Love it or hate it, the language requirement is an integral part of many students’ experiences at Carleton. As a product of the 101 to 204 German sequence, I can speak for the ways in which it has been an enriching and horizon-expanding part of my time at Carleton. Overall, I think students who work through the introductory language classes in some capacity are well served by the experience, but I know that many among my peers bemoan the toll that such a requirement takes on both energy and schedule space, especially as first years. 

I took Spanish as a high schooler in Boise, Idaho. But when COVID hit, my school district didn’t have the capability to offer upper-level Spanish classes online, and with many students opting to enroll in a hybrid class structure rather than entirely online, there simply wasn’t enough demand from fully online students for the district to appropriate another teacher. When I returned to campus in my senior year, it didn’t seem worth returning to the language after a year off. Moreover, I had never particularly enjoyed my Spanish classes and thought that language learning simply wasn’t for me. 

Even though I had some difficulties accessing language classes in high school, this is a minor example of the many kinds of equity issues that students from less-well-resourced high schools and different life experiences face compared to their peers from well-funded institutions. Professor Clara Hardy of the classics department highlighted a conversation about Carleton’s language requirement. “While we have an alternative requirement … for students with diagnosed issues with language learning (dyslexia being the main diagnosis), this is a very grey area,” said Hardy. “Even if the brain science were more settled than it is, there is again a massive equity issue, since the testing for [JUMP] this is very expensive and Carleton–as far as I know–no longer pays for it.”

Such concerns are bound to arise when students from different backgrounds are brought under a single institutional structure, but Carleton does make a good-faith effort to meet students where they are.

The language requirement at Carleton takes four terms to complete from start to finish, which is arguably a large portion of credits. There were definitely times during my freshman year when I was irritated with having to commit so much schedule space to German classes while I watched my peers, who had tested out, experiment with different classes and departments with their open space. During the transition that all of us go through during freshman year, while we figure out who we are and what we want to study, it sometimes felt like I was behind the power curve because I had to take language classes. 

Language learning as an experience requires a certain amount of buy-in from a student. While I arrived at this point eventually, it was sometimes hard to escape the mindset of being behind.

Hardy, the classics professor, provided a potential solution to the pressure that students feel about the credit load of the requirement: “My colleague Chico Zimmerman — who’s on sabbatical — has suggested that the requirement be shifted to two or three courses for everyone – so that even if you come in knowing more than one language, you either need to do further study in that one or start a new one. It’s a tough sell, though, for all the reasons you might imagine.” 

With such a system, no students would feel like they are behind their peers simply because they did not excel with language in high school or simply were not offered the opportunity to study a foreign language in the first place. Professor Kiley Kost of the German department had a similar idea, emphasizing that students wouldn’t necessarily need to start a new language but could take upper-level courses in the language they had already tested out of. 

Additionally, I don’t think students are encouraged often enough to begin new languages rather than continuing with courses from high school, especially for students coming in at the 102 or 103 level. There is an emphasis on getting the requirements done as quickly as possible to make room in one’s schedule for more primary interests. While understandable, if Carleton wants to stand by their institutional decision to require students to take four trimesters of a language or come with equivalent proficiency, then there should be some kind of motivator for students to see the process as worthwhile. 

Carleton should stay strong in the face of increasing closures of foreign language departments and the removal of language requirements spreading through higher education institutions nationwide. In a world where high schools are increasingly competitive, and students are often looking to set themselves up for success at the collegiate level by taking academically rigorous courses in high school, it is a good thing to push students out of their comfort zone by requiring the study of a foreign language. I am one of those students who pursued challenging coursework in high school to prepare myself for college, but in my freshman year at Carleton, I found that consistently, my hardest classes were my German classes. 

Kost, who teaches all levels of German courses, believes students learn valuable studying skills while learning a second language. “I think, especially for first-year students, it’s almost like a study skills class, in a way. You’re forced to learn all these things at Carleton’s fast pace, and that’s not always the case in every class. Other classes assume a lot of knowledge about how to be in college, but any 101 class doesn’t necessarily, or it tries to teach you”. This is something I found was reflected in my own experience in the intro sequence. 

While there are undeniably structural difficulties within the language requirement, on the whole, I believe that learning a language is a foundational part of many students’ academic experiences at Carleton and should be more wholly embraced both by Carleton and by students as something students should value and be open to pursuing enthusiastically. I have come a long way since those anxiety-inducing intro classes. I am now a declared history and German double major, which would not have been possible without the language requirement and the opportunity to start fresh.