Course Description

Intermediate Nordic Languages, SCANDIN 100A

Syllabus(opens in a new tab) Notify me when available

This class teaches Scandinavian language and culture, with an emphasis on the entangled linguistic histories of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish and the codevelopment of these languages. Students will also further develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in their own target language. Workload: five hours of work outside class per week. Oral and written midterm and final exam.

Prerequisites: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish 1B, or equivalent with instructor’s approval. The course is not open to native or near-native speakers and cannot be repeated for credit.

PLEASE NOTE: Students from other UC campuses are welcome to join when Fall quarter starts, and will be accommodated.

Students must enroll in one of the Monday & Friday target language sections.

Scandin 100A UC11 (Danish): Monday and Friday 11:00–11:59
Scandin 100A UC12 (Finnish): Monday and Friday 11:00–11:59 
Scandin 100A UC13 (Norwegian): Monday and Friday 11:00–11:59
Scandin 100A UC14 (Swedish): Monday and Friday 11:00–11:59

Key Information

Academic Calendar(opens in a new tab)

Credit: 6 quarter units / 4 semester units credit
UC Berkeley, Scandinavian

Course Credit:

Upon successful completion, all online courses offered through cross-enrollment provide UC unit credit. Some courses are approved for GE, major preparation and/or, major credit or can be used as a substitute for a course at your campus.

If "unit credit" is listed by your campus, consult your department, academic adviser or Student Affairs division to inquire about the petition process for more than unit credit for the course.

UC Berkeley:
General Education: L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature; Fulfills L&S Foreign Language Requirement
Major Requirement: fulfills upper division requirement for Scandinavian majors: Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish concentrations.

UC Davis:
General Education: AH, WC.

UC Irvine:
General Education: VIII - International/Global Issues

UC Los Angeles:
Major Preparation: Scandinavian Languages and Cultures Major / Scandinavian Languages Minor; COM LIT major, COM LIT minor (foreign langauge level 6); ENGLISH major/American Literature & Culture major (foreign language level 4)
Foreign Language requirement

UC Merced:
General Education: Satisfies GE Language Requirement

UC Riverside:
General Education: Elective units

UC San Diego:
General Education: ERC Foreign Language Requirement - third semester/intermediate level or fourth quarter course required for proficiency; Muir- May petition a full year of a language other than English for a GE sequence in Area III; Revelle - Foreign Language Requirement - third semester/intermediate level or fourth quarter course required for proficiency; TMC 1 course toward upper division disciplinary breadth if noncontiguous to major; Sixth - 1 course NAHR; Seventh - 1 course towards Alternatives - Humanities

UC San Francisco:
Unit Credit

UC Santa Barbara:
Unit Credit

UC Santa Cruz:
General Education: CC

Prerequisites

Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish 1B, or equivalent with instructor’s approval. The course is not open to native or near-native speakers and cannot be repeated for credit.

Course Fees

Course reader (approx. 30 USD): Ruth H. Sanders (2017) The Languages of Scandinavia – Seven Sisters of the North

More About The Course

This class consists of twice a week language classes and a weekly lecture in which we will probe into Scandinavian linguistics and language history. Despite belonging to two distinct language families, the histories of Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish are entwined with those of Finnish. Entangled regional histories, as well as shared culture, experience, and linguistic influence, invite us to consider these languages – of which the former three belong to the Indo-European language family and the latter to the Finno-Ugric family – as Scandinavian ‘sister languages’. Following Ruth Sanders’ novel approach in The Languages of Scandinavia – Seven Sisters of the North, the Wednesday lecture aims to explore characteristics of each language as well as crucial intersections among the languages and their speakers, and their continuing co-development.

Our focus in the Wednesday lecture is on Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish, but you will also be introduced to their sister languages, Finnish, Icelandic, Faroese and Sámi. At the end of the course, we will dive into other minority languages and multiethnolects in Scandinavia, the use of English in Scandinavian languages, and the role of Scandinavian languages in modern day North America. The Wednesday lecture will provide a theoretical foundation to help you further your competencies within your chosen target language.

The target language sections will focus on developing your communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context. To further your abilities to interact with cultural competence and understanding, we will watch films, listen to music, and read books, magazines and newspapers and engage with other cultural material in the chosen target language. Finally, we will reflect on language acquisition strategies and on how your target language skills can be used beyond the classroom.

The class is taught in a hybrid format – in-person for students at UC Berkeley and remotely for students at other UC campuses. Instruction methods are primarily class discussions, group work, and short lectures.

Relevant Website

Course Creators

Karen Moller
Karen Møller directs the Scandinavian Languages program and mentors the Graduate Student Instructors who teach Scandinavian-language courses. She teaches all levels of Danish language classes and courses in Nordic philology, foreign-language pedagogy, Scandinavian emigration and inter-Nordic communication. Her interests are focused on foreign-language teaching and learning, especially related to Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL). Throughout her career Møller has been devoted to developing her teaching and teacher training to encompass effective new approaches promoting language learning. She has previously worked on introducing Readers Theater and implemented Watcyn-Jones’ Pair Work theory; more recently, she has adapted Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) for the foreign language classroom and explored the benefits for language teaching in a flipped classroom. She was part of a pioneering team to develop an online and synchronous Distance Learning Program, which shares language classes between all ten UC campuses, a topic on which she gives workshops and presentations. Møller has served as Academic Coordinator with the Berkeley Language Center (BLC) from 1992-1997 under Claire Kramsch as Director, and, since 1996, she has served as Faculty interviewer and Mentor for the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship (under CUSH). Karen Møller directs the Scandinavian Languages program and mentors the Graduate Student Instructors who teach Scandinavian-language courses. She teaches all levels of Danish language classes and courses in Nordic philology, foreign-language pedagogy, Scandinavian emigration and inter-Nordic communication. Her interests are focused on foreign-language teaching and learning, especially ...

Karen Møller directs the Scandinavian Languages program and mentors the Graduate Student Instructors who teach Scandinavian-language courses. She teaches all levels of Danish language classes and courses in Nordic philology, foreign-language pedagogy, Scandinavian emigration and inter-Nordic communication. Her interests are focused on foreign-language teaching and learning, especially related to Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL). Throughout her career Møller has been devoted to developing her teaching and teacher training to encompass effective new approaches promoting language learning. She has previously worked on introducing Readers Theater and implemented Watcyn-Jones’ Pair Work theory; more recently, she has adapted Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) for the foreign language classroom and explored the benefits for language teaching in a flipped classroom. She was part of a pioneering team to develop an online and synchronous Distance Learning Program, which shares language classes between all ten UC campuses, a topic on which she gives workshops and presentations. Møller has served as Academic Coordinator with the Berkeley Language Center (BLC) from 1992-1997 under Claire Kramsch as Director, and, since 1996, she has served as Faculty interviewer and Mentor for the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship (under CUSH).

Sofie Hansen

Sofie Malmborg Hansen is a Danish novelist with an academic background in anthropology and literature. At UC Berkeley, Sofie teaches Danish language, culture and literature.

 Sofie Malmborg Hansen is a Danish novelist with an academic background in anthropology and literature. At UC Berkeley, Sofie teaches Danish language, culture and literature.
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