This was a really wonderful online course - the best I've done yet (and I've done many).

The content was fascinating, varied and challenging and the lecturer's passion for his subject and learning in general was a pleasure to share.

I particularly liked the use of informants which gave real examples of languages and the discussion aspect, although personally I got very little feedback for my comments.

No matter, this is an exemplary online course and a brilliant introduction into the field.

Thankyou!

Excellent course ! Professor van Oostendorp is a good pedagogue and the discussions of Marten and Inje put well in perspective the knowledge acquired ! As a future practitioner (English teaching and coaching), this MOOC was an exceptional source of information for me and will definitely help me in explaining better the way languages work and are shaped.

In addition, I would be happy if there were other courses by the University of Leiden to learn more about specific aspects/subjects of linguistics

Overall, this course was a great experience. As a student of English as a second language, trust me when I say that it helped me a lot with the subject "linguistics" at college. Nonetheless, I must say that this course was tough! I don’t know, maybe, because English is not my mother tongue but at times I certainly felt that I couldn’t keep up with some of the assignments. Nevertheless, if you give your best, you will make it. Also, if you are looking for a challenge…. well, this is your course.

I enjoyed this challenging course on linguistics. I appreciated that the course materials were available as one file so I could both read the text and watch the videos. The videos contained a quiz inside that kept me engaged. The interviews and Q&A sessions were a valuable way to present new information. I obtained two books from the suggested reading material to further my learning. In the end, I bought the certificate as a way to say thanks to the team for such a great course. Bravo!

This was a fun and informative course. The instructor was clear in his speaking and did very well to describe each concept. The variety of content was also good, it was not just about listening and trying to absorb the information. We got to see it in different contexts, tried also to apply the new learning and also got a broader perspective on linguistics as well. This is a course I would happily come back to in order to refresh my memory on different concepts as well.

Thank you!

The course was great. I enjoyed learning process. The content and delivery is also very good. I appreciate the efforts taken by the team of this course. I learned lot of new things about language,origin, language acquisition, various interesting terms related to linguistics. I think it will be helpful for me to understand my own mother tongue and also to communicate in better way. Thank you Professor Marc van Oostendorp, Dr. and the research students contributed in this course.

A very enjoyable, engaging course which touches on the fundamentals of Linguistics. I found the professor, as well as the assistants delightful, and the language informants were also very exciting to have. It was challenging at a few points despite my background and interest in Linguistics, however, it was well worth the effort.

I sincerely hope I can take more courses from Leiden, or perhaps study there one day. This course reaffirmed my interest in Leiden from 10 years ago.

This is course for those who love language and also for those who want to explore the miracle of language . Pro. Ostendrop and his team breaks down the syllabus into a bit size and in very friendly manner . Its like we're sitting in a live class room. In the middle of the module there are interviews from experts such as Noam Chomsky, we all know he's a mammoth figure in linguistic realm. Thanks Coursera and thanks all the teams who are involved in creating this course.

Very interesting course and highly recommend to those interested in languages. The first 2 weeks were a little technical and quizzes tough but the later weeks are really interesting. Learnt a whole lot of things I never knew. Hope to pursue studies related to psychology and linguistics.

Really wish we could get the correct answers to quiz questions though - at least at the end of the course. Also, wish they could give a lot more online resources for additional reading.

I learned a lot of things, but most importantly I have a conceptual understanding of the different components that create the structure of language. The student will listen to a lot of different languages, will be introduced to various branches of linguistics and will create a solid base on which they can further study the interesting topic of human language. The educator was great and the students (Martin and Inge) are relatable, polite and smiling. Great course.

Great course! Enjoyed it no end! Clearly so much love was put into the making of this program! It is both interesting and full of new information. Shows different sides of profession, so that people like me, new to the theme, could see what linguists actually do. Especially loved readings, as the articles given weren't overly tough, but presented a ton of information on different themes. Can't even start describing how sad I am that the course it at an end!

