GERM to GERN/GMST Course Equivalencies

GERN 101, Learning German 1

Meant for absolute beginners, this small and experiential workshop-style 3-credit course introduces students to the sounds, shapes, pleasures, and unique features involved in beginning to use the German language.

Cultural topics include: Germanophone countries, gender and non-binary identities, German colonialism and ethnic diversity, Indigenous land acknowledgement in German and more.

Textbook: Sag Mal, chapters 1-3.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 100, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 102, Learning German 2

Meant for students who have completed GERN 101 (or one year of high-school German), this 3-credit class helps students speak articulately about past experiences and future plans. Cultural aspects focus on multicultural Germanophone societies, including topics such as divers foods, coffeehouses, diversity and diaspora, housing and living arrangements, multicultural holidays, fashion, and history of flags.

Textbook: Sag Mal, chapters 4-6.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 110, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 201, Learning German 3

Meant for students who have completed GERN 102 (or two years of high-school German), this 3-credit class helps students practice complex forms of German language and discuss pressing intellectual and social questions.

Cultural topics include: climate emergency, alternative modes of travel, fairy tales, Germanophone histories, health care and wellness, technology and digital communication.

Textbook: Sag Mal, chapters 7-9.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 200, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 202, Learning German 4

Meant for students who have completed GERN 201, this 3-credit class prepares students for life-long use of German, to participate actively in German-speaking communities, and to achieve more articulate forms of language use and meaningful communication in German.

Cultural topics include: Professions and training, recycling and reuse, social safety nets, urban life, trades and skilled work, job applications and interviews, internships, nature and life outdoors.

Textbook: Sag Mal, chapters 10-12.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 210, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 301, Learning German 5

Meant for students who have completed GERN 202, this 3-credit class helps students join German-speaking conversations effectively, articulately, and confidently.

Textbook: Denk Mal, chapters 1-3.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 300, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 302, Learning German 6

Meant for students who have completed GERN 301, in this 3-credit class students continue to develop their personal styles in German, they focus on the details of interaction, rhetoric, and everyday social exchange across a diverse range of Germanphone media.

Textbook: Denk Mal, chapters 4-6.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 310, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 303, German Conversation

What does it feel like to be a conversationalist in German? This 3-credit course hones students’ existing capacities for diverse forms of social communication on a range of relevant contemporary themes.

Meant for students who have completed GERN 202 (or 301, 302, 401).

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 313, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 304, German for Reading Knowledge I

A multimedia introduction to reading skills in German leading to a second year reading knowledge in just one term. Students are expected to work largely independently. Course meant for students with no or very little German (i.e. no more than GERN 101).

Note: Students will receive credit for GERN 304 in their faculty although it does not satisfy the language requirement of the Faculty of Arts.

GERN 309, German in the Workplace

Austrian, German, Luxembourgish, and Swiss society are powerhouses of business, industry, innovation, and finance. In this 3-credit course, students learn how to be thoughtful, effective participants in diverse multilingual Germanophone workplaces and work cultures.

Meant for students who have completed GERN 202 (or 301, 302, 401).

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 314, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 401, German through Critical Contemporary Topics

Meant for students who have completed GERN 302, this 3-credit course supports students’ individual learning goals and prepares their path for life-long language learning. Discussion and analysis of current issues in a German-speaking seminar format. Spoken and written German communication about critical, societal topics foster advanced competence. Individualized assignments support learning progress throughout.

Learning materials: use of current, open-access materials available online or through UBC library.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 400, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 404, German for Reading Knowledge II (Languages for special purposes)

Meant for students who have completed GERN 304, this 3-credit course focuses on reading of specific topics of the student's choice in humanities, natural sciences, economics/business and music; enhances skills in technical reading. Students are expected to work largely independently.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 434, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 315, The Magic of Translation

Translating isn’t as simple as identifying equivalents in two languages. This 3-credit class gives students tools and concepts to create their own original translations using English, German, and their other languages.

Meant for students who have completed GERN 202 (or 301, 302, 401).

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 325, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 344, Discipline and Liberation: Studies in the 19th Century

From Marx to Goethe to Rosa Luxemburg, 19^th-century Germanophone ideas shape how we think about basics of human character and contemporary society, materialism and inequity, and freedom and discipline.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 380, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GERN 347, Progress and Disaster: Studies in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Most German-language poets and novelists active in the 1900s were persecuted, silenced, murdered, or exiled after 1933. This course explores what happened in the decades after the Nazis’ defeat and/or in recent decades.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 390, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 311, German Linguistics

Like all languages, German is a diverse, living, complex web of meanings and meaningful practices. This class helps students explore their questions, large and small, about German and other languages.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 318, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 415, German Literary Translation

Take your translation skills to the next level, exploring and practicing literary translations of a variety of genres.

