<p>Does anyone know how strong NU's linguistics department is? Is it a good choice for a potential ling major?</p>
<p>Also, what about languages (Japanese in particular)?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
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<p>My impression is that their linguistics department is pretty strong. I took a challenging linguistics class and I learned so much because the professor was so incredibly knowledgeable - and had a lot of real-world experience with the material. Although I personally couldn't handle it, linguistics seems like a pretty cool major for those interested.</p>
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<p>You really have to be interested, but like neom3x11 said, a lot of the profs I know of have a lot of real-world experiences. I hated the ling class I took but the prof really knew what she was talking about.</p>
<p>Some of our language departments suck, but Slavic and the Asian languages in particular are awesome. I know that people who take Japanese for even one quarter say it's unbelievably intense and a lot of work, but after that quarter they can really hold their own in the language. It seems like a big time commitment though. A lot of the Slavic professors are renowned as well. As for stuff like Spanish, I've heard bad things.</p>
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<p>I agree with dfleish; I minored in French, and in retrospect, probably would've benefitted more from a different lang. department... Slavic, Asian, and German=NU's lang. specialties.</p>
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<p>dfleish, I was in the same class as you haha I also hated it but the prof was amazing</p>
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<p>hahaha, that's too funny. Well, I don't know if all the ling classes are like that, but I probably won't be taking one again unless the CTECs are off the charts.</p>
<p>all departments at northwestern are good</p>
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<p>uh oh! dfleish, what did you hear about the spanish department that wasn't so good?</p>
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<p>i've placed out of the foreign language requirement and i'm trying to decide if i want to keep taking spanish.</p>
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<p>agreed. one quarter of 2 hrs/night reading about another country ending in "-ia" is really all I need!</p>
<p>Haha, that was Ling 222 in a nutshell.</p>
<p>Bluehonnydew, all I know is my friends who take Spanish here have said it's similar to HS Spanish, with silly worksheets and projects and stuff, and they don't feel any more immersed in the language than they did in HS. My roommate took it for a year and he doesn't feel any better in the language.</p>
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<p>once again, I agree with dfleish! I was looking to continue with Spanish at NU, but I discussed it with my adviser and she told me honestly that the Spanish courses here concentrate more in literature and interpretation than actual speaking proficiency. I decided there are better ways to spend my 45K a year...and besides, there may be other avenues where I can practice my Spanish (NU's great at study abroad opportunities). If you do decide to take the Spanish classes at NU, they won't be horrible (it's a great institution after all) but you can follow the example of my neighbor and augment that with a summer studying abroad in Mexico.</p>
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