Opinion > November 1, 2007

By Hannah Werthan | Old Gold & Black columnist

I know many people complain about the language requirement here. Admittedly, when compared to other schools’ policies, Wake Forest’s requirement seems extensive. Regardless of your major, you have to reach the 200-level in a language, which means, if you start over, you must take two full years of a language.

That is the only division where you must go beyond the introductory level, causing a lot of controversy.

However, I think this is a good idea. Of course, it helps that I like foreign languages and had experience learning at least a little of three languages before attempting a fourth at Wake. I realize that it does not come as easily to some people, just as I tend to be at a loss when it comes to science or most maths.

Still, I would like to make an argument on how knowing another language benefits people with any major.

Learning another language is practical. Due to increased immigration from Mexico and Latin American countries to the United States, both legally and illegally, Spanish is becoming more and more of a spoken language. In fact, in parts of Southern California, signs are written in both Spanish and English, and there are more Hispanic or Latino people than Caucasian people. Even right here in Winston-Salem, 8.64 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino. Worldwide, an estimated 350 to 400 million people speak Spanish.

People commonly speak so many different languages in the world, and to know only English when given the opportunity to be bilingual is being ignorant.

English is not the most-spoken language; that would be Mandarin Chinese. Just because English is considered to be the universal language does not mean that we can simply ignore the merits of learning others.

I think it is important that we learn a language through the literature level, because that is one of the main reasons to take a language. It is a way to grasp fully how much of that language you have learned by being able to read its literature. You can better understand the culture of the people who speak that language if you can read their literature as it was written originally. In my senior year of high school, I took AP Spanish literature, and it was one of my favorite classes ever. In that class, I learned more about not only the Spanish language but also the history of the people who speak it. In addition, I was able to further my literature skills by reading, writing and analyzing. These skills are important to have for any major.

Right now, I am taking German, and I can already see the benefits. A popular misconception is that Latin is the most beneficial language to increase one’s English vocabulary. As much as I loved taking Latin, I think German is more helpful in that regard because it has words that are similar to more commonly used English words.

Unlike whatever science class I end up taking, I think that taking German or any language for that matter will help me with whatever career path I choose.

I may not agree with all of the divisionals that we have to complete, but I do support having a language requirement through the 200-level.

Hannah Werthan is a freshman from Nashville.