Best university for languages?

Maidhfinden

I want to do Irish, French and possibly German, in UCD or NUIG, can anyone suggest which is best? Thanks

Canard

I do it in UCD and it's great. My course is International Languages rather than arts which means in 3rd year I definitely get to go to France or Spain (I study French & Spanish), but you can't do Irish unless you do mainstream arts. They're taught well but in the course I do you have to do this horrible module on Europe's history and yeah, basically it's pretty hard and makes no sense. There are annoying cultural modules too but you get used to them. You can also pick up new languages which is handy!

I don't know anything about NUIG though, sorry. :P

Maidhfinden

Patchy~ wrote: »

I do it in UCD and it's great. My course is International Languages rather than arts which means in 3rd year I definitely get to go to France or Spain (I study French & Spanish), but you can't do Irish unless you do mainstream arts. They're taught well but in the course I do you have to do this horrible module on Europe's history and yeah, basically it's pretty hard and makes no sense. There are annoying cultural modules too but you get used to them. You can also pick up new languages which is handy!

I don't know anything about NUIG though, sorry. :P

yeah i was looking at that course too but I'm definitely doing Irish so I'd just do mainstream arts! Can you split up your year abroad to go to a Gaeltacht area too I wonder? Also is French very difficult? Thanks!

Canard

I think you could actually! It'd make sense like.
edit: I just reread your question, you actually couldn't split it because you'd need to spend a full year in one college - but you can always go to the gaeltacht after if you wanted to do both, it'd be easier than going to france/germany alone anyway. :P

French actually is very difficult, yes. :eek: From what I've heard from friends in advanced Spanish, German and Italian, there's a relatively lower standard than in Advanced French. The reason for that is French is the only language you can't take as a beginner, but in the others they do sort of hold them back so the beginners can catch up. It's not impossible and the grammar is completely LC grammar so far, so if you nail that you're a third of the way there - the other two thirds are aural and reading comprehension. The aurals are news clips, its really hard. :eek: Most people I know got an A1-B1 and we all find it pretty draining.

Reading French is like LC English so you need a bit of a flair for that too to be honest, it's basically reading stories in French and analysing them like crazy. In the second semester it becomes poems and more manageable things so I wouldn't let that put you off. :P There are no oral modules in the first semester though, which is really an awful thing to be missing, but I've heard they bring them in later.

Sorcil

I'm studying French and Italian in NUIG and I have to say that they're really good. I've never heard a bad thing about the German or Irish departments either What's particularly good about NUIG is the small class size which is so important if you're studying a language. Also, you can study nearly everything through Irish if you want to. I'm doing French through Irish and the standard of teaching is excellent. If you decide to take a non-language subject in First Year, you can also study the majority of them trí Ghaeilge.

Sorcil

Sorry forgot to mention that if you study a language in NUIG, you have to spend at least nine months in a country that speaks that language