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 Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates |  | |
| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 5859 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 1 of 9 24 January 2009 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Has anybody on this forum studied a language with the Open University? I did their German course and I'd be interested, if anyone has done that or (or another language), in knowing what you thought about the course.
For my part, I found the materials very interesting from a cultural viewpoint, but I'm not sure they suited me 100% from a pure language-learning viewpoint; I think that would probably have been different if I'd have been more clued-up and focused right from the start, however. If I'd have done Pimsleur and Assimil before starting, I think the course books would have been a perfect extension - there's a lot of (more or less) interesting material there, a lot of exercises to preactice grammar. As it was, I found it hard going, but if I had had a better base I think it would have been more fun, and a great way to revise and consolidate. To put it this way: once I got serious about studying, I'd have happily gone through every page of the textbooks, watched the dvds repeatedly etc, if I had had the time to do so. There was a week-long summer school in Germany was really, really good; I never liked going to tutorials though (a: simple shyness, b: I was pretty much always behind). I did the first part of their Latin course as well, which I found enjoyable, but I really didn't have enough time at all to study so I didn't get that much out of it. The Latin course uses the Jones and Sidwell 'Reading Latin' books, which I'd love to go through properly at some point. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5804 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 9 24 January 2009 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Link?
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| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 5859 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 3 of 9 24 January 2009 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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http://www.open.ac.uk/
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| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5804 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 9 24 January 2009 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"The 9-month course 'Portales - Beginner's Spanish' costs £395 "
Says enough to me to turn me off. 9 months for just beginner Spanish, for that price? However, the idea, isn't too bad. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5792 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 9 24 January 2009 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Compared to studying full time at university here, the fees are a bargain, but for the sake of simply learning the language, probably not worth it! They do make some of their course materials available via OpenLearn, which is a great resource, it's just a shame they don't have more of their language courses on there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 5859 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 6 of 9 25 January 2009 at 3:19am | IP Logged | |||||
The OU is something you can do whilst working to get university credit, so you have to compare it with that rather than just a pure language course. If you do it in the UK it might be possible to get a grant for some of the fees. However, if you take the courses from outside the UK I think it costs a lot more. I wouldn't do a course as my sole means of learning a language, but I think that if you wanted the credits/qualification, and especially if you'd like to have a tutor, it would be worth doing. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6221 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 7 of 9 26 February 2009 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can have nothing but praise for the quality of the Open University which goes from strength to strength in terms of course delivery and peer acknowledgment.
I studied with the OU for my degree in Philosophy and was highly impressed by them. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm in Australia now, I would still be studying with them: but I do keep in touch with their developments through their alumni. Getting back to this thread, I bought second hand a couple of their German courses which I mean to study at some point. L213 advanced German and L203 upper intermediate German Edited by Stephen on 26 February 2009 at 9:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5575 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 8 of 9 15 March 2009 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm giving serious thought to taking up the OU Modern Languages degree in French & German- it's a shame there aren't more languages available. One thing I'm doubtful about is whether or not learning languages by correspondence would lead to 'weak spots' in speaking skills, given that there are fewer opportunities to attend classes and interact with real life individuals in the language, rather than just computer software.
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