Top schools for studying languages

warblersrule
Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:53:40 +0000

ucbalumnus:

A student looking just to learn a common language like Spanish may find that a few semesters’ worth of courses at any college

This is definitely true, but I would not make the assumption that a language is taught the same at any two colleges simply because they both offer it. Languages are taught at different speeds at different colleges. The first year of German at Duke was equivalent to about four years of German at an average high school, but at my sister’s LAC, they took a little over 3 semesters to get to that level. Workload likewise varies quite a bit – comparing notes with fellow classics majors, I found that Oxford students were doing more work than at Duke, Chicago and Brown students slightly less, WFU students noticeably less, etc. You can very easily learn a simple language like French or Spanish through any college or high school that offers it, but I think the speed with which you do so and the level of command you attain can vary from one college to another.

Language instruction is one area in which I think it’s really, really difficult to beat a large, good research university:
[ul][]Language classes tend to be capped at small sizes even at very large universities, and it’s only at such institutions that you’ll find everything from Tocharian to Quechua to Old Norse. The article mentions that UCLA offers 80 languages, for example; I suspect the number of languages available is even higher; many professors are familiar with languages they either don’t teach or don’t teach regularly, but these are easily arranged through an independent study.
[]These universities are more likely to offer courses every year, or at least regularly, rather than every so often, as most LACs tend to do with less popular languages. (Introductory Greek is every other year at many places, for example.)
[]They’re more likely to offer a wide range of culture classes. You can take classes on Chinese politics, Chinese history, Chinese art, etc. to balance your education rather than simply learning basic Chinese from the one or two adjunct/visiting professors the college hired to teach Chinese.
[]They’re more likely to be known overseas, a plus if you want to work outside the US.[/ul]

I am not sure how the article is defining “innovative,” but I was extremely surprised not to see Harvard on the list. Harvard offers several languages that no other college in the US does, and it’s pretty good at virtually everything it offers.