alfonso22 said:
hey
i have just wanted to know how the languages work at macquarie..
like ... is it a whole year thing or what?>?>..and what laguages can we pick from>>??..
and how detailed are the courses???
Languages at Macquarie are split into two departments; Asian and European.
Under Asian, you can study Chinese and Japanese. Under European, you can study: Croatian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
All of these languages, you can study from the beginning (100 level, first year) to the end (300 level, third year). In most of the languages, you could also elect to do honours.
If you already have a proficiency in any of the languages, say if you did one in the HSC or you speak it at home, you would then start at a higher level. This is easy to deal with and just requires that you speak with one of the academics.
With regards to detail, language study at uni is pretty intense. After around a year, a dedicated university student will have about the same language proficiency as an average 3U HSC student, who's been studying for a few years.
The languages all 'start' at the beginning of the year; so if you want to start with German, you take German 104 (Introduction to German I) in semester 1 and German 105 (Introduction to German II) in semester 2. Ie, generally, you can't start a new language in the middle of the year. Like I said, though, the subjects are only for a semester; so you can chose to only do a semester if that's what you want to do.
Generally speaking, most students will figure out early on if they want to do the subject, and if they don't, they drop out of that subject no dramas.
Most students doing a language will be in 'artsy' degrees; eg a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Social Science, etc, but there is no problem with taking a language as an elective in, say, an economics degree. Ie, you don't have to be in any sort of degree to study the languages; you just need to have room for them in your degree. If you want to do a full major in a language, though, generally you'll have to be in a degree which has lots of room for electives.
You should also note that Macquarie has extensive international travel opportunities.
Which language and what kind of degree were you looking at?