Language courses:

posted in: Opinion | 0

As part of the core requirements, Pacific University believes that requiring students to take an introductory level or higher language class is necessary.

There are students who find this opportunity exciting or even beneficial if they are planning to major or minor in a language, but for the rest of us, it can feel like pointless time and stress over something we might not use again.

Many students take a 100-level class in German, Spanish, French, or Japanese just to get the credits out of the way, like me.

I came out of high school with a required three years of foreign language.

I ended high school in an AP Spanish class and was ready to be done with it because I wasn’t likely to use it again, until I attended Pacific and realized I had to take it all over again. Purposefully testing poorly in order to get into Spanish 102 was the best decision I saw for myself. One semester and move on to the classes that went towards my major.

However it left me wondering if there wasn’t a better class I could have taken in its place, one that could have really interested me.

“It’s just a neutral feeling,” Sophomore Ellie Parker said. “I didn’t hate it and then I didn’t die to take it.

It was just a class I have to take to graduate,” which is what most students responded with. But what about the classes where they are forced into a full year or even more if they fail the class?

Could it possibly cause students to fall behind just enough to add another semester to their already expensive college years?

Junior Casey Johnson said he wasn’t fond of the idea of having to take Spanish as a requirement.

“I felt like there were better ways of using that time and credit hour,” Johnson said.

Students realize they have to work their schedules around the core foreign language which could possibly make them have to skip taking a class that could have put them ahead in learning.”

Some students enjoy taking language courses, however, for anyone who is like me, making foreign language a core requirement is a waste of time and credits.

Sponsored

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *