Mission
To open up new vistas on what it can mean to be human. (Click the caret to the left to read more)
Educated people spend their lives trying to grow in political, social and intellectual freedom. One kind of intellectual freedom requires us to break away from the notion that our native language is the most natural and apt means of expressing the full range of human experience. An education can start with the discovery that all words are purely conventional devices. They are nonetheless tools that stir emotions, articulate ideas, and establish relationships with others. Learning a foreign language contributes to our education by providing an intimate exercise in cultural and linguistic concepts that open up new vistas on what it can mean to be human. Furthermore, foreign-language courses allow entry into the subjectivity of the target language on its own cultural and linguistic grounds, thus making possible a different and more profound redefinition of our own culture.
Our basic courses offer the opportunity to start acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary for the eventual mastery of a foreign language. The Department emphasizes the use of a foreign language in most of its courses because it believes that students can best appreciate a foreign culture from within its own mode of expression.
With a view toward career opportunities, the Department encourages integrating foreign language study with a variety of other academic areas, such as history, philosophy, international studies, environmental studies, biology, economics, political science, and English. Courses in cultural studies and literature, aside from their intrinsic worth, also present multiple perspectives on other cultures and various areas of intellectual experience.
A student wishing to spend a summer, a semester, or a year abroad with programs approved by Denison should consult members of the Department and the Office of Off-Campus Studies (see Off Campus Programs). Opportunities for students to improve their command of the language are provided on the campus by the language tables, foreign films, club meetings, field trips, and similar activities sponsored by the Department.
Dr. García with her class
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Beginning Language Students
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Dr. Dillmann teaching German
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Dr. Ayala Martínez teaching Portuguese
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Recording in the Language Lab
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Group Work
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Prof. O'Keefe questioning students
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Hanging out in ModLangs
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Small Group Work
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Dr. García Alvite with her students
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Prof. Llanos with her students
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Dr. Tangeman teaching Japanese
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Language and Culture House
The Language and Culture House is an exciting residential option that gives second, third, and fourth-year students a special environment where they can hone their language skills and participate in special cultural events. If you choose this option, you will live in a small community of peers who share your enthusiasm for foreign languages and cultures. Special extracurricular activities and programming in the Language House will support your language acquisition and you will have opportunities for a close relationship with professors and language assistants from the department of Modern Languages. This option is ideal for students who want to sharpen their daily language skills, as well as for students returning from abroad who want to maintain those skills.
The Language and Culture House, largely administered by its residents with the help of the Modern Languages Department, will organize activities involving all modern languages that are taught at Denison: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Within the house language clusters will be organized, with the make-up of the clusters dependent upon the numbers of students enrolled in the program. The students within the clusters will determine whether or not use of the target language will be required in the House. Activities will include such things as visits by writers, scholars, and artists, performances by dance and theater troupes, celebration of national holidays (for example Dia de los Muertos and Mardi Gras), and introductions to Arabic and Chinese calligraphy.
Participants in Preston's Language and Culture Program will enroll in a one-credit fall colloquium. The colloquium will center on the viewing and discussion of foreign-language films chosen for their appropriateness as vehicles for addressing issues of special interest to students of foreign languages and cultures, and for considering the topic chosen for community-wide attention in 2010-2011.
Language and Culture House Blog