<p>I've heard its really hard to start to learn a new language here at UVA; like they won't let you speak English in class even in the beginning classes. Is this true? I'd like to learn German if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>That’s up to the individual instructor. However, forbidding English is a common strategy everywhere to make students learn the target language faster. My high school French teacher never let us say anything in English, even from the first days of French I. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds–it’s not as if we were expected to have high-level intellectual conversations right off the bat.</p>
<p>My son is taking introductory Russian at UVA this semester. He says it’s a pretty challenging class and moves much more quickly than his high-school language classes in Spanish and Japanese. He says he’ll be thrilled to pull a B. But he’s loving it.</p>
<p>In my 3rd year Spanish class at UVA, a grammar review for prospective majors, the instructor spoke mostly in Spanish, but more slowly than if he had been conversing with native speakers. He very occasionally switched into English if he thought we were still unclear on some grammar issue.</p>
<p>
I picked up a second language in college and English wasn’t spoken in the 101 course. It was a little disconcerting at first, but within a week or so, it wasn’t such a big deal anymore. :)</p>
<p>That makes me feel better about things. My roommate is taking a 100 level Spanish class and he said that the teacher didn’t let them speak English. I’m debating over minoring in German or Environmental Science, and I’m in the E-School, which can put a sad limit on the number of “fun” classes that don’t have to do with engineering that I take. I’m sure the Enviro Sci would be more useful, but I think I might enjoy German more. I’m still not sure how exactly no English works in a 101 class, but apparently it does!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>