Chevron Left
Back to Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics

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

4.7
stars
2,356 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

DC

Sep 23, 2017

Extremely informational, well presented, with questions that stimulate reflection. The optional reading material is food for thought. I hope to see more courses from the same professor and University.

NI

Mar 10, 2021

The course was well-organised and very interesting. It covered the different aspects of linguistics wonderfully and prompted me to delve further into specific fields of linguistics such as phonetics.

Filter by:

201 - 225 of 716 Reviews for Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics

By Sukran C

•

Dec 25, 2017

I am so exited about this course. I found very interesting and successfull. Simply I can not be able to stop watching videos and go over reading materials. I hope they keep open more courses related to this course.

By Tetiana M

•

Mar 22, 2017

This is an extremely interesting and informative course. For me it was really fascinating six weeks of educational process. I am very appreciated to the professor Marc van Oostendorp and his students for this MOOC.

By Touahri A

•

Apr 29, 2020

This course was wonderful. I gained a lot of knowledge about languages and different fields of linguistics. I really recommend this course for anyone interested in languages with no background or basic background.

By Heli K

•

Jun 29, 2019

Super well designed course with intriguing classes and reading materials. I highly recommend this course for everyone into linguistics. Thank you so much for this course!! Waiting for Miracles of Human Language 2!

By Érica C

•

May 14, 2018

I'm so happy I decided to enroll in this course. This was my very first introduction to Linguistics and it left me wanting to know more. Thank you to everyone who worked hard to make this course available for us.

By Svenja S

•

Nov 20, 2022

Great course, outstanding videos and helpful support! I loved, that we can always ask questions in the forum, got some insights in the life of linguists and in differnet languages and they variety.

Thanks a lot!

By 张扬

•

Jun 11, 2018

The instructor is so kind...And the course is a little bit hard to finish, because they have a lot of reading text and prepare video(like statistics analysis), but I still love it, and I will finish it on time.

By THIYAGARAJ G

•

Aug 1, 2020

This has been a fantastic learning journey with professor Marc, Martin, Inge and fellow mates from forum. Extremely thankful to this course. Thank you and keep coming with similar courses for students like us.

By Linda

•

Jun 13, 2020

It was a very interesting course. Very motivating. I learned a lot about linguistic theories. The quizzes were difficult but challenging. The assignments were also very nice and doable. Clear videos. Etc. etc.

By Dana K

•

Sep 16, 2019

Loved this course. The teaching was very well done and kept me interested. After this course I applied to University to begin my studies in LInguistics. Thank you all for this wonderful course. Would recommend

By Michelle M

•

May 1, 2023

Amazing, I was having some trouble deciding what college degree I'd take and this course made it clear on how exciting learning linguistics is! Fantastic explanations and tests with questions that made sense.

By Ryan T M

•

Oct 15, 2018

Very interestding course. Covers just enough to make it achievable, but also opens the door to a lot in terms of linguistic study. Definitely recommended to anybody who is interested in language and culture.

By Lucrecia F

•

Dec 4, 2016

Good course for beginners. It's very basic if you already have some background in language studies. I would recommend this course to people who are considering studying Language or Linguistics at university.

By Darsving O E M

•

Nov 8, 2016

This course is really great and very enriching, specially when you want to have a general view about Linguistics, and at the same time, you get the tools to make a simple but precise analysis of languages.

By Nguyen P T

•

Oct 21, 2022

The course is extremely well-designed, combining lectures, discussions, interviews, quizzes and empirical data to analyze. It provides the same experience as being enrolled in a course at the university.

By SNIGDHA K

•

Nov 3, 2021

Absolutely delightful and severely engaging. Language lovers you will not be disappointed. Very well put together with assignments which make you think and question and eventually change your world views.

By Marian G

•

Feb 24, 2017

Simply GREAT! I can't even express how thankful I am for the amazing information presented in such an understandable way, yet it was challenging. My highest respect to the team in charge of this course!!!

By Lindsey N

•

May 1, 2017

I'm only on the first lesson and feel I have learned so much! Thank you for making the course materials free for those of us not going for the certificate but are just learning because it's interesting.

By John C

•

Mar 28, 2019

I found this course extremely challenging. Which I love. I now have a whole know respect for the learners of languages, and the people who study linguistics. I am glad I took part in this program.

By Silvana H O

•

Aug 26, 2020

Es una gran herramienta para introducirse en el estudio de la linguistica, a mi me ha sido muy util, los conceptos son muchas veces más profundos que básicos. la enseñanza es divertida y amigable.

By Erik J

•

Apr 19, 2019

A very good course; but maybe I'm prejudiced because Leiden is my favourite University.:)

Een zeer goede cursus; maar misschien ben ik bevooroordeeld omdat Leiden mijn favoriete universiteit is. :)

By Laurie K

•

Nov 2, 2018

Very interesting course, well-made videos, interesting interviews and reading materials. Would definitely recommend this course to people who want to know more about different aspects of language.

By Abhinav S

•

Mar 21, 2017

This is one of the best MOOCs I've participated in. The lectures are engaging and the student community is vibrant! If you plan to improve your knowledge about the beauty of Languages - Go for it!

By Daniel M D

•

Aug 14, 2020

A great introductory course with solid theoretical knowledge and practical exercises to implement the acquired information. I would recommend this course to any language enthusiast! Dank je wel!

By asokan

•

Nov 29, 2020

I knew nothing about linguistics and wanted a basic, but rigorous, introduction. This course did just that. My only wish is that the course had some exercises that would have made me learn IPA!