ATS1091: German Studies 1

25% Culture Exam, Language component 75%, comprising 4 mini tests, 4 homeworks, 2 dialogues, two larger tests, all in-semester, and a language test and oral test during exam period (worth ~30% or total mark).

I found this subject to be more interesting than I had expected. The culture component touched on German history from the medieval period through to the 19th century, with an emphasis on the change to social structures over that time. There was also some discussion of aesthetics, philosophy, political theory and comparison to contemporary australia. Dr. A was fairly flexible and encouraged discussion around the edges of the subject areas.
One downside was the lack of past exams for the culture component, so that we weren't quite sure what to expect for most of the semester. Recordings would have been nice too! Since there aren't recordings, you have to actually attend (9am ). There was only one written assessment for Culture, the final exam, which wasn't too hard if you'd done the readings. I would really recommend doing the readings and taking notes on them or thinking about them before the lectures as you get more out of it. 1 page or so of revision notes was enough to prepare for the culture exam.

As for the language component, it was taught very well, in a relaxed (except for the dialogue/orals stress) and almost fun atmosphere. There seemed to be loads of small assessments (15 or so), but each was only worth a small percentage, so easy to make up for a bad one. Basic conversational german was covered, with noun cases, adjectives, the present and some of the past tenses. The hardest part was vocab of course, and remembering the genders of nouns. Some more descriptive vocab would have been nice.

Dr. A. Fliethman, J. Beckman

No past exams available.

4.5 Out of 5

No recordings available.

You need the coursebook for the language component, which contains all the assessable material. Readings for the culture component are provided. There is a recommended book for the Culture side, but it's not essential and you could get by with wiki.

Weekly 1 x 2hr culture lecture, 3 x 1hr language tute

2011/sem 1

HD.