<p>I searched CC, so I'm sorry if a similar thread exists because I could not find one. I also googled this, but found little information. Aside from viewbooks I receive in the mail from Columbia, Yale, etc., I have seen little mention of the languages offered at colleges. I know that Columbia, Yale, and Harvard offer many languages, but I have received little information from other universities about what languages they offer, and I have been unable to find the information from googling and searching websites (admittedly a not so thorough search). I also realize that the amount of languages offered is not necessarily indicative of strong language departments. So...I'm curious. Can anyone give me a list of universities that offer many languages and/or have a strong language department? Thanks!</p>
<p>The large, strong state universities usually have the most. University of Wisconsin and UCLA immediately come to mind. Others would include University of Washington, Berkeley, Rutgers, Michigan, Texas.</p>
<p>In all cases, not only do they offer more languages, but they offer more courses within each language, and usually have more support offerings - film clubs, language tables and societies, language halls, etc.</p>
<p>If at all possible, try to narrow down your interests, and see which colleges offer those languages and at what depth. Realistically, you can only really study 2 or 3 languages as an undergraduate. This semester, Berkeley offers, for instance, elementary Swahili and Zulu, Indonesian, Introductory and intermedia Tibetan, introductory and intermediate sanskrit, as well as Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian.</p>
<p>However, I don't see how the mere fact that Finnish or Zulu is offered helps you, unless you have some interested in studying Finnish or Zulu. The question is, what are the languages you might possibly want to study, and what are the offerings in those specific languages.</p>
<p>Other schools that are generally considered to have "good" language programs--meaning modern languages--are Middlebury, Dartmouth, and Georgetown (which has an undergraduate language specialty program to which you can apply).</p>
<p>You'll find that universities such as the U of C and Berkeley offer courses in specialty languages that might be the province of archaeologists (Akkadian, for example) as well as languages that are associated with areas studies (Urdu and Tibetan, for example).</p>
<p>So it depends what kind of language you are looking for. Something else to consider is whether the school has study abroad programs that tie into language study.</p>
<p>I realize that my language interest should be focused on what I want to study, but I really asked this question out of curiosity. For practical purposes, I'd prefer to attend a college with a good Slavic language department (particularly one that offers Czech); however, I am simply wondering what colleges have the best language departments/offer the most languages. Thanks to all who responded, though, it helped. Any more?</p>
<p>Slavic - You might want to add in Indiana. And, across the border, Toronto.</p>
<p>Chicago offers around 50 languages, including Czech. The Slavic Languages and Literatures program is strong, from what I can tell, and offers several slavic languages.</p>
<p>middlebury has the strongest language programs and majors in the country</p>
<p>Not even close. They offer far fewer languages, with fewer opportunities, and less intensity than more than a dozen state universities, no less some of the privates. They have very excellent summer programs. They do, along with Smith, have the largest number and percentage of students majoring in languages/area studies of any of the liberal arts colleges. But comparing either of them with say, University of Wisconsin, in either breadth or depth of offerings is frankly ridiculous.</p>