Miracles of Human Language is a wonderful introduction to the field of linguistics. Prof.dr. M. van Oostendorp is an adept and engaging lecturer and his knowledge of his field is vast. His discussions with Marten and Inge were engaging and his interactions with the language informants was, well... informing! I only wish I could contribute a language to his MOOC as well as participate in his research and work at Universiteit Leiden. Thank you, Dr. van Oostendorp, Marten, Inge, Roberta, Khalid, Han, Varun, Enoch, and Beste. It's been quite a ride!

The inspirational and charismatic teacher! His speech is clear and not very fast, so even non-native English speakers will be able to understand the lectures. The course helped me take a more in-depth look at human language and improve my critical thinking skills! The quizzes (at the end of each module) might seem a little complicated at first sight… but if you study carefully, take notes during the lectures, and do all the required reading, you will easily pass the quiz. I strongly recommend this course! You will definitely gain new knowledge.

Teaching is not an easy job, even more so online, but this course was so well done with diverse course materials, various speakers and especially such an enthusiastic teacher. Probably one of the best course I had in my entire education. I wish there was a module specifically about language history, because that's what I'm interested in the most, but really it's a great introduction to a field that was very foreign to me. Too bad there isn't more course about linguistics on here, but at least we're given reading recommendations to follow up.

I absolutely loved this course!! I had no idea what Linguistics really was, and this course explained it perfectly. The Professor is extraordinary. It is very well structured, clearly explained, the part of the informants is very illustrative but sometimes difficult to interpret, which makes it all the more challenging. The exams are very tough so you have to study a lot, which is great,, because a free course doesn't mean that it will be easy. I wish there were more courses on this subject by the same institution, it was fantastic.

A very good introduction to Linguistics and the different aspects of the field. This is a broad field, and, like any Intro class, a lot of information is presented in a short amount of time. The quizes can be pretty specific, and the questions about the Language Informants are difficult. I would advise getting hold of the recommended Text book just to have background information on some of the topics that are just briefly explained in the video lectures. I really enjoyed this class, and plan to continue my studies in Linguistics.

An excellent course. Easy to follow, easy to understand, and it encourages you to comment and have dialogues in the forum for every topic. The quizzes are a little bit hard, but that's expected from a well thought out and put up course made by university professors. It has been really fun to follow for six weeks, which I think is a well designed period to learn the basics of Linguistics. Also, it has a lot of videos of informants with different languages so it's very diverse. Thank you so much. I'll revisit these contents later.

The professor taught the material in a very clear and understandable way. Having live examples using various language informants was also very informative (the only qualm I would have is that the Mandarin Chinese videos should be transliterated in a more readable format, most of it was incomprehensible due to my unfamiliarity with any aspect of the language). The reading material and books were also really interesting. Overall, I learnt a great deal in this course and I think I have a better idea of the field of linguistics.

I wholeheartedly like to thank Dr. Marc van Oostendorp and his team for presenting this MOOC course is the best possible manner. I really gained good knowledge and developed lots and lots of interest toward language and linguistics. This course has almost covered major aspects of human language and linguistics. In my opinion this course gives a very good platform for those who would like do research in Language and Linguistics. Interviews with some of the eminent persons in the field Language and Linguistics was excellent.

This is course will surely play a pivotal role in my understanding of the human language when I will study more in depth at the university completing a MA in Lingustics. Thanks to the professors who contributed to this courses, all the people who crowdfunded a module 6, Martin and Inge and other professors who were a part of this course. Thanks for the exclusive interview of Dr Chomsky too. Lastly, I would like to thank Coursera for giving me this opprtunity to learn about this subject. Once again, Thanks to everybody.

This course has been an emotional and mental journey for me. I started with high hopes of finishing it on time and without delays but my schedule and some lessons were a little too hard for me, I need to go over them not just twice but I believe I go over a lesson for more than five times. But I am grateful because I learned a lot. There were topics that were new to m and I am thankful that this course opened to me about these topics. Thank you for this course. I had a lot of takeaways after completing it.

I found the course very informative, there was quite a lot of information in there for only six weeks of study but it didn't feel overwhelming either. Professor Marc van Oostendorp was very engaging in his presentation of the material, and I liked the fact that his students were there to ask questions as well. I also liked how the language informants were used - I was able to practice what I had learned in the other videos by analysing their speech patterns. Overall, I was quite impressed by this course.

This is my first Coursera course and I love it. The course is student-friendly with classes elaborately designed and informative with lots of source readings. The forum is one of the best parts of the course. I learn how to think questions like a linguist. And from informants of different background, I know there are so many interesting languages existing in our world. As the course name shows that it is an introduction to Linguistics, my interests towards the linguistics is well developed. Thank you.

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.