<p>My Fiske Guide to Colleges said to avoid languages at Duke.</p>
<p>obviously they're a requirement, but would that be a good thing to major in at Duke? i.e., do the foreign language departments at Duke suck?</p>
<p>I guess you should compare with the course offerings of other schools. I've heard the German dept is top-ranked and others are decent enough.</p>
<p>I'm familiar with the German, Greek, and Latin departments here and can say that they're AWESOME! Classes are usually very small (my largest had 7 people), and professors make sure you really know the material. Duke and UNC are planning a joint German major that will be great if they get it approved.</p>
<p>I have friends taking Chinese (including my roommate) and Russian, and I've heard really good things about them. I've heard some horror stories about Spanish, though.</p>
<p>I started out in intensive Turkish my freshman year and have taken it on and off for the last few years - never have I worked so hard and learned so much. It was a small class, with a couple of grad students and a senior from UNC - great people who truly just wanted to learn. My professor was/is great and has provided me with research opportunities re: Turkish politics/literature for the last few years (URS grants are $350 a semester - not too bad). That just happens to be my personal experience, but an integral part of my Duke experience nonetheless.</p>
<p>What horror stories have you heard about Spanish? Is it just one bad teacher or problems with the department as a whole? My daughter is hoping to attend next fall and wants to take Spanish and possibly major/minor in it.</p>
<p>S1 took an upper level German course and thought it was very good, though tough!</p>
<p>
I would hesitate to say the department as a whole is bad (it has a very good ranking); it's more that it has uneven quality. Some couses are taught by professors; some are taught by grad students. Depending on who's teaching the course, it could be great or awful. </p>
<p>If your D is that interested in Spanish, I suggest contacting the department</a> chair and ask to be put in touch with current majors. They can tell you a lot more than I can! :)</p>
<p>I've taken two 100 level Spanish class and I have to say I'm really disappointed. It's nothing in particular, but just the whole class set up in gneral. For instance, Adv. Writing 101 seems so rushed that we only survey some certain aspects of lit and advanced grammar. In fact, my spanish has disimproved, as has my motivation towards the language. It does depend on the professor, but I think most would agree that the Spanish department isn't as good as it could or should be. I wish there were more history based courses (i.e. latin american studies, but actually in spanish). I liked my special seminar last seminar based on the content. My Spanish barely improved, although I did get some decent practice at writing 8 page essays. The class sizes are super small (seminar only had 7 of us last semester) and only 15 this semester, but I don't think the structure of the class really utilizes the great small sizes.</p>
<p>Next semester I'll be taking Arabic 1, which I have good things about, especially for the first year professor.</p>
<p>I sat in on a Spanish class with a Duke student (a friend of mine) while I was up there. The class was dull, the students seemed disinterested, and the teacher didn't really seem to care that they were disinterested. She just trod along through the coursework. And I know she didn't require much homework.</p>
<p>That was the only class I visited that day, I was well-rested, and I still passed out sitting up. I'm not sure whether you should take that as a dig on the class or my attention span, though. =)</p>
<p>So interpret all this as you will. Take into consideration that this was just one class, one visit, and it was a lower-level class!</p>