This was an exciting course that uses real people to demonstrate linguistic concepts. It was a great idea to have speakers of less internationally familiar languages such as Gungbe and Berber to demonstrate how it is possible to understand the basics of a language's structure (despite having no prior knowledge of that particular language).The video discussions and interviews were a nice way to break up lectures and provide real-life context to the course.

Thank you so much!!!! I loved it >w<

I had been waiting for this because I enjoy learning about linguistics but I don't knew where to start, definitely this course was a miracle.

All the resources had a high quality and were a great advantage to understand the subject, it was very funny to analyze different languages (especially in the last section), I learned a lot of things about culture, as well.

Hoping all is well, congratulations for this course. <3

I had taken Linguistics at college before but wanted to study it a little further because I'm passionate about the subject. I found this course and was not disappointed. Even though it is intro level, I learned so much! I absolutely loved the content, the teacher, and the students, and I think the informants and interviews were very much necessary. I definitely recommend this course to anyone interested in Linguistics and the wonders of human language!

The course is well structured, the tutorials through videos are excellent, sometimes it is necessary to search for more information, as it is the case of the lab video (the cochran implants). It is a pity that additional readings are not available through kindle or ibooks as their cost is better than the traditional books. I am going to pay for the certificate, I do not need it, but really the work put into the course rates more than 10.

A wonderful course. I especially loved the second and the third weeks, fourth too, but less so. I wish this course had more of such deeply linguistic chapters. The fifth and the sixth weeks were fun too, but they lacked the deep linguistic spirit to them, maybe because psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics are sort of fusional disciplines that border with other scientific fields. Nevertheless, the course is great!

The course syllabus is very balanced and strategically organized in an informative and useful way, both for those who would like to either acquire or refresh their linguistics background. The quizzes and final exam are challenging and fulfilling as they go beyond the theoretical analysis of testing learning. I will definitely recommend this course to interested friends. Congratulations to Leiden University and Prof. Oostendorp!

This is a great introduction course to linguistics! I Like the lecture style with content videos and then discussion videos with the students in every module! The lecturers and students in the videos are knowledgable and explain things in a clear manner, giving great examples. The peer assignments help understanding the content as you have apply your knowledge in order to fulfil the assignments. I really liked this course!

A course with many interesting aspects: numerous discussions on various topics with the other students; many interviews, also with intellectuals of the caliber of Noam Chomsky; Prof van Oostendorp and his students Inge and Marten are always stimulating and friendly; lots of suggested optional readings. After this course I feel like I'm knowing more on this subject and I'm having the desire to deepen even more my knowledge.

I am very impressed by the the quantity of information this introduction course covers. Each week has a specific topic and gives the opportunity to learn more as the optional reading and sources are numerous. The videos are enjoyable, the teacher really enthousiastic (which is contagious!). This courses manages to give both theory and "practice" as the student has to observe, deduct and test his/her new skills.

I learned quite a lot about linguistics, I would say, including the required reading material, almost to a first or second year university student. I'm very happy with the content in this course and I enjoyed it a lot, thanks to Professor Marc van Oostendorp for his amazing job as presenter, and to Martin and Inge for such a joyful contribution to discussions and interviews. I had such an amazing time, thanks!

Great course with lots of interesting content for anyone interested in linguistics. My only complaint is that some of the questions (especially the ones in the videos) are a bit poorly worded and can be confusing. Overall though, well worth the time spent, and a big thanks to Dr. Oostendorp, Marten, Inge, the language informants and everyone at Universiteit Leiden & Meertens instituut that made this possible.

This was my first course on Coursera and I really enjoyed it very much. I had studies linguistics in the past and wanted to revisit the subject. In my opinion this course is a great introduction to the many varied fields linguistics has to offer. The numerous discussion prompts and quizzes made me think a bit, which I enjoyed. I would definitely recommend the course as a refresher or introductory overview.

I took this course out of curiosity and the lecturers presented were very interesting to hear and I would like to thank the lecturers for presenting such great work, Also the informants for taking their time to present us with the unique languages that they may speak.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in how language works and how we're able to speak out and construct words out.