Jour 102
Modern Language Department
Coming in the spring semester, Ole Miss will now be offering Korean as a language course. This new addition will be the tenth language that the Modern Language Department offers at the University of Mississippi. Recognized as the top language department in the state, Ole Miss is proud to be the first to offer the Korean language to students as a major and minor.
During the hard economic times, language as a major has been decreasing nationally, but here at Ole Miss, languages are still going strong. In fact, one of the most popular rising majors for the 2010-2011 school year is Mandarin Chinese. Over the past five years, Chinese has risen to be a popular class taken by college students.
There are now about 400 state schools that offer some form of Chinese as a language course, one of these including Oxford High School right here in Mississippi. High schools will now be allowed to offer a non-European language to students. In some cases, the typical Spanish or French courses will be changed to Spanish or Chinese. “Sadly, French is not being taught as much as it used to,” said Marta Chevailer, a French instructor of seven years at the University of Mississippi, “It has become replaced by languages that have become more popular like Chinese and Arabic.”
“Mandarin Chinese is a language that we have recently seen really take off, obviously just in the past five years, but we have had the language offered for about ten years here at the university,” said Dr. Dyer, the chair of the Modern Language Department at Ole Miss. When asked what college students plan to do with their Chinese education for a career, Dyer explained that many computer science and engineering students take the courses to prepare them for technology in the future.
Along with students majoring in a language, studying abroad has become more popular throughout the years, especially during the summer. While students have different reasons for studying overseas, the opportunity to study in another country, even continent, is a rewarding experience. Henry Jones, a junior this year from Ole Miss, has been studying abroad in Scotland this semester. Even though the university he is at offers classes in English, Jones says that being able to experience another culture is an education all in its own. The Modern Language Department encourages their students to spend some time abroad to further their horizon of the language they study. By the 2012 semester, there is set to be at least five more locations in China for Mandarin Chinese students to study abroad.
^This is Dr. Dyer, Head Chairman of the Department of Modern Languages, talking about the recent speaker they had last month.
Sources:
Dr. Donald Dyer
Chair of Department of Modern Languages
Office: (662) 915-7298
E-mail: mldyer@olemiss.edu
Marta Chevailer
French Instructor
E-mail: mrego@olemiss.edu
Henry Jones
Student, Junior, Business major
E-mail: jhjones4@olemiss.edu
Web site:
www.olemiss.edu/depts/modern_languages
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