Bowdoin likes to trumpet that an education here prepares students to be "leaders in all walks of life." These days, with news of the global economy in every headline, the school likes to talk about how, armed with a Bowdoin education, we are well-prepared to face the modern world.
The emphasis on study abroad and the academic requirement that all students get some exposure to international perspectives cements the school's commitment to global citizenship.
And yet, as we are bombarded with the message that we should head overseas and make a difference, the school lags in the most important aspect of international endeavors: languages.
At the study abroad presentation given to the sophomore class each year, it has become common to dissuade students from studying abroad in many of the most common locations: the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Given the state of language education in the United States as a whole, it's unsurprising that students at other universities want to head to English-speaking countries; but Bowdoin students all too often want to do the same.
With all our talk about global leadership, shouldn't we seek to be better?
A quick glance through Bearings will show that the only introductory language courses that are filled up are Spanish and Italian—and, as most upper-level students know, the rate of attrition for language courses can be extreme even from semester to semester, let alone through the years. As nice as it is to know smidgens of half a dozen languages—as many people at Bowdoin do—that's not going to get you very far in a globalized world.
Of course—and I'll be the first one to say it—learning languages is rough.
Chinese four times a week at 8:30 a.m. is certainly not for everyone, but even learning a European tongue requires a lot of the kind of repetitive memorization that has become taboo in the liberal arts world.
The language departments try, with substantial success, to make it fun: What other courses allow you to have dinner with your professors and other students once a week?
But despite this, and other efforts to make languages more appealing, there are other academic policies that actively dissuade some students from taking languages.
Many science students complain that they can't possibly fit languages into their schedules, and they may have a point.
These are the same students who often find it difficult to get an International Perspectives (IP) credit in their course schedule, which is—for some reason—never applied to beginning languages. Why not allow students to fulfill the IP requirement while taking an entry level language?
I understand the argument that just being able to get by in a country's language doesn't mean you have any deep understanding of that country, but I also doubt a class like the History of the American Revolution, which fulfills the IP requirement, provides that much more international flair than the cultural insights you need to understand Chinese grammar.
While many students drop languages after their first semester or year, some do get captured by a class that they took on a whim, and work hard to become fluent in that language. Making such courses count for the IP requirement could interest students who would otherwise abandon their linguistic pursuits.
But such changes are only a small part of the issue, and the real push must come from students. If you've ever thought about starting a language, especially if you're a first year or sophomore, do it!
You have more than 30 courses to fill here at Bowdoin, and I'm sure you can find at least one slot for a language class. Those of us who already speak foreign languages should also go out of our way to make things interesting.
I have to say, from my experience, almost all language- and culture-related programming on campus is pitiful. Most events suffer from uninspiring planning, and few people show up.
There have been successes in the past, but most involve procuring prodigious amounts of food—a great tactic to get attendees, but you can bring in all the sushi you want, it probably won't help people understand Japanese culture or speak the language any better.
We need to band together to come up with events that bring together language and culture in an exciting way to promote international thought on campus.
The language question is a rather intractable one. I don't see there being any question that America—and Bowdoin—lacks language skills. And in the coming years languages will only become more important.
If Bowdoin really believes that it is educating the leaders of tomorrow, there needs to be a greater academic focus on languages and, as students, we should help the process along.
Yes, studying vocabulary late into the night isn't fun, but it's one of the most important things we can do at Bowdoin.