Hola, bonjour, hallo! Students who have taken a language course at Lipscomb have most likely heard at least one of these ways to say ‘hello.’
Any Lipscomb student pursuing a bachelor of arts or music degree is required to take eight hours of a foreign language. The university offers three core language options – Spanish, French and German. Some Russian is also offered.
German professor Charlie McVey said he finds these languages valuable for work and beyond.
“The four languages that we have offered fairly regularly are very important in today’s world,” McVey said. “As minors or double majors, [Spanish, French, German and Russian] really enhance anybody’s career choices and personal opportunities for service.”
Although Chinese and Russian classes are listed in the academic catalog, no Chinese classes have been offered for several years. One Russian class was offered last fall, but not during the spring 2015 semester. McVey said it is not for lack of teachers or funds.
“The language department would love to add classes, but unless they’re required by other departments and other programs, students generally won’t take a lot of languages,” McVey said. “So until programs strongly encourage or even require some language, it would be difficult to add other languages. If the demand comes, the supply can certainly come.”
Some students said they wish languages like Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic or Hindi were offered. Mandarin Chinese is the most common language in the world, and there are more speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese and Japanese than either German or French.
“I really wanted to take a Chinese class, but they didn’t have it,” said Gabriela Barboza, a junior mechanical engineering major. “So I just didn’t take any [language].”
Until there is a big enough demand for other languages, students will have to take Spanish, French or German to fulfill the language requirement.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb University