The first foreign language course in college

tango14
Tue, 27 May 2008 21:42:48 +0000

Colleges require a foreign language for the same reason they require math, science, social science, fine arts, etc. For the majority of students, it is not to attain any sort of fluency because that can’t be accomplished in a 2 year required course sequence. The pursuit of fluency would require a minor or major in the language. But studying a foreign language does introduce students to a new way of thinking and a different way of observing the world, just as a science course or a fine arts course does.

As one poster said, you can just look at another language as a one-for-one word-for-word equivalency.