WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2008 News WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9
》 LANGUAGE
Class enrollment experiences a tour de languages
BY SACHIKO MIYAKAWA
smiyakawa@kansan.com
The enrollments of some non-European language courses have increased in the past five years because of more focus on those parts of the world.
Spanish, French, German and Italian accounted for more than 75 percent of the foreign language enrollment at the University in 2007, according to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. However, more students took non-Western language courses in 2007, such as Chinese, Arabic and Japanese, than they did in 2002.
The enrollment of Chinese courses has doubled since 2002.
Xu Zhou, Xian, China, graduate student and graduate teaching assistant of Chinese, said China became more important in the world in the time period of the enrollment increase. He said some knowledge of the language would benefit students who were interested in any area, from Chinese politics to history and business. He said the language skill would bring better job opportunities to students and help them be successful, particularly in
business because China produces so many goods for the United States.
The enrollment of Arabic courses has increased by 45 percent since
2002, according to the college. P e t e r U k p o k o d u c h a i r m a n and professor of African and African-american studies at the University, said the department had only one instructor in
Andrew Fox, Salina senior, said he had been studying Arabic at the
students to learn about Africa along with the Middle East.
"Now it seemed more students are interested in Japanese culture because of the Internet, pop culture, manga and anime."
ELAINE GERBERT Asso. prof. of East Asian Languages
the late 1990s. Now there are six Arabic instructors. He said people had shown interest in Middle East and Arabic languages because of oil business and Islamic culture, but he noticed the sharp increase of students right after the Iraq War started.
He said he hoped students would have interactions with Arabic-speaking people through studying language, learning the way they would think and identifying barriers between different cultures. He said studying Arabic would allow
WINFIELD, Mo. — As towns upriver watched the Mississippi River slowly begin to recede, a few farther south focused on holding on for a few more days — furiously filling sandbags and keeping watch over saturated levees struggling to hold back the flooded river.
But there's an end within sight: Forecasters expect the last stretch of the bloated river to crest later this week.
Mississippi River expected to crest later this week
"The spirits are tired, but they
are still there and still solid," said Jo Anne Smiley, mayor of Clarksville, where makeshift sandbag levees are keeping the city's small downtown dry." This is a community that will rise above this."
Smiley toured her town Monday with Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' chief of engineers. He said he was most concerned about agricultural levees up and down the river.
"I think what they have is holding well,"Van Antwerp said."Now, it's a matter of getting the water off of it."
University for two years. He said he planned to study abroad before graduation to improve his Arabic and learn about the culture.He said he decided to study Arabic because he belonged to the Naval ROTC.
Associated Press
"In the 1980s, a lot of students wanted to study Japanese because of business opportunities," Gerbert said. "Now it seemed more students are interested in Japanese culture because of the Internet, pop culture, manga and anime."
"When we graduate here,we get a permission to become officers," Fox said. "You get bonuses for knowing language and you get better jobs, too. You got a strategic skill and language."
BRIEF
ed to learn Chinese because he was interested in Eastern architecture, martial arts and religions like Buddhism and Taoism.
Neill Barnes, Iola junior, is enrolled in an elementary Chinese class this summer. He said he want-
Elaine Gerbert, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures, said some students took Japanese courses in high school and continued to study at the University. She said she had seen an increase of students who studied Japanese since the 1990s, but she also noticed the shift of the interest of students who were enrolled in Japanese.
Japanese was ranked as the fifthmost popular foreign language course at the University in 2007, following Italian.
More students study Japanese
enrollment
The number of the three languages'enrollment hours have increased from the academic year of 2002-2003 to the academic year of 2007-2008.
Language: Percent increase
Arabic: 84%
Chinese: 105%
Japanese: 7%
"Japanese culture is more familiar to American students," Gerbert said. "The country seems safer, it's more highly developed economically. It's a democracy."
than Chinese at the University. Gerbert said some students started to learn Chinese or Korean after they took Japanese courses.
Edited by Bryan Cisler