This 3-credit class is meant for students who have successfully completed GERN 315 or who have experience translating.

GMST 121, Fairy Tales and Popular Culture

Fairytales are often the first, most powerful stories people share and retell. We study them for ideas about romance, fear, danger, norms, power, education, emotions, gender, family, and behavior.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 121, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 229, Exile, Flight, and Migration

How and why do people flee, migrate, and seek refuge in places whose languages, cultures, and lands are unknown to them? What risks and decisions must they take throughout?

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 206, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 325, The Culture of Nazism

Today, ignoring Nazism and white supremacist totalitarian culture is not an option. This class helps students understand and critique the workings, maneuvers, rituals, and everyday habits of National Socialism.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 305, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 420, Studies in Modern German-speaking Culture

Special topics courses are designed collaboratively to respond to student needs, current events, and emerging research.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 403, students can receive no more than 6 credits for GERM 403 and GMST 420.

GMST 424, Selected Issues in German-speaking Culture

Special topics courses are designed collaboratively to respond to student needs, current events, and emerging research.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 408, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 427, Major Controversies in German-speaking Culture

Special topics courses are designed collaboratively to respond to student needs, current events, and emerging research.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 411, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 433, Germanophone Representations of the Holocaust

How can testimonies, accounts, and stories created by a diverse range of witnesses help students understand the Holocaust/Shoah engineered by the National Socialist government of Germany between 1933 and 1945?

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 426, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 335, German Cinema

In every film and video genre imaginable, writers, directors, actors, and technicians from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have been influential on the world stage, particularly in Hollywood since the 1920s.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 304, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 436, Special Topics in Germanophone Cinema

Special topics courses are designed collaboratively to respond to student needs, current events, and emerging research.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 409, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 341, Germanophone Literature before 1900

From realism and idealism to romanticism and pessimism, Germanophone writers in the 19^th century and earlier offered deep and complex answers to enduring questions about love, society, identity, resistance, and beauty.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 303, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 342, Heaven and Earth: Germanophone Culture and Literature before 1700

How did German-speaking people think about their place on the planet before modernity? How did they conceive of home and foreignness, professions and education, body and spirit, individuality and authority?

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 360, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 343, Reason and Revolution: Studies in the 18th Century

German-speaking people of various backgrounds penned some of the most influential ideas we have today about morality, character, objectivity, experience, passion, performance, economics, science, knowledge, spirituality, and education.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 370, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 346, Germanophone Literature 1900 - 1945

What were the unique movements and moments in German-language literature between the Second Empire and the fall of the Third Reich, in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland? What questions did these stories ask?

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 301, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 347, Germanophone Literature after 1945

Most German-language poets and novelists active in the 1900s were persecuted, silenced, murdered, or exiled after 1933. This course explores what happened in the decades after the Nazis’ defeat and/or in recent decades.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 302, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 440, Selected topics in Germanophone Literature

Special topics courses are designed collaboratively to respond to student needs, current events, and emerging research.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 406, students can receive no more than 6 credits for GERM 406 and GMST 440.

GMST 445, Words and Music in Germanophone Literature

Study of individual works and genres in which words and music together form a whole. Possible topics include the Lutheran Hymn, the Volkslied, the Romantic Lied and Brecht songs, operas by Mozart, Wagner and Strauss, and music and the musician as a subject in literature. No musical training is necessary to take this course.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 402, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 448, Religion and Germanophone Literature

What do faith, worship, scripture, spirit, divinity, and religious community mean in Germanophone contexts—whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, pagan, agnostic, or atheist? This class helps students explore these questions literarily.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 404, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 274, The Frankfurt School

Foundations of critical theory, and key media and cultural studies concepts developed by the members of the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research (1923 -), their collaborators and followers.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 207, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 475, German Media Studies

How do media, new and old, shape our situation in the world? This course explores media in German-speaking cultures, including war propaganda, social media, media in the Third Reich, etc.

Note: As this course code is the permanent replacement for GERM 412, students can receive credit for only one of the two.

GMST 490, Honours Seminar

Meant for German Honours students.

For more information contact the German Undergraduate Director.

GMST 492, Honours Research Capstone

Honours students in German produce a research study with the goal of publication in a (Germanophone) journal, peer-review, and application to graduate study in a relevant field.