University of Virginia Library

Walter Bardenwerper

Crush The Infamous Thing!

It is time to kick a dead
horse. I wish I could kick it
hard enough to kill it for good.
I'm speaking of that
anathema of anathemas-the
language requirement.

Anyone who thinks this is
merely a hackneyed reiteration
of old arguments needs only to
query a few first and second
year students now in the agony
of the semester's end as to how
much good they have gleaned
from their language class. The
requirement that a student at
this university complete several
semesters of a subject he is less
interested in than jousting is an
anachronism and a mistake.
Why force someone to spend
hours of misery in a cause he
has foredoomed to mediocrity
or failure because he detests it
so?

The alleged reasons are
mainly two:

The first is that a
'well-rounded' student needs to
know a foreign language. Apart
from the ridiculous assumption
that a foreign language makes
one 'rounder' (whatever that
means), the statement still
defies reason. Why, for
example, couldn't Fortran or
Calculus professors claim that
their courses are equally
necessary for making a modern
man 'well rounded'?

This reason implies, in fact,
that a study of a language is a
privilege offered to a
community desiring roundness
by magnanimous instructors
willing to serve their fellow
man. This illusion leads, in
turn, to the intolerable
smugness, on the part of some
language instructors who say,
in effect, "Here is my
material and teaching style:
Take it or leave it-except you
have to take it." (smirk, smirk)

The second reason, and
much more to the point, is that
in order to assure their
existence these departments
must require people to
consume their product.
Without the requirement (so
this argument goes) too few
students would take these
courses to justify the retention
of the deadwood being carried
on the language staffs. Not
only is this not necessarily
true, but, if it is, it is an
effective admission that the
language departments offer a
product nobody wants. It
seems specious to argue that
students must take a course
mainly to subsidize the
employment of language
professors.

Scholars Exempt

The Echols Scholars were
exempted from the language
requirement over a year ago.
The rest of the students have
to put up with it. The allegedly
intellectually gifted should,
more than anyone, want to
become more rounded, but
they are given the choice to
take it or leave it. The other
students, many of whom
couldn't care less, have no
choice. Impeccable logic!

Great Despair

Certainly some people can
tolerate the study of a language
even if they do not like it or
have an obvious aptitude for it.
Some (like myself) almost
enjoyed it at times. But, to
many, the language class they
are forced to take is the cause
of their greatest despair.

In the rest of the University
people can ignore or drop
courses that they despise. Why
shouldn't they have a choice
regarding foreign languages?

Translations

What is really ludicrous is
the new approach taken by
some of the departments in
offering courses taught entirely
in English, except for the
reading (for which translations
are available). As an attempt to
pacify people while not hurting
the departments this is a
successful scheme. But it
virtually destroys the
'well-rounded student'
argument. It is a universal joke
in that students read
translations the night before
the tests, and teachers do not
even speak in their native
tongue.

Real Loss

It is time now to abolish
this anachronism and inequity.
This semester should be the
last for the enforced subsidy of
language professors. If the
language departments can not
stand on their own, let them
fall. We will all observe a
moment of silence if they do,
for it would be a real loss.

But there is no reason they
will have to collapse. If the
arrogant people whose jobs live
on borrowed time with
university protection will
improve their attitude, and the
real scholars in the

I just can't seem to get the hang
of this thing

departments will improve their
product, people might enjoy
studying with them. But
students deserve a choice.
There is no excuse for talented
people to be wasted because
they can not pass French or
Spanish. Every aspiring
architect or doctor who gives
up or is forced to give up his
goal because he failed a foreign
language should weigh heavily
on the composite conscience of
the language departments.

As Voltaire would have
said, "Ecrasez l'infame!"