<p>I was really interested in taking Swahili, but in the course book from last year it said a student wouldn't get credit for taking 101 if they didn't take 102. This turned me off a little bit. I'm afraid I may not like the class, but get stuck making the decision of losing a completed credit or going through another semester. Could anyone who has taken the class tell about it/ the professor as well as if I was correct in understanding the whole credit deal?</p>
<p>I have not taken Swahili 101/102 but the caveat of having to take both semesters of a language is something in place in almost all introductory languages at Wellesley. Wellesley wants to make sure that by the time you exit the school you have a good grasp of at least one other language besides English. After all the foreign language requirement requires you to take a year beyond the 100 level so in order to do that you would have take 101/102 anyways in order to fulfill your requirement. That being said, if you take the course and find that you don’t like it or that you need a break, you can elect to wait until the spring of your sophomore year to take 102 and still get credit for the course. </p>
<p>I have heard though that the Swahili course is amazing. I have two friends who were in 101/102 last year and they loved it.</p>
<p>Well that’s good to hear :]
I’m interested in taking Russian as well, but Swahili piqued my interest</p>
<p>It’s the same thing with my Japanese class, I have to take a second semester in order to get credit (which isn’t a problem since I am planning on majoring in it :]). My Russian class, however, I don’t think you need to take a second semester of.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that you get a week to decide whether you like the class or not. If during the first week into the first semester you decide that you don’t like the class, you can switch to another one.</p>
<p>The Russian department works slightly different than the rest of the languages in that you do not need to take both semesters in order to get credit. By the way, the Russian department at Wellesley is amazing. The department is small but that means you get sooo much personal attention from the professors. Prof Thomas Hodge is awesome!!! (And so is every other professor in that department). </p>
<p>Disclaimer: I am not a russian major but I know basically all the majors in the department, including my roommate from first year, so I have heard about the department since my first day at Wellesley.</p>
<p>I’m glad the department is small, that was one of the major things that attracted me to Wellesley. I like the small class sizes along with the wide breadth of choices. I actually went on ratemyprofessor to see what some of the students had to say about the different professors, and everything about Professor Hodge was really great!</p>
<p>Just FYI, ratemyprofessors for Wellesley is really out-dated. I used that before I came to Wellesley also, but once you get to Wellesley you will have access to upperclasswomen you can ask about professors and we also have an opinions conferences about classes and professors that you can read and post questions on.</p>
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<p>I agree! I had him last semester and he was very helpful. This year I have Weiner, who I believe has never taught beginning Russian before, but he’s also pretty good. Even though I’m Russian, I’ve never read any Russian poems (in Russian) or many books, so now I’m getting more into Russian literature.</p>
<p><em>double post, sorry :]</em></p>