The Nevada Sagebrush

Editor, Nevada Sagebrush:

I am deeply concerned about news of drastic cuts to the department of foreign languages and literatures, resulting in the cancellation of master’s degree programs and even majors in German, Italian and French. I understand that now there will be only first- and second-year classes available in these languages as service courses to other departments, and that these will be taught only by non-permanent faculty.

What a sad pass we have come to. Too many people in the U.S. know only one language, and so these citizens are cut off by superficial and downsizing media from a deep understanding of news and trends in other countries. Cutbacks like these in university foreign language departments will only make this situation worse. When, during and just after the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson, high officials in his administration and other American elites drove German language courses out of many schools and discouraged German-language publications, they, according to novelist Kurt Vonnegut, performed a partial lobotomy of America’s memory of an important part of its cultural heritage. Then, more recently , in 2003, we had the bathetic example of French fries being renamed “Freedom Fries” and French wine being poured at demonstrations in protest of France’s lack of support for the Iraq War. Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator and France’s foreign policy was flawed, but this kind of nonsense did nothing to promote understanding of international affairs among U.S. citizens.  Study of foreign languages, which must be part of every university baccalaureate program, would have created the understanding that might have prevented this kind of foolishness.

Robert Maynard Hutchins, the brillian president of the University of Chicago from the late 1920s through the late 1940s, promoted the study of Greek, Latin and modern languages as essential to a university education worthy of the name. Jacques Barzun, historian and essayist, said American graduate students in seminar papers and theses delivered opinions on foreign books and poems that, in view of their lack of understanding of the original language in which they were written, they could not have properly read.

When I was a freshman and sophomore at UNR in the late 1960s, I found professors in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures to be very friendly, with plenty of time to talk to students who visited their offices and to work with student foreign-language conversation clubs. They had important connections with European culture and history, and some professors had direct personal memories of the brilliance of Weimar culture. They had a lasting positive influence on me.

I also remember a course in Scientific German. German and Russian were thought to be good choices for a second foreign language because of the wealth of scientific literature in those languages. Are students now expected to hit the link “Translate this page.” and completely understand the content of a closely argued article on philosophy or science written in French, German or Italian? They will fail to understand that without a good knowledge of the language in question, they will miss nuances and idiomatic phrasing when relying solely on inexact computerized translation services.

Spanish, I understand, has been saved from the axe, and at least students will have access to an understanding of the language of a neighboring country and a great literary tradition that includes Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the poetry of Antonio Machado. I suspect, however, that Spanish has been spared because of its perceived commercial usefulness and because of multiculturalist pieties. Also, what of another neighboring country, Canada, with about one-third of its population that speaks French. It is officially bilingual.

I would urge the state legislature, the board of regents and other responsible officials to reconsider these recent draconian cuts to the department of foreign languages and literatures.

I am

Sincerely yours,

Paul Strickland

BA in English, UNR, 1971

MA in history, UNR, 1980

Sagebrush staffer and columnist 1977-1981

Related Posts:

• Letter to the editor: Response to HIV outbreak rumors
• Letter to the Editor: Concerns regarding UNR/UNLV rivalry
• Letter to the Editor
• Letter to the editor
• Letter to the editor