For many of you, this course completes your foreign language requirement. Go ahead: smile, laugh, cheer! Now realize how fortunate you are to have this time in your life to explore such a range of opportunities and humanity-focused experiences. Your foreign language classes, while by traditional definition guide you in learning to communicate in a foreign language, expand your understanding of the world and your place in it. As John Rassias recently wrote, "Language articulates value, confirms or denies fact, soars or sinks with the human heart. Language makes things happen. And language can lead us to peace." This course gives you the time and place to understand what it means to be a citizen of the world and how YOU can positively impact your local and international community. Critical thinking and communication through written and oral communication underlie the daily work of this class, and your improved skills in the French language will infiltrate your daily work and communication in your other classes, your jobs, your social interactions ... So grab your books, log on, engage yourselves and be open to stepping out of your comfort zone for rewards you may never have expected.
Beginning German – GR 101
Ulf Goebel
Language, the essence of the liberal arts, is all we have to talk to each other and ourselves. There are languages of all kinds, the spoken languages of the world, both dead and living, and the languages of the arts, of dance and music in particular, but everywhere also the body language we all use, and for those who cannot hear, the spatial sign language of the deaf. But spoken language is the enduring fortune of all who can hear and speak. At the heart of any spoken language – written, printed, and read on the page or on the computer screen, as most now are – is its poetry. For a language that we do not know, we must rely on translation, which in poetry particularly is at best a poor substitute for the original. In learning a new language, even for beginners in this course, the goal should be the eventual full appreciation of its poetry. With this in mind, our endeavor will be to help the students gain entry into contemporary German in its various cultural and historical settings, to broaden their own cultural and historical perspective, and to encourage them to persevere in making the language their own.
German for Written Communication – GR 310 Fred Yaniga
Learning a language essentially means learning to communicate within a new medium. Writing itself is a unique and separate form of communication, and therefore this course, German for Written Communication, presents us with a double challenge: to develop and practice clear and concise writing techniques while sharpening skills in German grammar, syntax and vocabulary usage. While realizing that this is no simple task, we also understand that our efforts will be doubly rewarded. Not only will we refine our skills in the German language, but we will simultaneously refine our writing skills in general. And these skills are both timeless and universal. From Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg or translating the Bible from Latin into German to a high-powered CEO penning a sensitive email or drafting an important contract, the written word is central to human interaction, historical documentation and every day communication (email, note-taking, text messaging). Often, the distance between mind and pen can seem immeasurable; but as we say in German: "Übung macht den Meister" (Practice makes perfect), and in this course we will strive to shorten that distance and find ways to make that trip between mind and paper more satisfying for both writer and reader.
Service Learning in Spanish – SP 300 Terri Carney
The academic goal of this course is to increase fluency in Spanish skills while fostering cultural awareness of the complex social issues surrounding Latino immigration and education. Through our partnerships with Indianapolis Public Schools, you will spend two hours a week working with Spanish-speaking students as tutors and mentors. This service work is complemented by our weekly classroom meeting in which you are encouraged to frame your community experience in meaningful ways through discussions, selected readings, and reflection journals, all of which provide the opportunity to refine communicative abilities in Spanish while deepening engagement with the coursework.
Combining the study of Spanish language with the pedagogy of Service Learning, this course contributes to your education in the liberal arts. Becoming proficient or even fluent in another language and culture foments self-awareness and empathy, and helps us to better define ourselves both as individuals and as members of larger collectivities. Service learning encourages meaningful engagement between the academic work of university scholars (both professors and students) and the communities in which they live and work. Such pedagogy speaks to the duty of the democratic university and the mission of the liberal arts to produce active and morally responsible citizens.
Spanish for Oral Communication – SP 305 Dan Alsop
Supports Liberal Arts Learning Experience by:
Furthering understanding of the cultures and perspectives of the Hispanic world through readings, films, television, and current events.
Developing communication skills through constant use of the Spanish language.
Fostering creativity via student-led presentations. Furthering knowledge and skills that can be applied to lifelong learning via direct interaction with the world Hispanic community.
Hispanic Masterpieces – SP 345 Dan Alsop
Supports Liberal Arts Learning Experience by:
Furthering understanding of the cultures and perspectives of Hispanic authors through their texts and comparing them with our own and those of our society.
Developing communication skills through constant use of the Spanish language.
Fostering creativity via student-led presentations and dramatizations.
Furthering knowledge and skills that can be applied to lifelong learning via direct interaction with the world Hispanic community.
Gramática Española Avanzada – SP 410 Terri Carney
El lenguaje es algo vivo y siempre en proceso. En este curso exploramos las estructuras gramaticales del idioma castellano y como estas estructuras se emplean en el uso contemporáneo. El estudio lingüístico no trata de la memorización de discretos elementos lingüísticos en un sistema estático, sino de una apreciación del poder del lenguaje de transformarnos y de poder crear nuevos mundos con la maestría del sistema lingüístico.
La educación liberal nos invita a explorar la paradoja de poder alcanzar la individualidad solo a través de nuestra posición en el grupo social. En ese sentido, el aprendizaje a fondo de cualquier idioma es emblemático de esta tensión entre el individual y la sociedad. En este curso cultivamos una sensibilidad que reconoce la tenue danza entre las limitaciones sintácticas de la gramática y la potencial humana de expresarse en maneras innegablemente individuales, únicas.