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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics by Universiteit Leiden

4.7
stars
2,407 ratings

About the Course

Everywhere, every day, everybody uses language. There is no human society, no matter how small or how isolated, which does not employ a language that is rich and diverse. This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language! The Miracles of Human Language introduces you to the many-faceted study of languages, which has amazed humans since the beginning of history. Together with speakers of many other languages around the world, as well as with famous linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Adele Goldberg, you will learn to understand and analyse how your native tongue is at the same time similar and different from many other languages. You will learn the basic concepts of linguistics, get to know some of the key features of big and small languages and get insight into what linguists do. This course gives an introduction into the study of languages, the field of linguistics. With the support of the basic linguistic terminology that is offered in the course, you will soon be able to comment both on variety between languages, as well as on a single language’s internal structure. Anyone who wishes to understand how languages work, and how they can give us insight into the human mind is very welcome to join. The course is useful if you want to get a fairly quick introduction into linguistics, for instance because you are considering studying it further, or because you are interested in a neighbouring discipline such as psychology, computer science or anthropology. Furthermore, the course will help you develop analytical skills. If you are curious to understand how language works and how it gives insight into the human mind, this course is definitely for you!...

Top reviews

MP

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Some of the material could be a bit more analytical, and there were a few problems with the quiz questions. Other than that, perfect! Great introduction to linguistics. Thank you for your hard work!

LR

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I found this course to be not only educational but extremely interesting. It provides a great overview of the field of linguistics and does so in an engaging manner. I highly recommend it!

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726 - 734 of 734 Reviews for Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics

By Ryo M

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Oct 18, 2020

I'm a science guy with no background about Linguistics and had expected this course to give me deeper understanding of human language from a point of view that is new to me, but what I found is Linguistic is nothing, no offense, as long as this course tells me. Most of the statements and the questions by the professor was not well-defined and opinionated. At lease I wanted many examples or facts in some organized way when we focus on a specific topic, but this course doesn't contain that feature. I think I am just not the target of this course, but I leave this review to save others like me.

By Judith o G

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Dec 29, 2020

This course seems to be poorly organized and poorly presented. When I read the text, the professor does not use complete sentences, asks intermediate questions before the relevant information is given and then assumes that the International Phonetic Alpabet is known to participants because no explanation of it is given. I studied Comparative Linguistics 30 years ago so the subject is not unknown to me but this presentation is horrible.

The one-star rating is because the required readings are veryinteresting.

By Mary W

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Sep 21, 2023

Ethnologue under the free access does not provide the info the course requires, nor do any of the required reading links work. So So disappointed. Also Ethnologue does NOT offer an option for the free two months as the course suggests. I am so disappointed in Leiden, I will never take another leiden course. Not the first time, is the last time...

By Sara P

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Nov 1, 2020

I couldn't complete the course because not all of their required readings were available to the public. When I tried to contact a moderator for help, no one ever responded.

By Jinjin M H

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Aug 6, 2024

The tests are faulty. They need to be revised. This mistake makes it impossible for learners to progress in the course. You need to amend this.

By Wren E

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Dec 6, 2021

It starts off as an ad for the university. I'd prefer to focus on the content, which should be all linguistics, not uni stats and whatnot.

By Polina

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Sep 14, 2022

Course was pretty interesting until I needed to take a test on the first week. This test is incorrect and it destroyed my motivation.

By Ramona M H

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Jan 21, 2017

To difficult to enjoy, unfortunately.

By Adi L

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Jun 28, 2022

extreamly hard! like a nightmare!