How About You

As HUFS is an abbreviation of Hankuk University of “Foreign Studies,” there are in total 45 different foreign languages. These diverse foreign languages are taught in various ways, and those students who are taking the classes all have different levels of language proficiency. For these reasons, students? opinions also vary. In the May, 2016 issue, The Argus met students from various foreign language majors and heard what they think about their major language classes including the advantages and disadvantages of the system regarding how they are handled.

Kwon Hye-in
Department of Integrated Japan ‘15ese Studies ‘15

When I was in high school, I had already studied Japanese as my major foreign language, and was qualified for N2, the second highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). I took the class named “Japanese Speaking for Beginners” last year because it is a mandatory class in order to graduate. This class was a course taught by a Japanese professor only in Japanese. Students who entered college for their Japanese ability could pass this course by taking the FLEX test. If I had a chance to take this test, I would have given it a try, even though I do not know whether I would have received a passing score. This is because I felt that I am not learning anything new because I had already known basic Japanese.

However, when I was taking this course with students learning Japanese for the first time, they always needed to ask other fellow students to interpret what the professor had said in order to understand the lecture. Because of this process of asking again in Korean, I think the main purpose of the lecture has been weakened.

Of course, what the professor tells us in class helps us understand not only the language itself, but also the culture of that country. However, beginners usually get discouraged when they are with other students who are already good enough. I personally experienced this situation. I take an Arabic language course as my second major. Because of other students who already studied or who are taking the same course again, it takes more time for me to understand the same material as compared to the other students. This is the situation that makes me feel the same way other beginners would have felt.

Kwon Seo-young
Department of Spanish ‘15

This semester, I am taking a course that is given in Spanish since it is a mandatory course to graduate. Usually, freshmen take this class, but because I started learning Spanish after I was admitted, I realized it would be impossible for me to follow the class. I studied at the institute for two months during the break and now, at last, the class is understandable. Many Spanish beginners, including myself, think that taking classes without pre-studying in an institute during the break is impossible.

From my experience last year, I took Spanish writing and grammar course for beginners. Many students who took the class with me were from language specialized high schools, which means they were not beginners. I was very disappointed when I did not possess as good of a command of Spanish as they did.

Student A
Department of Russian

I am a student who does not need to learn Russian from the basics because I lived in Russia for a few years. Considering students who were already somewhat okay in Russian, like me, and the students who were beginners, the Department of Russian divided its classes according to the students’ personal Russian abilities. The standard of the division is first, by the admission that they entered HUFS, and second, by their experience of living in Russia. Class C especially consists of students who were admitted through their Russian ability, students who resided in Russia and students who graduated from specialized language high schools that teach Russian. However, this system also has some blind spots. There are some students in class C, who resided in Russia but went to international schools, which means they did not use or learn Russian.

Even if they lived in Russia, they are not good enough to be relatively evaluated with other fellow students in class C. Nevertheless, unlike other language majors, this system was a trial to somehow alleviate the disadvantages that students have to deal with since the evaluation policy has changed to relative grading.

Personally, I am satisfied with not needing to study what I already know, but by studying Russian interpretation or reading, it actually helped me to develop my Russian. However, I hope the shortcomings of the program will also be solved in the future.

Ko Dong-wan
Department of Dutch ‘14

I started learning Dutch in my freshmen year. I had taken a lecture that was only conducted in Dutch because it was a mandatory class. I was not satisfied with that class. Since Dutch is an unfamiliar language, only two out of 10 students are proficient in Dutch. However, there are students who went on exchanges or had internship experiences in the Netherlands. As a result, students like me fall behind when relatively graded, even if we try hard. Unfortunately, there is no other system to resolve this problem in the Department of Dutch.

In addition, students who came to the Department of Dutch because of the wide area admission in the College of Occidental Languages need to learn from the very basics. However, professors do not consider the situations of these students and only give lectures in high level Dutch. Moreover, all the lectures are conducted in the same manner, which is dull. I hope the lectures would be improved in a way that students can maintain interests in their major language, not just relaxing after the mid or final term exams are over.

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