Speaking the Language

And speaking of international programs and experiences, an important part of the immersion that happens during study abroad experiences is increased proficiency in the language of where ever you might go. Of course, students can and should prepare for this on campus by taking advantage of the many language offerings in the Franklin College.

Quite often, until you are on campus and sitting with a Franklin advisor, you might not know the actual variety of foreign languages you could learn - that are an important part of any degree program in any school or college, regardless of whether they are required or not. Having lived abroad on multiple ocassions, I'm of the persuasion that students who leave campus without some facility in a second langauge are leaving something very important on the table.

So, for a rundown of the kind of variety I'm talking about:

The department of Romance Languages has many of the most popular courses in language instruction - French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

The department of German and Slavic Studies offers instruction in German and Russian.

The Classics department offers instruction in Greek and Latin languages, as well as culture and literature.

The department of Comparative Literature is the home of majors in Chinese language and literature, Japanese language and literature, and minors in Japanese, Chinese, Korean language and literature, and African languages and literature including Swahili, Yoruba and Amharic at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels.

And then there are interdisciplinary programs like the Virtual Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the Islamic World that offer language instruction in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Pashto, Bengali and Indonesian.

All right here.

Even with this many examples, I feel like I'm leaving out something. But this list makes plain just how integral the study of languages is to a liberal arts education. As if it needed saying, there are literally no majors or careers for which a second langauge would not lend greater expertise or capacity, and value, if that's how you want to look at it. While they're on campus, students are creating a unique set of credential for themselves to take out into the world and a second language (3rd? 4th?) is an important part of this - this goes for business, the sciences, agriculture or law. For journalism I would say il est absolument essentiel.

But that's just how I would say it.

Update: See, I did forget one (at least). Professor of Romance Languages and Associate Dean Noel Fallows writes to say that the department of linguistics also offers Sanskrit. Thanks, Dr. Fallows!

Image: the Cyrillic chatacter Tajik (I with macron) courtesy creative commons license.