<p>Being an ESL, English has always been a potential limitation for me. So is it possible to fulfill my humanities req. with linguistic courses in my native language? Of course, they will most likely boost my GPA, and people may call that unfair. But even a Math course taught in ENGLISH is very difficult for me (I’m very good at it in my native language, however). I can’t even imagine what it would be like taking social sciences in English. To give you an idea, it took me 20 minutes to come up with this post(checking grammar, structure, and all that). </p>
<p>I am posting this in the Berkeley forum as well, since I’m still in the midst of my decision-making.</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>All freshmen have to take first-year writing seminars at Cornell. You would probably want to take “WRITING 1370, An Introduction to Writing in the University” because it would really help you if you had to take any other courses in English. At least one of those sections is usually reserved for students for whom English is not their first or strongest language.
If you wanted to take courses in your native language you would first need to take a placement exam with that department. I imagine that unless you were dishonest on the exam, you would place out of all the courses offered at the university.</p>
<p>If it took you 20 minutes to write that post it is a bit concerning. It turned out well but if you had to write even a small essay (which is possible in some science courses) you would be focusing on the grammatical aspects of it for far too long. It would take me that long to write a post in French, which I studied for many years and can use conversationally, but I really would not be able to take college courses in that language.</p>
<p>I’m also ESL and I think the idea of taking your native language as elective is…well,not smart. You cannot avoid English in an American college. You’ll need good English skills to write papers, get involved in classes,take exams,etc etc. I think the humanities requirement is a great opportunity for you to improve your English skills.Don’t waste it. Also, you should always remember that you didn’t go to college to gain a super high GPA. You went to LEARN. What’s the point to waste you time and money on something that you already mastered? Oh and I believe taking your native language course isn’t as easy as you may think. First you need to deliberately score low on the placement test to be able to enroll. And then you need to pretend that you don’t speak your native language so well in that class. Why not just focus on a English humanities class and save all the pretending?</p>
<p>now now…folks you’re all assuming way TOO MUCH! </p>
<p>there are plenty of humanities courses available in foreign languages that most students from foreign countries would not have taken…</p>
<p>such as various period literature and film, histories and more! </p>
<p>if math is the OPs flavor, then why not let her focus on that while still getting a taste of the liberal arts with classes taught in her language? </p>
<p>i’m a bilingual spanish speaker and the one spanish literature course i took felt more like the equivalent of taking a literature in english (still tough). </p>
<p>if the OP plans to go back to her country post-graduation i dont see what’s wrong with her intentions!</p>
<p>campuscsi, the title of this thread is “taking my native language for elective” and the OP wants to know if it’s possible to “fulfill my humanities req. with LINGUISTIC courses in my native language”, from which I assume that OP wants to take a language course, not humanities courses available in his language. I don’t see the point to take a language course in your native language. However, I didn’t know Cornell offer plenty of humanities courses in other languages. In that case, I think those courses are fine choices for OP if they are available in his language.</p>
<p>Probably the best course I took at Cornell was a French literature course, with readings in French of course.There is certainly nothing wrong with taking such a course as a native speaker, you would still be learning and thinking.</p>
<p>But in OPs position i would be looking for every opportunity to improve my English language skills.</p>