University of Virginia Library

Waste Of Time

I read with interest your
account of the Wednesday, Dec. 3,
faculty meeting. What especially
interested me was Mr. Alden's
statement that if the language
requirement were dropped, an increasing
number of students would
not take a foreign language. I, for
one, would not. Nor is my case at
all unique. I took three years of
Latin in high school, French my
senior year, French my first year
here, and I'm presently taking
French 5. In every language course
I've taken my grade has been an
"A," so I feel in a good position to
comment on our system here. I
would like to say that the total
knowledge I have gained from my
last five years of language study has
profited me little, if at all. I
consider my time spent studying
foreign languages in high school,
and my time spent here for the
same purpose, wasted time. The
foggy idea that one somehow
inhales the culture of a country
simultaneously with a drab language
course in its native language
-
this notion utterly falls the test
of experience. I know little more of
France than I knew at birth, and I
expect to know little more by the
end of French 6.

This, then, is why students will
leave the language departments in
droves, if given the chance. The
department may fall flat, but I
don't think it will, for there are still
many students around who want
just the type of course this college
offers. But the point is, there are
those of us who consider other
disciplines far more important at
this time. A language can be learned
at any time later in life, and far
more swiftly than it can be learned
here at the University. So, all I ask
is a chance to choose what courses I
think will do me the most good in
these short four years.