Winter Semester 2020/21

ISCL

You can find the course list, a question forum and links to the digital semester opening meetings on the Moodle page “Introductory Meeting WS 2020/2021”. Note that the list of ISCL MA Hauptseminar courses was updated!

General Linguistics

You can find the course list and question forums on the Moodle page “Einführungsveranstaltung Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft”.

Language courses (ISCL BA Interdisciplinary Skills)

If you’re in the ISCL BA (major) programme, you need to take at least 6 CP worth of language classes for module ISCL-BA-03. If you’re a native speaker of German, this means learning a language that you haven’t already studied in school. (If you’re taking a minor in a philology study programme, the classes from that programme don’t count either.) If German isn’t your mother tongue, you need to take some German language classes.

If you have already completed module ISCL-BA-03, you can also use language classes for module ISCL-BA-02.

If you have completed ISCL-BA-02 as well or if you are not in the ISCL BA major, you can nevertheless take language classes, they just won’t count towards your degree. On your transcript, they can show up in a section called globales Überlaufkonto (“global overflow account”) that summarizes extra courses you have taken that are irrelevant for your degree.

When should I take these language classes?

Technically, you can take them at any point during your studies. If you already have some programming skills, you might enjoy taking a language class during your first semester. Otherwise, we recommend focusing on the Java class and getting used to university life first and then taking language classes a little later.

Which language courses can I take?

  • German classes offered by the language centre (unfortunately, there are often more international students than course slots, so be quick when signing up).
  • Other language courses offered by the language centre (if you want to take a beginner’s class, you generally need to very quick when the sign-up period starts).
  • Sometimes, the Studium Professionale offers German Sign Language seminars (you need to be very quick and lucky when signing up for these).
  • The philology programmes in the Faculty of Philosophy often admit students from other study programmes if there are still free slots in their classes. You can check for instance the following programmes: Indology, Japanese studies, Korean studies, Islamic studies, Romance studies, Chinese studies, Nordic studies, Slavic studies.
  • We don’t know if any of the language courses offered by the ‘ancient languages & cultures’-type programmes can be used for the ISCL-BA-02 module (if you know about this, please share that with us!). Those deparments’ classes might nevertheless be interesting to some of you: Egyption studies, Ancient Near Eastern philology, Greek philology, Latin philology. (Some of the departments in the previous group offer courses in ancient/historical languages as well.)

Do I need to know German to take those other language courses?

  • If it’s an advanced language course, you will probably be fine if you only know a little German.
  • If it’s a class for beginners, you should know some basic German. Many instructors try to use as little German as possible however.

Courses from other departments (ISCL MA Supplementary Area)

ISCL MA students who still need classes for the Supplementary Area modules might be interested in some of the courses offered by the computer science department. (Ask your study programme advisor whether the classes you’d like to take will be recognized by the SfS!)

Q & A

Help, my courses overlap!

If both/all of the overlapping courses are offered by the SfS, you should let the department/lecturers know.

If one or more of these classes are offered by another department, there’s not much you/we can do, unfortunately. This semester, you might be lucky in that some of these classes might be taught asynchronously. That said, we recommend prioritizing the courses that count towards your degree.

Other