Spring Break
Do you speak English?!
Jonathan Boydston
Issue date: 5/27/08 Section: Forum
Like many other students on our campus, I've had the chance to study a foreign language during my time at OSU.
I wasn't forced or even pressured to do so; I merely knew I wanted to go abroad and opted to get a head start on the language.
My plans were taking me to Italy, and it seemed only right to take Italian in preparation. Thankfully, OSU had an Italian curriculum at that time, and I was able to work two years into my schedule.
My experience in the department of foreign languages and literatures was an entirely positive one, highlighted by two professors who were able to connect with me more than anyone else in my collegiate career.
For this reason, the recent news of major budget cuts being inflicted on foreign languages and literatures - cuts that may eliminate Italian and other sections entirely - hit me particularly hard.
I have never given the university much credit for properly spending my money; on the contrary, I realized soon after I arrived here that the powers that be will never fail at squandering the resources we supply.
Maybe it was the smiley faces painted around campus that tipped me off, or the loyalty to a gas-guzzling shuttle system that is hardly ever used; but surely enough there came a day when I entirely lost hope in the fiscal responsibility of Oregon State University.
The news of the university pressuring foreign languages and literatures to cut class offerings certainly joins a long list of unwise actions taken by OSU. To me, this action is particularly reckless.
In a world that is seeing a constant increase in communication between nations and people it is unreal to think that cutting back on foreign language education is anything but foolish.
I would venture to say that the majority of Anglophonic Americans interact with non-English speakers fairly frequently, yet our nation is still resistant to the type of foreign language education common in other Western nations.
This has understandably more to do with our public K-12 education system and less to do with our nation's universities.
I wasn't forced or even pressured to do so; I merely knew I wanted to go abroad and opted to get a head start on the language.
My plans were taking me to Italy, and it seemed only right to take Italian in preparation. Thankfully, OSU had an Italian curriculum at that time, and I was able to work two years into my schedule.
My experience in the department of foreign languages and literatures was an entirely positive one, highlighted by two professors who were able to connect with me more than anyone else in my collegiate career.
For this reason, the recent news of major budget cuts being inflicted on foreign languages and literatures - cuts that may eliminate Italian and other sections entirely - hit me particularly hard.
I have never given the university much credit for properly spending my money; on the contrary, I realized soon after I arrived here that the powers that be will never fail at squandering the resources we supply.
Maybe it was the smiley faces painted around campus that tipped me off, or the loyalty to a gas-guzzling shuttle system that is hardly ever used; but surely enough there came a day when I entirely lost hope in the fiscal responsibility of Oregon State University.
The news of the university pressuring foreign languages and literatures to cut class offerings certainly joins a long list of unwise actions taken by OSU. To me, this action is particularly reckless.
In a world that is seeing a constant increase in communication between nations and people it is unreal to think that cutting back on foreign language education is anything but foolish.
I would venture to say that the majority of Anglophonic Americans interact with non-English speakers fairly frequently, yet our nation is still resistant to the type of foreign language education common in other Western nations.
This has understandably more to do with our public K-12 education system and less to do with our nation's universities.
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