UW-Madison to offer 32 languages in summer 2006 offerings

UW–Madison, a national leader in language education, will offer 32 languages this summer in a variety of for-credit courses. The languages will be taught through full immersion programs, special summer institutes and regular course offerings.

The languages include Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English as a Second Language, Filipino, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Khmer, Lao, Latin, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Persian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Several of the languages are offered by the South Asia Language (SASLI) and Southeast Asia Language (SEASSI) summer institutes. They offer eight-week intensive language training programs for undergraduates, graduate students and professionals. The programs offer the equivalent of two semesters of language study complemented by informal conversations outside of class, film series and invited lectures.

The institutes are programs of U.S. Department of Education-designated Title VI national resource centers on the UW–Madison campus, in partnership with other educational institutions. The Center for South Asia and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies are two of seven Title VI centers within UW–Madison’s International Institute.

Arabic and Persian are also offered through intensive eight-week programs designed to completely immerse students in an Arabic or Persian environment. The programs include many cultural activities such as films, lectures, and field trips to meeting points of the local Arabic and Persian communities.

More than 60 languages are taught at UW–Madison. The university is home to 11 departments of languages and literatures, 11 area studies centers covering every region of the world, and the Language Institute. Two national programs, the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages and the National African Languages Resource Center, are based at UW–Madison. Students at the university can apply to more than 100 study-abroad programs on every continent of the world except Antarctica.

For more information, visit the Language Institute.