Foreign language requirements necessary, useful
I am writing to oppose Sara Boyd’s “Foreign language requirement impotent, pointless” column from April 22, 2010. One might be surprised to find an engineering student supporting foreign language requirements, but I speak from the need for universities to broadly educate their students. I agree with Boyd that few if any students achieve proficiency in a language after four courses, but likewise in other areas of study students will not obtain proficiency after only a handful of courses. Wherever one lies on the spectrum of belief — from college existing primarily to prepare one for a career to college existing primarily to broadly educate people — foreign language requirements have a place in undergraduate education. Certainly knowledge of a widely-spoken language like Mandarin Chinese or Spanish could be useful for a career. Furthermore, foreign language study should both augment one’s general education and promote a better understanding of grammar, a subject too often ignored in elementary and secondary education these days. Finally, perhaps the clearest reason to learn a foreign language lies in the legacy of language. Languages such as English, Spanish and Latin have remained prevalent centuries after the fall of the empires originally responsible for their dispersion.John Tatechemical engineering graduate student
 
 
 
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