T2 B11 Linguists Fdr- Entire Contents- Fall 03 Nesbit Article- 1st Pg For Ref 666

A UM student tackles a perennial favorite: Spanish 101.

MORE THAN 60 LANGUAGES TAUGHT AT UM By Joanne Nesbit

Start at any latitude or longitude on the globe. Begin tracing west to east or north to south and you will find a variety of languages spoken—the very languages taught through the departments and areas of study in LSA. Yes, the old standbys are still here including French, Italian, Spanish, and even Latin and Greek. But there are also Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Chinese, and Filipino. Don't forget Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Tamil. Thai, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Czech, Dutch, and German are available to UM students along with Urdu, a popular language of the Indian subcontinent, second only in the number of speakers to Hindi. It is the national language of Pakistan and an official language in India. Mix in a little Modern Greek, some Polish, Portuguese, Quechua (spoken in both northern and southern Bolivia), Russian, Swedish, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian, Ojibwa, and Yiddish and you have the potential for a talented linguist from UM to feel comfortable anywhere on the planet. During the fall 2003 semester, 36 languages are being offered by LSA departments, including American Sign Language. More than 60 languages are taught over the course of a typical year. While language instruction exists in many departments, a nexus for language study on campus is the Language Resource Center (LRC) in the Modern Languages Building. The LRC supports

and promotes the study and instruction of foreign languages, cultures, and literatures using a variety of teaching tools, including multi-media, tutorials, and computer modeling. The LRC's offerings help students connect to the diverse world outside the classroom and can aid the undergraduate LSA requirement in second-language study. Such study contributes importantly to a liberal education, not only as a means of accessing the cultural and intellectual heritage of the world's non-English-speaking majority but also as a way to gain a new reflective understanding of the structure and complexity of English itself. World events affect students' choices in foreign language study. Right now the languages of the Middle East are becoming increasingly popular with students, says Raji Rammuny, Professor of Arabic in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. "Where we used to have 14 in a class, we now have 25 students," Rammuny says. With at least seven instructors from full professors to graduate student assistants, Arabic has become one of the largest areas within the Near Eastern Studies Department. "First-year students just want to find out what the language is all about," says Rammuny. "In the second year we break the language emphasis down to that used for academics, and for communication within the business world, and for other purposes." Whether studying a language and culture to help conduct business in the world market or to learn about ancient civilizations, the languages available through LSA continue to open the world to students. Joanne Nesbit is an information officer at UM.