suggestion for Vision 2020 - Dec. '96

[Adonica A Sendelbach]

Dear colleagues,
In response to Ben Rifkin's suggestion for Vision 2020, I'd like to add that
maybe we should also find out if language depts. in other countries have had
the same problems with enrollments and have come up with solutions.  This came
to mind after I watched a 1994 movie "The Browning Version" last weekend.
Albert Finney plays a Latin teacher forced to retire from a British public
school, so that a modern languages dept. can be created.  His response is
"These things come in cycles. Remember a few years ago Russian was the hottest
language.  Then came Perestroika, and now no one wants to study Russian." Or
something like that.
Has anyone heard of solutions to the problem from the Brits, Germans, French,
etc.?  Do they all have enrollment problems in this post-Perestroika era?
Donnie Sendelbach
Sendelbach.1 at osu.edu