<p>I'm interested in taking Swahili as part of my language requirement at Tufts University. I'm currently taking Spanish 5 as a high school senior, but our language program is really awful... meaning I am just kind of fed up with Spanish and maybe romance languages in general. Does anyone know how good/hard/etc. the Swahili program is at Tufts? Also, if I can test out of some portion of the language requirement at Tufts with my (limited) (very poorly instructed) knowledge of Spanish (honestly I should just refer to it as Spanglish), can I still take Swahili or do I have to take Spanish then?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>In addition, how's the Chinese program? Anyone know of any other good language programs at Tufts? I did some investigative work on Tufts' website, but I think I'm most interested in Swahili.</p>
<p>Chinese is excellent, I take Arabic. As for Swahili, it is taught by Dan Brown, who is the coolest guy at Tufts, he fought in the army in Africa where he learned Swahili and is a German Professor with an interest in Martin Luther and Bertolt Brecht, he’s also in a motorcycle gang and makes stained glass windows in his spare time. That enough reason to take it? Granted, it’s only 3 semesters, since he does not have a formal degree in that, his PhD is in German or something. You can place out of 3 semesters and take 3 semesters of Swahili. :)</p>
<p>I didn’t know Dan Brown taught Swahili! I’ve taken his Brecht class.
The man is a baller. The fact that he knows Swahili only makes him yet more ballerific.</p>
<p>The 6 semester language requirement doesn’t all have to be in the same language, so your Spanish should excuse you from three semester of Spanish, and Swahili will get you the other three.</p>
<p>I’ve never taken a Chinese class. I know a lot of kids who started out taking Chinese and switched to something else because it was extremely difficult. And at Tufts, that’s saying something.</p>
<p>So if I take the proficiency examination in Spanish, I could place out of like 3 semesters? Maybe? Isn’t the Tufts language rec that you have to be fluent or something, though? Also, isn’t there culture requirements so you can take 3 semesters of Swahili language and 3 semesters of culture, right?</p>
<p>No, certain programs require a degree of fluency, but graduating from Tufts has no such requirement.</p>
<p>And yes, technically there is a 3 semester language requirement, and a 3 semester culture requirement which can be fulfilled by taking foreign languages. The three culture courses all must be in the same area, though. </p>
<p>There is ALSO a 2 semester world civilization requirement. Extremely similar to the culture requirement except the two courses don’t need to be about the same area, and nothing from Germany to California counts. Has to be Africa, the Middle East, Russia & Eastern Europe, Asia, or Latin America.</p>