Undergraduate Bulletin > German and Russian, including Chinese and Japanese Studies > Courses

Department of German and Russian

including Chinese and Japanese Studies

The aim of the Department of German and Russian is to impart a deeper understanding for important foreign languages and cultures in the context of a liberal and humanistic education.

Our courses are intended to advance language proficiency skills and to contribute to the student’s intellectual development and aesthetic experience. Language instruction courses provide students with speaking skills and knowledge that will enable them to inform themselves independently about the life and literature of German, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese speaking cultures. More advanced courses emphasize language, literature, and culture studies, which are the primary goals of the majors in German and Russian.

The language laboratory provides students with Web facilities for aural and oral exercises. Cultural material such as films, records, and tapes is coordinated with classroom work. Students may also elect to live in UNCG’s International House. UNCG film program provides German, Russian, and Japanese films each semester. German and Russian Studies Roundtables provide open academic forums for interdisciplinary discussions among both faculty and students.

The Department maintains an active membership in the German Studies Consortium, which utilizes the NC Information Superhighway to share teaching and learning resources to enhance German Studies across The University of North Carolina system. This consortium offers a broad array of German Studies courses in the language, literature, and culture of the German-speaking countries taught by specialists in the field. The primary focus is on the sharing of upper-level courses for German majors and minors enrolled in the program. Participant universities include Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, The University of North Carolina at Asheville, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Western Carolina University.

From time to time UNCG Summer Study Abroad travel programs are offered. Information on other summer programs abroad is available.

Students who wish to spend their junior year studying any subject at the Universities of Bamberg, Mannheim, Osnabrück, The Higher School of Commerce at Worms (UNCG partner institutions), or with other programs, must have completed intermediate language courses. Similar exchanges are available with Slavic and Japanese universities.

In addition to pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in German students can major or minor in Russian Studies or Asian Studies. See International and Global Studies. A major in German can also be pursued in tandem with an International Business Studies major.