The reintroduction of Spanish courses at Northern Essex Community College is sparking a discussion.
These courses, taught by Arnaldo Robles-Reyes, will hopefully provide a positive linguistic learning opportunity.
Students, however, have expressed a desire to add more language courses over the coming years.
At one point, the college also offered courses teaching French, German, and Italian, but those have not been offered in some time.
Now, some students believe it’s the right time to reintroduce those courses to the schedule and add more.
Talan Stratton, a student at NECC, stated “if there’s higher enrollment, the college could offer more language courses.”
Stratton’s comments have been echoed by many other students.
Another student, Elli Vasilenko, believes offering more courses would be beneficial, stating that “learning another language can lead to the acceptance of diversity and expansion of the mind.”
Vasilenko’s beliefs have been proven by researchers at Northwestern University, who conducted a study and found that individuals who speak more than one language are usually better at multitasking. Furthermore, researchers at the University of Arizona found that multilingual individuals tend to feel a stronger sense of empathy. Both traits are highly beneficial in the modern world.
Danny St-Pierre, another NECC student, has advocated for the reintroduction of French courses.
St-Pierre, who speaks Quebecois French, Lao, and Thai in addition to English, stated “I believe French should be taught, especially because of the large amount of French-Canadian people who have lived in the area for decades.”
St-Pierre also believes that Asian language courses should be offered at NECC, “especially considering there’s a large number of people of Asian descent in Northern Massachusetts.”
Middlesex Community College already offers courses in Asian languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian, and in the eyes of many at NECC, including Stratton and Vasilenko, it would make sense to offer those courses here.
Part of the interest in expanding language programs at NECC comes from the rise in Asian pop culture, more specifically Korean and Japanese music and television.
Since the early 1990s, anime, a genre of animation originating in Japan, has rapidly gained a fandom in the United States, and with some shows lacking a satisfactory English dub or accurate English subtitles, several anime fans have instead chosen to learn Japanese.
Meanwhile, K-pop, a Korean music genre, has experienced the same growth in the United States, and without the option of subtitles and a lack of English versions of popular songs, many fans have been forced to learn at least a little Korean.
Because of the rapid growth of these two languages, the United States has seen a surge in the interest of learning a second language, with Korean language courses specifically surging in enrollment by 95% over a ten-year period from 2006 to 2016.
Kevin Adu, another NECC student, believes that the college should offer courses in Indigenous languages native to North America and Africa.
He has also stated that the college should offer courses in languages spoken in countries that foreign exchange students come from. Adu himself is bilingual, as in addition to English, he also speaks Twi, a language native to Ghana and parts of Togo and Cote D’Ivoire.
For now, students at NECC may only be offered foreign language courses in Spanish, but there is interest in a broader language program.
