As a student in their second year of university, studying a dual degree in Law and Languages, I would say that there have been a lot of things I have learnt about the overall language department. More generally, my time at ANU has been an extraordinary experience due to a range of factors; the college experience, the nature of Canberra as a University city and the hands-on student learning experience.

So far, I have been doing French for two years with 4 different teachers and all have been devoted and attentive teachers. The French language program differs from other classes; whilst in Law, we have 2 assessments a term weighing around 50% languages will have around 6 or 7 weightings 10-15% each. Whilst this gives you many opportunities to improve your marks (and overall GPA!) it means the work is continuous and at times difficult to manage, so this is something to consider. The classes also occur much more frequently than in other departments, for my advanced French language class we had 4 hours a week in person in addition to pair-á-pair work where we would have to meet up with a smaller group of our classmates a few times a week whereas in other departments you might have one 1-hour class a week. But broadly, all the teachers have been so understanding and got to know you personally which is a bonus!

I took a Spanish course for the first half of this year and found that the devotion to courses is not mirrored across all languages! Whilst this class occurred 4 times a week (every day at 9 am!!) there was little organisation and planning to the lessons. Also, the assessments were confusing and sometimes organised at the last minute! Next year I am trying Chinese from the introductory level so it will be interesting to see how this is taught, but so far, I have only heard rave reviews!

Conclusively, I would say languages at the ANU are taught very well depending on the language you choose! But I could not recommend French more 🙂