Durham Modern Languages

[suricata]

Hello, I'm not a mum so apologies for posting on mumsnet but have tried The Student Room to no avail. I wondered if anyone, possibly with children at Durham, has any thoughts or advice regarding the Modern European Languages course at Durham University?
I'm especially interested to know whether people have found the content of the course to be interesting/rewarding, and anything about how the course is taught (small classes/lectures etc?). I've struggled to find information about this on the website.
Any experiences of the course in general would be appreciated - positive or negative!
Thank you!

[bojorojo]

I am not an expert on Durham but class sizes often depend on the number of students on the overall course and what options they choose within the course. Compulsory units will almost certainly have quite large classes and the university department should be able to answer this. Options can be quite small classes but will depend on take up. I would try and contact the university and ask but as a top university, students will have good tuition but students will be expected to prepare a lot of work outside lessons so class sizes are less of a factor than you might imagine. If you look at the list of options, it is only you who can decide if they look stimulating and interesting. What interests you may seem rather dull to someone else and vice versa. For Mfl though, you cannot go wrong with Durham. I would expect their web site to have some information about how they teach. Have you looked at it? Can you book into an open day?

[Popskipiekin]

I did Mfl at Durham! But.... I graduated 2007, so I do think/hope things might have moved on since then. We had a complete spread of big lectures and small tutorials. Loved it when I was there and cannot recommend Durham enough as a university and a lovely town to spend lots of time in. You get the collegiate feel but less of the stress of Oxbridge leaving you bags of time for fun extracurricular stuff. Feel free to pm me but I expect what I have to offer will be wildly out of date. My old German tutor is still there, now senior tutor at Castle, so if German is one of your subjects let me know and I'm sure she would talk to you.

[shockthemonkey]

I know someone there studying the same course you're considering -- she is about to begin her second year and is loving it.

PM me if you'd like her number for a chat. I know she'd be happy to talk to you

[shockthemonkey]

Oh, and anyone can post on mumsnet!

[suricata]

Thank you everyone - that's really helpful. Yes, I've looked at the modules on the website and course handbook and they do appeal to me (although quite limited information re content compared to some other subjects) so that's a good sign! Popskipiekin, thank you, that's so good to hear and I also loved the town when I visited. I'm not thinking German but thank you for your offer. Shockthemonkey, that would be great, thank you! I'll send a PM.

[bojorojo]

You will find the core subjects stay the same but the options can vary if lecturers leave, go off on research or have a baby. The exact detail is probably just not available because a lot is self-directed learning. You will not get that much lecturing each week.