by Carly Bergthold | Feb 16, 2015 | News Slider
Hola, bonjour, hallo! Students who have taken a language course at Lipscomb have most likely heard at least one of these ways to say ‘hello.’ Any Lipscomb student pursuing a bachelor of arts or music degree is required to take eight hours of a foreign language. The university offers three core language options – Spanish, French and German. Some Russian is also offered. German professor Charlie McVey said he finds these languages valuable for work and beyond. “The four languages that we have offered fairly regularly are very important in today’s world,” McVey said. “As minors or double majors, [Spanish, French, German and Russian] really enhance anybody’s career choices and personal opportunities for service.” Although Chinese and Russian classes are listed in the academic catalog, no Chinese classes have been offered for several years. One Russian class was offered last fall, but not during the spring 2015 semester. McVey said it is not for lack of teachers or funds. “The language department would love to add classes, but unless they’re required by other departments and other programs, students generally won’t take a lot of languages,” McVey said. “So until programs strongly encourage or even require some language, it would be difficult to add other languages. If the demand comes, the supply can certainly come.” Some students said they wish languages like Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic or Hindi were offered. Mandarin Chinese is the most common language in the world, and there are more speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese and Japanese than either German or French. “I really wanted to take a Chinese class, but they didn’t have it,” said...
by Tim Ghianni | May 18, 2011 | News Slider, Opinion
Sitting in Intermediate French Grammar class trying to translate English into French, I browse through the French vocabulary stored in my head searching for the right noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition to correctly get my point across. What to say? How to say it? Time is running out. If I do not put something together to say, humiliation will appear across my face. So, French blurts out of my mouth. Of course, immediately my professor corrects me because I used the wrong form of the verb. The past tense of the verb was used instead of the necessary subjective form. Wait. What is a subjective verb? I would guess the majority of people could not classify all the parts of speech and how we use them. Why? Because speaking English is second nature to us. We learned the names of all the different types of speech starting in elementary school. We were like sponges absorbing everything taught to us without hesitation. Now, we use what we learned without thinking about it. However, if we try to break down a sentence now, it is nearly impossible to get everything right. If it is so easy for children to learn and absorb learning the English language at a young age, why is it that schools are not taking advantage of the vital state of mind of these children by teaching them a second language? Most schools in the United States start teaching foreign languages to students once they reach the high school level. Whereas, children in other countries are almost fluent in two other languages plus their own as...
by Jameson Roper | Apr 30, 2010 | News Slider
Thursday morning, Lipscomb University hosted their second Hispanic Forum in the Ezell Center. Entitled “Opening Doors,” the forum was an informative event meant to cast light on the social outlook of America and Tennessee’s Hispanic youth and their education. Lipscomb held the event to bring together educators, students, and other public leaders to focus on diversity in our communities. President Randy Lowry began the morning stressing the importance of diversity in our community. Dr. Stella Flores shared her outlook on the current situation. Flores is a Vanderbilt University professor and internationally recognized expert on Hispanic relations. Prior to becoming a staff member at Vanderbilt, Flores worked in the United States Government Accountability Office. Flores, a Texas-native and Harvard graduate, stressed from the beginning that America’s Hispanic youth has not been targeted with enough help and it must change. “Immigration is inching to the top of the policy agenda [in America],” Flores said. Flores stated laws like the one recently passed in Arizona are a step back in America’s relations with immigrants. The new law Flores spoke of, entitled Arizona SB1070, has an aim to find and deport suspected illegal immigrants. The law grants Arizona police officers the right to question suspected illegal immigrants and demand identification. If the person fails to produce a valid form of identification, they can and will be prosecuted and deported. Flores said that we as Americans must give these Spanish-speaking students a fair chance at equal education. Flores’ parents are both college-educated Hispanics. However, she said that her mother was placed in speech classes throughout her schooling in an attempt to eliminate her accent...
