Summer language study offers substantial learning benefits -- and
this year at a lower fee

Language instruction is a major time commitment for undergraduates, requiring as much as a full year’s worth of courses to complete. But this summer, UCLA students can benefit from an intensive language study program that fulfills their entire language requirement -- and this year, they can receive a substantial fee reduction for summer study.

These immersion-style language classes last between eight and nine weeks and offer 12-15 units of UCLA quarter credit.   The fees for all UC students, including recently admitted first-year and transfer students, are reduced by $1000 for 15-unit classes and $800 for 12-unit classes.

Summer language study also offers the added advantage of extended daily contact with the language -- a powerful learning method, especially in preparation for study abroad or a degree in international studies.

Many of the language intensives are considered “Intensives in L.A.,” a UCLA program that adds a community learning component to the intensive format.

“It gives students a sense of culture,” explains Sara Hosegera, student affairs officer in the Center for World Languages which facilitates the Intensives in L.A. programs.

Of course, Intensives in L.A. are made possible thanks to the exceptional cultural diversity of the city of Los Angeles where over two hundred languages are spoken every day.

Students in these language intensives travel to parts of the city where the target language is spoken and they interact with native speakers. They also benefit from visiting specialists and traditional meals together.

Agazit Abate, a graduate student in African Studies who also completed her B.A. at UCLA, enrolled in the beginning Arabic intensive in 2007.  She says she never had time during the academic year to fit it in and she was very interested in learning a language that is spoken so widely around the world.
Abate’s fellow students all traveled to Arabic-language bookstores in Orange County, drank mint tea, and watched movies together.

“I loved it and I’m really glad I did it,” says Abate who still manages to find friends to chat with in Arabic.

For more information about summer language intensives, visit the Summer Sessions at http://www.summer.ucla.edu/institutes/IntensivesinLA/overview.htm. For current UCLA students, the fee reduction is calculated automatically when they enroll.