MY COURSES

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Principles of Economics (C. Mulhearn)

It's an annual course, corresponding to Micro and Macroeconomics modules at ETI. If you go to Liverpool in the first semester you will attend Macroeconomic classes; in the second you will attend Microeconomic classes. The module is interesting and the teachers are very nice; it is given by three teachers and that is an advantage because it is then possible to get three different approaches. This is a three-hour module (two-hours classes and one hour tutorial, in which the teacher focalizes on one aspect of the lesson and explains the most difficult topics). The result is that the course is not too difficult for people who are not regular Economic students.
Even though I appreciated the fact that this course was mostly made up of English and not exchange students, I would have to say be better to say that they were not very interested or active (in their first year at the University they are often very young and it is the first time they are far from home; they prefer going out than studying Economics!). That is why we were always loosing a lot of time. Moreover, if you stay only one semester you will have to negotiate a specific evaluation method because the module is planned for the whole year.

Contemporary Britain (H. Jkmann)

“The course aims to engage students in the society around them, both in terms of the immediate academic environment in Liverpool, and the life and experience of British people. In this course, students will be introduced to ‘what’s happening now’ in Britain by looking at national and local issues as presented in the media, especially newspapers.”
Although it looks really appealing in the brochure, "Contemporary Britain" is in fact not very interesting. It is part of the first level courses at the School of Languages, among the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses and so it was not very useful for practicing English. What is worse is that we never analyse topics thoroughly but limited ourselves to searching information on the Net (e.g. Prince William's hobbies) and to read the results in class. In the end we had an exam on the texts that we analyzed during the course.

Television Across Languages (C. Foulkes)

“This module is aimed at both British and exchange students and is taught in English by a team of teachers. The intention is to examine how television programming and production varies between 5 European languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian and German). The sessions will involve a significant amount of group work. Students will be expected to research, reflect and discuss many television related issues: gender, culture, dubbing in particular genres; soaps/advertising/children’s programmes/interviews.”
This module has positive and negative aspects. Firstly, there are many international students with different mother tongues working in mixed groups. The subject of the module is very interesting and the teachers are nice: one of them is the Exchange Students Coordinator, so she knows everyone very well. The topics we discussed included, for example, the media in different countries, paying particular attention to the pictures, the journalist's way of speaking, and so on. In addition, in groups, we created and played a soap-opera; it was very funny. Unfortunately, as for the other classes with Erasmus students there is not a lot of work to do, we did not study the subject in depth and we felt like we were loosing our time. Technical matters always caused a lot of problems and we spent a lot of time just trying to switch on the televisions. For the final exam I invented with my group a new channel that in our opinion could be interesting for the public. It took only one afternoon to do, but it was the most creative exam I have never had.

Introduction to Family Law (R. Jones)

“The aim of this module is to expose, illustrate and analyse the changing nature of marriage and the family as social institutions and legal responses to changes in society with regard to the family. The module will provide an insight into a variety of approaches to defining childhood and parenthood while facilitations knowledge of the main legal provisions regulating relationships within families.”
It is the module that I liked best, because it is a subject that I like (the ethical aspect of family law, marriage, cohabitation, adoption, artificial fertilisation, with links to scientific questions: embryos and cloning). The module is interactive: the teacher introduces the problem in class and lets you think about the problem. During tutorial hours, according to the English system, students discuss in little groups the topics presented in class. My classmates were second-year Law students and so this course was the most difficult one I had, but also the most interesting one. For example, instead of the exam, I was supposed to write an essay on a subject that I chose among the course chapters: I could in this way practice my written English. It has been very useful also because I learned to search legal documents in the library and on the Net in order to read up on the references preseted in the course bibliography. Finally, I could learn the peculiarities of the English legal system, which is very different from ours.

Translation and Communication Skills Italian (S.Tufi)

“The translation module is divided into 3 parts:
Translation class – Translation into and out of target language
Aural/Oral sessions
English (ESOL) sessions
In the first two components you will be working alongside British students who are following language degree programmes. The benefits of these interactive sessions are great both linguistically and culturally. In the third session students from different language backgrounds will work with the English tutors in identifying areas of linguistic and cultural interest when translating. Topics will include issues related to Liverpool and the English speaking world.”
Many exchange students choose translation courses and it is a good choice. I would suggest to whoever wants to go to Liverpool to attend many translation courses, at different levels. The course is made up of three parts: the first one (ESOL) is only basic grammar, but the others are very interesting. They focalize on spoken and written language (translation is done to learn the language and not to learn the method of translation). English students who attend the course are really interested in studying your language; it is then normal to work together and to help each other, more than in the other courses. The final exam is one translation, but during the whole year there are marked works. It is good to know that translations into your mother tongue are easier than at ETI because languages are tought at a lower level, but exercises into English are collaborate with to English speaking students.