your GPA even if you try hard. Learning a language and doing well in Michigan Foreign language classes is very hard. The professors are tough!</p>

<p>Foreign language is such a tough thing to talk about, because, in all honesty, that requirement will help Michigan students more in their lives than any of the others. But it’s so vastly different in what it requires of its students that to measure you’re understanding of it in the normative A B C… form is simply unfair. I personally despised my foreign language requirement but did it so early in my Michigan career that I realized how important it was before it was too late to continue on (this really is the best opportunity of your life outside of relocating abroad to learn another language after all). The whole thing about trying new things in college is best shown in foreign language, and I can assure the majority of students that they will appreciate it because, if for no other reason, it also gives you a noticeable advantage in a globally expanding job market over other college graduates who weren’t so lucky.</p>

<p>EDIT: Yes, all LSA students except for those getting a degree in General Studies are required to do the 4 semester requirement before they will be allowed to graduate.</p>

<p>Is it possible to test completely out of the language requirement? Ive taken 4 years of spanish in high school, and if i do well enough on the language exam can I place out of the requirement?</p>

<p>I met a couple of freshmen taking a 300 level class, but I don’t know if they just decided to take it or if they were placed there.</p>

<p>Qwerty: Yeah, I did that as a freshman. I placed into a 300-level foreign language class, and then decided to take it. Chances are, if you place that high, you enjoy the language. Shame that it was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated.</p>

<p>I am pretty sure you can test completely out, yes. A fourth-semester proficiency is all that is required, so if you test out of the second 200 level course then you’re fine.</p>

<p>I had already taken five semesters of college Spanish and bombed the placement test anyway just because the format was so strange to me. Oh well. I will be taking four years of spanish. >.<</p>

<p>Alright thanks. I figured it was possible.</p>

<p>Bear in mind though that you can only take the placement test once, and it will likely be at your orientation. So if you have any grand plans for testing out, be prepared for that.</p>

<p>How do current students find the difficulty of foriegn language classes? Also may you take these at a community college and transfer the credits?</p>

<p>You can transfer the credits, but then you still have to take the placement test and if you place below the 4th semester you have to surrender your CC credits for whatever classes you lost and retake the courses you didn’t place out of (they can’t give you credit for them twice). It is entirely dependent on the placement test regardless of how many credits you have at another school, you cannot take the language requirement outside of residence. That’s how I ended up taking 5 semesters of college spanish only to end up with three more to go. </p>

<p>I am starting Spanish TODAY. Looking at the course syllabus the material does not look difficult at all, granted I am only in the second semester course, but the assignments will be much more rigorous than what I was used to in community college. I know in community college we covered like high school Spanish 1 to 3.5 in my first semester course in terms of pacing, but the work was pretty easy if you could keep up with the material. This looks like the pacing may be the same or lesser with much more rigorous work. You’ll have to judge for yourself. </p>

<p>I am not really looking forward to taking these courses, myself. The romance languages dept does not accommodate disabilities, so it is sure to be a fun year and a half all around.</p>

<p>Twisted, what if the language was one they didn’t have a placement test for (Arabic for instance).</p>

<p>Then I have no idea. The general rule as I have seen it posted is that you must take a placement test if you do not intend to start at the beginning, regardless of previous credit earned. I don’t remember reading anything about if there isn’t a placement test.</p>

<p>foreign languages are a different kind of hard.
That said, you learn a lot and I definitely recommend taking Arabic here.
In just one semester, we learned the alphabet, how to read and write, and how to say quite a lot.</p>

<p>You can completely test out of foreign language. My son did a couple years ago in Latin.</p>