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October 12, 2004
Foreign language studies help career opportunities
Miranda Thompson
Contributing Writer
Extensive proficiency in a foreign language is an important requirement for the completion of several degree programs at Mesa Community College.
The university a student is looking to transfer to determines the requirements for foreign language; some degree programs require none at all.
Students who choose to major in the Liberal Arts or Social and Behavioral Sciences will find themselves taking as many as four semesters of a foreign language or up to the 202 level in order to meet Arizona State University requirements.
Students, who are majoring in Business or engineering, are not always required to take a foreign language.
“You (would) think that someone who is working on a business major would need a foreign language since we are in a rapidly growing, if not already international commerce,” said Jess Pruitt, a student at Mesa Community College.
“With the arts, you are learning a foreign language to understand the beauty in the structure of the language rather than the actual practicality that the business degree would entail. So, I think they should both be made to learn a foreign language,” Pruitt explained.
Whatever career a student looks into, foreign language skills are extremely valuable and essential, said Steven Budge, a Spanish professor at MCC.
“We are becoming more global, obviously, so the need to learn a foreign language is great in the work place,” Budge said.
Experience with a foreign language and the ability to communicate with people from another culture will make a student more sought after by employers, Budge explained.
“I have talked to many business majors, and they actually come back and take foreign language classes with us,” Budge said.
MCC offers several kinds of foreign languages including Spanish, French, American Sign Language, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic, among many others.
Spanish is the most popular foreign language taken on campus, based on the amount of Spanish classes offered, which are needed to accommodate the amount of students who wish to take it.
When students are scheduling their prerequisite classes, Taussig suggests that a student complete their foreign language requirements right away.
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