Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

University

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 
Cage
Diglot
aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6436 days ago
382 posts - 393 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Portuguese

 
 Message 9 of 15
15 August 2008 at 6:07pm | IP Logged 
You do not have to do much to avoid failing most university classes at least not at the undergraduate level. The graduate level is a whole nother ball game however. Language classes are good for those of typical ability and lack motivation to work on their own. They seem to be dumbed down to the lower achieving students. Motivated goal oriented students are best served by doing it on their own. However, I would rather learn computer languages in classrooms than trying them on my own!
1 person has voted this message useful



Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6251 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 10 of 15
16 August 2008 at 12:43am | IP Logged 
Cage wrote:
You do not have to do much to avoid failing most university classes at least not at the undergraduate level. The graduate level is a whole nother ball game however. Language classes are good for those of typical ability and lack motivation to work on their own. They seem to be dumbed down to the lower achieving students. Motivated goal oriented students are best served by doing it on their own. However, I would rather learn computer languages in classrooms than trying them on my own!


I find it incomparably more effective to learn computer languages on my own. The teaching of them in classrooms is extremely ineffective, at best.

1 person has voted this message useful



Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 5846 days ago
1457 posts - 1759 votes 
5 sounds

 
 Message 11 of 15
16 August 2008 at 2:17am | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:
Cage wrote:
You do not have to do much to avoid failing most university classes at least not at the undergraduate level. The graduate level is a whole nother ball game however. Language classes are good for those of typical ability and lack motivation to work on their own. They seem to be dumbed down to the lower achieving students. Motivated goal oriented students are best served by doing it on their own. However, I would rather learn computer languages in classrooms than trying them on my own!


I find it incomparably more effective to learn computer languages on my own. The teaching of them in classrooms is extremely ineffective, at best.


In my own experience programming classes are effective only if they introduce some new paradigm i.e. object oriented programming for example. If you are already familiar with the paradigm courses become quite redundant. All you need is a good book and some free time.

Edited by Sennin on 16 August 2008 at 2:21am
1 person has voted this message useful



William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6084 days ago
1936 posts - 2333 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French

 
 Message 12 of 15
16 August 2008 at 6:30am | IP Logged 
I did German and Russian for four years at university and certainly became fluent in German (helped by spending nine months in Germany, including German language classes). My Russian was less fluent (2 months in the USSR) but I could certainly read a newspaper at the end of the course.
1 person has voted this message useful



obara
Newbie
India
subramanian-obula.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5778 days ago
21 posts - 22 votes
Studies: Gujarati

 
 Message 13 of 15
16 August 2008 at 10:09am | IP Logged 
You should have an aim in learning any language.If you are to visit that Country you can learn. Otherwise, whatever you learn, you will forget at no time, if you do not practice.
Pen pal chatting is worth. If you want to spend your leisure time and if you are interested to know the culture of a particular Country or Language, then you can go in for that language. Self study will be fruitful, after you have finished your studies in a University/College. I am a retired person from India learning Japanese!
1 person has voted this message useful



Cage
Diglot
aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6436 days ago
382 posts - 393 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Portuguese

 
 Message 14 of 15
16 August 2008 at 12:47pm | IP Logged 
I agree that you can learn to read and write fairly well in a formal classroom setting but speaking and comprehension skills, I have not seen it demonstrated. Guess it depends on how you define fluency. Perhaps there exists exceptional situations where students do achieve a high level in all four skills but I would not say these situations are common. Mr. Camden I have no doubt that your time spent in Germany made a huge impact upon your fluency.

Edited by Cage on 16 August 2008 at 12:49pm
1 person has voted this message useful



William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6084 days ago
1936 posts - 2333 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French

 
 Message 15 of 15
17 August 2008 at 5:22am | IP Logged 
Cage wrote:
I agree that you can learn to read and write fairly well in a formal classroom setting but speaking and comprehension skills, I have not seen it demonstrated. Guess it depends on how you define fluency. Perhaps there exists exceptional situations where students do achieve a high level in all four skills but I would not say these situations are common. Mr. Camden I have no doubt that your time spent in Germany made a huge impact upon your fluency.


My university classes included conversation practice, but probably not enough of it. Yes, nine months in Rheinland-Pfalz did make a big difference to my German fluency. The stay abroad in a country where the language was spoken was compulsory for language students, at least at that time.

   


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 15 messages over 2 pages: << Prev 1 2 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2500 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.