I’m going to be an incoming freshman this fall and I’m in the midst of trying to form my class schedule. I’m planning on majoring in architecture, and I was hoping to study abroad in Italy at some point during my time at Yale.
I’ve never studied Italian in my life so I was planning on just starting off with a beginning course. however, I recently learned that Yale offers an accelerated beginning course, Intensive Elementary Italian, which covers the material from Elementary Italian I & II in one term. the enrollment in the accelerated class is limited to 15. I’d really, really like to take the accelerated class, and I’m here to ask you kind folks a few questions about it.
what steps can I take to ensure that I get into the class? are there usually way more than 15 people wanting to take the class? are they looking for a certain kind of student to admit?
is it even worth it to take the accelerated course? will I be ridiculously stressed out and over-burdened with homework? the class meets MTWThF from 9:25 am-11:15 am.
if you can give me any suggestions on the accelerated course vs regular course dilemma, please share. I can find zero information about this elsewhere on the internet so help a girl out if you would.
I hope that @Tperry1982 will come by with some thoughts. Her DD has taken many languages and traveled abroad while at Yale. My son, otoh, still hasn’t finished his first FL, so . . .
My son found the intro language courses at Yale to be quite demanding, both time-wise and in terms of the amount of work. Is there a particular reason why you want to take the accelerated class? I suspect (others might correct me) that a good number of students in the accel class may have some previous background in Italian (family speaking it, etc.). I personally would recommend you not overextend yourself first semester, but that is just based on my kid’s experience.
If you can cope with waiting until next summer, Yale offers the chance to learn Italian (3 weeks in New Haven) and then spend 5 weeks speaking it in Italy - or at least it has done this summer! I believe this counts towards your FL requirement in the same way as two semesters at Yale, so it’s probably the equivalent of the accelerated class, but it’s in the summer and much of the Italian time is spent looking at the architecture, art, etc as there’s a big cultural component.
Sorry, been offline for a minute since I just retired from my good government job and I am now a lady of “leisure”.
To answer your question and in response to my buddy @IxnayBob, my daughter took Latin for 5 years in middle and high school before getting to Yale. She then decided out of the blue to take German. She took German 1 and 2 freshman year. She then took the Yale Summer Language session and came back to school in June to take German 3 and then went to Berlin with the whole class to take German 4 in July. She is now quite fluent in German and taking history and poetry classes in that language while taking beginning Korean.
On to sophomore year when she decided to take Korean. So, Korean 1 and 2 sophomore year. She applied for a Light Fellowship and is spending the summer in Seoul, South Korea from May 22 - August 20 totally without any funding from her parental units. The best kind of summer experience from my point of view. I have literally not given her a dime all summer since her flight, tuition, room, board and spending money was provided by the Fellowship. She is at a language university with some other Yale students where neither the teacher or other classmates speak ANY English. Suffice it to say she is learning Korean and being immersed in the culture very well. She is having the time of her life but she is looking forward to coming home for a quick family vacation in Ft. Lauderdale before she goes back to Yale.
She is a language fiend and is trying to figure out what language she will start junior year. So many of her classmates are out of the country this summer and no, these are not rich silver spoon kids. Yale is very dedicated to ensuring that any student who wants to go abroad has the opportunity to include finances.
If you have any more questions, I am not putting her on blast here though I am sure most regulars have figured out who she is by now by my posts. If you send me your contact info, I will give it to her and you can start a dialogue. It will give her something to do her last 3 weeks in Seoul.
@bookmobile I want to take the accelerated course just cause I think it’ll be nice to knock out two courses. Though if the class is going to be really intense, I’d be fine just taking the regular course.
@fro123 I’m participating in a varsity sport at Yale and I kinda have a commitment to keep training during the summer. At some point during my time at Yale I want to spend a summer abroad, but next year isn’t ideal for this.
