Here is what I found in the AXLE booklet. “Language courses introduce students to the language of a different culture and
provide insight into that culture in ways that are not possible to achieve through detached study.”
IMHO, as a Chinese student who’s never lived outside of his country for like 18 years, by studying at Vandy and using English for academic and daily communication is introducing me to the language of a different culture and provide me serious insight into the American culture already. And it is already somewhat burdensome. Just curious if Vandy requires non-native speakers to complete a second foreign language study.
I’m quite sure they do require it of you as well. It’s an issue of accreditation through AXLE, and although you could certainly place into a higher level Chinese course given you speak the language, I’m 99% sure you’ll have to take some sort of foreign language class to fulfill that requirement. Every student has to.
My interpretation is that they do not require foreign language study with many caveats (see below), but still require 3 courses in International Cultures.
https://as.vanderbilt.edu/docs/AXLE-2017-final.pdf
So one cannot make a blanket statement that international students don’t have to take a foreign language because of the caveats. Namely:
• The language must be taught at Vanderbilt, so a native of the Netherlands would be out of luck unless s/he has a 3rd language
• The students must show proficiency through an appropriate SAT/AP/TFLI score;
For Chinese: