Language requirements (was: Advertising Slavic Languages)

[Michael Burianyk]

On Thu, 10 Oct 1996, Stephen Bobick wrote:

> A thought just occurred to me regarding "advertisement" of Slavic languages.

And a fine thought it was :-)

It leads me to think about another factor. How many universities and
colleges have language (other than English) requirements? Here at the
University of Alberta, undergrads in the Faculty of Arts are required
to take only one (1) 6 credit (i.e. two semesters) course in a language.
In the Faculty of Science, there is *no* such requirement (18 credits
only are required from the humanities in general). Also, in the
Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, there is *no* such
requirement (though individual departments can make their own
requirements, I don't know how prevelent it is among the non-
language departments).

I know that a similar situation exists at the University of Saskatchewan
and I don't think that things are too different from any other university
in Canada.

Personally, I do not see how anyone can call themselves 'educated' without
at least two years of studying a foreign language (and this is a minimum).
Without getting into the question of why this situation has developed (I
believe that many years ago, the requirements were more stringent), is
there any possibility that Universities might start requiring more
rigorous language study?

This would help all language departments, and the slavic languages would
get their share.

Anyone have any ideas on how to convince University/College administrations
that this is a good idea?

BTW, just to show how far out in left field I am, I also believe that a
Bachelor's degree should require at least 5 years of study - allowing
plenty of time for at least 3-4 language courses. :-)

--
Michael Burianyk               Office: P534B Avahd-Bhatia Physics Lab
Seismology Laboratory          Phone : (403) 492 4128
Department of Physics          Fax   : (403) 492 0714
University of Alberta
Edmonton, CANADA T6G 2J1       e-mail: buri at phys.ualberta.ca