About Intensive Languages at GU...

potatoes345
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:55:12 +0000

Just about everyone starting from scratch on a language is taking an intensive one - it’s not uncommon. Unsurprisingly, there are an awful lot of people taking intensive Arabic at any given time. At the moment, there are 10 sections (averaging about 10-12 students each) of intro Arabic - meaning that you have roughly 100-120 people taking it. Honestly, I’d say that about 2/3 of the students in the SFS are taking either Arabic or Chinese at any given time - plus a fair number from COL/MSB.

An intensive language is well, intensive, but it doesn’t mean saying goodbye to social life. You get 6 credits for it (twice as many as a normal course) and compared to your “average” class is probably is about twice as much work (I took a semester of intensive Russian and found that it was really more like 1.5 - 1.75 times as much work as an average class). That said, an intensive language is different than most college-level work, and is more like high school. The class meets every day and you have homework to turn in every night - as opposed to your average class which is more based on occasional papers, etc. Anyway, your social life really shouldn’t take a hit.

As for the 4 vs. 5 classes issue. It’s hard to feel out exactly, and depends on a lot of factors. If you’re going to go through with language all the way, you’ll need to take 5 at least some semesters, but it may be best to get a feel for the language when you’re only taking 3 other classes. Anyway, a bit more info on Arabic as I’m assuming you’re not a current GU student (if you are, then just take a look at the syllabus yourself).

Your grade is based 25% on homework and class participation, 20% on weekly quizzes, 30% on 4 tests, 10% on 3 oral evaluations, and 15% on the final. You will have homework due every class and you must attend every single session, unless you are sick. The professor recommends that you invest 15 hours per week on studying Arabic (a typical rule of thumb for most classes is 2 hours of work per week for every credit hour - which would just 12 for Arabic vs. the 15 suggested by the professor). Anyway, I can tell you from experience, that very few people put in the 15. Most people probably do about half of that and get by just fine.