The German Undergraduate Program

We are dedicated to providing each student with a rich and valuable learning experience in every course and to fostering humanistic inquiry and students’ critical thinking and analytical skills through the study of the language, literature, philosophy, visual art, music, film, popular culture, and cultural history of the German-speaking world.

A DISTINGUISHED NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION

A rich and diverse curriculum distinguishes the undergraduate program in German at UCI. Learning opportunities range German from beginning language classes to advanced study of sophisticated literary, cultural, and linguistic topics. Our undergraduate program, which includes a major and a minor in German Studies. Each member of our faculty is nationally and internationally known in her or his field of specialization, which includes German literature and culture in numerous periods and genres, as well as linguistics. We teach courses about many aspects of life in German-speaking countries throughout the centuries, as well as about their respective research areas. We pride ourselves on our small seminars and avid attention to the quality of each student’s education. Our students often remark that they got to know their professors in our courses better than in any other courses they have taken at UCI. For more information, see our complete list of recent and current courses.

The German language program at UCI is exciting and innovative in many ways. Our central goal is to help every student learn/acquire German for communication and sophisticated cultural knowledge. In each course we focus on listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, grammatical knowledge of German, and cultural literacy. The lower-division program is comprised of a six-course progression (1A-B-C, 2A-B-C). We teach students to meet practical communication needs in real-world interaction with German speakers, and to develop critical cultural knowledge and skills about life in the German-speaking countries. After six quarters of instruction, we envision our students being able to land in a German-speaking country interacting in German in an enjoyable, culturally appropriate, and most importantly, stress-free manner. We also aim for students to acquire intermediate-level reading and writing skills in German. German 1 and 2 also serve as the solid foundation for advanced study of German and study-abroad programs.

Our language courses are taught by trained graduate-student instructors under the supervision of the Language Program Director. Our instructors are advanced scholars of German literature and culture who bring their sophisticated expertise to the language classroom in a variety of ways. They receive consistently superlative teaching evaluations, and members of each teaching cohort regularly earns distinguished and competitive teaching awards. Each instructor strives to provide a stimulating and rich classroom environment in which language and culture learning is both challenging and enjoyable.
Our German courses are not only about talking in class or ‘just’ reading and writing texts. We integrate film, music, and many aspects of popular culture into our courses using a variety of digital media. Students make frequent and varied use of Internet resources, podcasts, as well as some authentic communication with native speakers through video and text-based chat, e-mail, blogs, and other forms of digital communication. Through these means we believe that students can engage in very real ways while still developing as future German-English bilinguals.

PLACEMENT IN GERMAN COURSES

Students are placed in German courses according to their years of previous study. In general, one year of high school work is equated with one quarter of UCI work. Thus students with one, two, three and four years of high school German will normally enroll in German 1B, 1C, 2A and 2B respectively. If you have had any experience with German, you should schedule a placement exam through the UCI Testing Office.

Exceptions to this placement procedure must have the approval of the Language Program Director and Undergraduate Advisor, Professor Glenn S. Levine (glevine@uci.edu). Students with transfer credit for college-level German may not repeat those courses.

ADVANCED STUDY AND MAJORING/MINORING IN GERMAN

Overview of German Department Requirements for the Major/Minor
For complete and definitive information, please consult the current UC Irvine General Catalogue and our German Major Course Checklist or our German Minor Course Checklist.

Requirements for a Bachelor's Degree

DOUBLE-MAJORING

Many of our German majors are double majors with programs in social science, biological sciences, engineering, physical sciences, and of course other programs in the School of Humanities. We encourage students to pursue multiple paths in their education and to acquire multiple sorts of literacy in diverse fields.

STUDY ABROAD AND UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Finally, the German major and minor are perfectly integrated with UC’s study abroad programs (http://eap.ucop.edu/eap/country/germany/). Students interested in studying abroad in Germany should check our Study Abroad information and visit the Center for International Education, Student Services II (www.cie.uci.edu). We also encourage our undergraduates to pursue mentorships with German faculty within UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP; see www.urop.uci.edu). Grant aid for study abroad is also sometimes available through the Leindecker Award.