This fall I’m going to IUB to study foreign languages (Spanish, Russian Sign Language). How good is their language department? I visited once and they said they had a new international building or whatever it’s called. Are there any great teachers I should be aware of? Any information about the foreign languages offered at IUB would be greatly appreciated!
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They have a new Global and International Studies building, but I don’t know if they teach language classes there
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You’re asking how IU is with languages in general? There isn’t really a “language department,” as far as I understand, because there have so many options. From what I hear, IU has one of the best language programs in the country (maybe second to BYU, because of all the missionary work). There are tons of options, a lot of them offered beyond the intro courses that most schools have (eg, IU is one of the few campuses in the US with upper level and advanced Mongolian courses), and an impressive number of flagship programs (I know of the African languages flagship, the Chinese flagship program, and I think there’s a new Arabic flagship?). The relatively new school of Global and International Studies is where most professors in various language departments have been moved to with the renovations on the buildings in Wells Quad, so that’s where you’ll find professors’ offices, but probably not the classes haha. But, it is definitely extensive! I’m not exclusively a language student, so the only specific language departments I know have any familiarity with are EALC (East Asian Languages and Cultures), CEUS (Central Eurasian Studies - I think language are offered through this department, but I could be wrong; I know for certain there are decent Farsi and Persian programs, though), NELC (Near Eastern Languages and Cultures), and FRIT (French + Italian). As for your specific interests: I’ve heard mixed things about the Spanish program, but most of the negatives have come from people who were looking to get their foreign language credit and not majors or minors, so take that with a grain of salt. The Russian program is very good, especially for beginners, and I know a kid who studied abroad and hasn’t stopped raving about it since. As far as ASL goes, there’s a pretty extensive program with the speech and hearing school, and I know a lot of people who have been enrolled and absolutely loved it. My personal experiences have been with the Japanese program and the Lakota course through the Anthropology department, but from having known a number of Linguistics majors and minors also pursuing degrees in different languages (Spanish, French, Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Hungarian I think?) and just looking at the school’s offerings in general. Yeah, the language programs at IU are pretty dope. (; Congratulations, and good luck!
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One only needs to waltz into the School of Global and International Studies to check out the ads on the bulletin boards to see what’s offered. In simple terms, it’s unreal. Not only in terms of language courses, but in thinking of what’s going on beyond language and vocabulary. My daughter is double majoring and her language major is French, she absolutely likes it. Study abroad opportunities are very good, the faculty seems well qualified, and so on. The ‘language school’ is quite huge so it’s not likely one would know people outside their department. The building by itself, completed in 2015 I think, is very nice and located in the middle of everything.
Ah, another flagship program is Turkish.
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