Wednesday, August 19, 2009
why foreign language in college?
MOst colleges in the USA have a 'foreign language requirement' as part of their General Education requirements (especially for humanities-oriented majors). Is that a reasonable requirement? SHould college students be required to study Spanish or French (etc) as part of their college education? Why? WHy not? WHat's the benefit of it? WHat are the drawbacks? I would like to hear opinions of students, teachers, and administration.
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I Believe having a foreign language requirment is one of the best pre-requisite courses a college can make their students take. Everyone benefits from taking a foreign language. Besides the fact that the class might be challenging for some there is no downfall. People become more knowledgable of other cultures, and get to experience communicating with some of the other billions of people that are in the world that dont speak your native tongue. Not having a foreign language requirment is a downfall for students because they end up missing out on the fun of communicating with someone of a different culture and thats why its so good to take another language.
ReplyDeleteI believe that languages are all around a good idea for college students to take. when i was in high school i didnt take spanish seriously and when i went on a mission trip to the dominican republic i was unable to minister to the people there as good as i would have been able to do had i paidattdention and took it seriously. it is our duty to teach the nations about christ and we cant do that if we cant communicate.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very beneficial for college students in the US to learn a foreign language. Spanish in particular is a very useful communications tool. The large amount of people who are flocking to the US from South America is growing, so it is necessary to be able to speak with them. I am not overwhelmingly excited about taking a Spanish class, but there is a part of me that looks forward to the challenge. It is a fairly reasonable requirement, but I don't know that it should be mandatory for ALL majors. Other than that, it is a good tool to utilize.
ReplyDeleteI think that the foreign language requirement is a great benefit for any college student, no matter what his or her major might be! I really do not believe that there is any downfall to having to learn a second language. The U.S. is becoming more and more diverse, and I think that one day, in order to communicate with some we might have to know something outside of our language barrier. There are many logical reasons for the requirement! Just a couple: The student becomes more aware of cultures outside of their own, better communication with those who might not speak English.
ReplyDelete-S.A.
I believe that it is a reasonable requirement for general ed. I personally am not great at learning languages. I love English and i know a lot about grammar but for some reason that has never been able to transfer over to another language for me. The benefits are obvious for anyone who is even partially fluent in more more than one language. the job market will look more favorably at you and there is a good chance for a higher paid position as well. The drawbacks are that in America there is very little you can do to use the languages that you learn unless your job demands that of you on an almost daily basis. I am not sure that a Theatre Technician would be able to use a second language very often unless they were in the country that spoke the language. otherwise it would get rusty and become lost and wasted. I think it is a good culture influence and great for people who are going to use it all of the time but i don't see most of Americans being able to take full advantage of it.
ReplyDelete-Andrew Turner