Durham Language Classes

I get the impression you're doing French in the language centre, Foxius? People that apply to do Modern Languages don't have an lessons there.
The language classes for those who apply to do Mod Langs, well, I've only done French out of the 3 languages in the original question, but basically in the first year French language module is divided into 3 classes - a weekly, hour long grammar and translation class (between 10 and 15 people): you'll do translation homeworks and learn new grammar. Thene there's the weekly, hour-long Language Lab (around 20 people), essentially listening, it's kind of like a continuation of your A level reading and listening paper, so you do resumés and transcriptions and listening tests. (I made an error in 1st year by skipping this class a lot because it was rediculously easy, but my poor attendance meant I had to resit the exam, despite getting 80% in the preliminary... So, don't make the same mistake as me!!).
Finally you have your fortnightly oral class (between 8 and 10 people), which is taught by a native speaker. Make sure you go to all of these as they are continually assessed and each lesson counts towards your final mark. You will also be assessed through a series of group presentations. Better than doing an oral exam!
Hope this helps a little bit, sorry I can't help with German and Russian. If anyone wants to know about Spanish or Italian, just ask!

I do Advanced French at the language class - it's alright. There's one two hour session per week and it's about A Level Standard. For French, I got the impression that Intermediate would have been suitable for me, but after doing it for A Level for two years, it was just too easy.
There's usually about 10 people in each class every week - you get loads of absentees though.

Sounds a hell of a lot better than UCL's language teaching (ie '**** off and learn some language, come back at the end of the year for an exam').

How many classes do you have per week at UCL? I thought UCL was really good for languages....

UCL has some incredible research staff in literature and film... that doesn't translate to much in the way of language teaching. We have two hours of grammar and an hour of oral (so pretty much the same), but it's totally unstructured so you learn not much (we don't do exercises or anything). You get told at the start of the year that you basically need to teach yourself...

:O every oral class is assessed? ouch! i am so terrible in speaking lessons!