Emphasis on Foreign Languages?

[AngelAmidala]

I was looking at the graduate school handbook for Drew University yesterday.  Drew has been my dream school to go to for my Master's degree, should I pursue one in some Biblical/Theological/etc. background...because it's the closest United Methodist Theological school to me.

Well, as I'm reading over the requirements, part of it is a foreign language test.  They give you a 400 or 500 word thing and you have to translate it.  In all the areas of study, French and German were the main languages the test could be taken in.  Other languages were Spanish, Italian, Ancient Hebrew, Latin, and Ancient Greek.

I can kind of understand the Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.  But the thing is, none of the languages are part of any of the study programs.  So when are you supposed to bulk up on the langugage you're going to take the test in?  Or how are you supposed to do that?

Aside from Hebrew/Latin/Greek...why would there be an emphasis on the other languages like German or French?

I'm just kind of curious if anyone knows why...Thanks!!! 

 

[Gerry]

I don't have an answer but I hope you get one here as I would also like to know. I am particulary interested in why the emphasis on German in most all of the major universities. It seems like more than a simple healthy emphasis to me.

 

[Thunderchild]

Likewise, no known answers, but an educated guess.

France and Germany feature heavily in church history. German was the native language of a number of key figures of protestant history, and was used by others for many of their works. Some significant events centre on Bohemia, particularly King Wenceslaus (he of the song), which also were originally chronicled in German.

French was at one time the trade language of the world, and for close on 200 years* France was the seat of the Popes. A significant portion of the Church of Rome's history centres on France, and again, many key figures in church history used French in their writing. France was the educational centre of the late middle ages, with most, if not all, of the universities (centres of theological studies for the most part) being located in that country.

(*from memory - I could be wrong on the actual duration)

 

[Herzen]

I don't have an answer but I hope you get one here as I would also like to know. I am particulary interested in why the emphasis on German in most all of the major universities. It seems like more than a simple healthy emphasis to me.

I'm just wondering what you mean by more than a healthy emphasis Learning other languages allows you to learn so much more about our world and yourself. Speaking to you as a future German teacher, I have too many reasons for the university's insistance on language (fortunately I won't make you read all of them ) I'm a Methodist too, and I know that in our region, Germans had a huge impact on the history of our church. If you really want some historic impact, Martin Luther was German. It's actually interesting to be able to read untranslated works of his. I can't believe people still think that Germans are Nazis when today there are many more Nazis in the US. Today's generations are still trying to come to terms with what their grandparents did.

Have fun and don't sweat it