Georgia – the country, not the state – is oceans and continents away, but Ohio State students will be able to learn the language of the former Soviet Union state.
“The language is of interest because of political turmoil in that region,” said Daniel Collins, chair of the department of Slavic and East European languages and literature.
Collins said this interest has led to a class in Georgian that will begin in the fall and be offered on an occasional basis in the future.
This new class is part of a unique OSU program within the department of Slavic and East European studies. Called “Less Commonly Taught Languages,” the program offers courses in languages not taught in many American colleges.
“We have, I think, more languages taught than any other department in this university and any school in Ohio,” Collins said. “Even though we are a small department, we offer a rich number of languages.”
OSU offers classes in more than 30 different foreign languages, and many of the LCTLs are offered by the department of Slavic and East European studies and literature and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies.
Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian and Uzbek are the current Slavic and East European languages offered.
The Uzbek program is unique because it is taught as a distance learning class. Karen Sobul, fiscal officer at the OSU Foreign Language Center, said Indiana University received a grant to team up with OSU to offer Uzbek.
Next year, Bulgarian and Ukrainian will not be offered, Collins said, adding they could return.
“They are simply offered on an occasional rather than an annual basis,” he said.
Luke Wochensky, assistant director at the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, said more than 142 languages were spoken within the former Soviet Union, and not many American colleges offer courses in any.
The LCTL program is funded through Title VI funds from the U.S. Department of Education. Wochensky said a major component of the grant is to expand language offerings on campus.
Collins said one of the reasons the United States has a bad foreign image is because Americans do not learn other languages.
“They see it as American arrogance,” he said.
Wochensky said students interested in working for the government should consider learning a less commonly taught language.
Georgian is of special interest because it is in a region rich in culture, history and ethnic diversity – and a place where many OSU students could find job opportunities in business, security and tourism if they can speak the language, Wochensky said.
“One year of LCTLs is worth more than one year of German, French or Spanish,” said Dan Gray, a graduate student in Slavic and East European studies.
Gray said he has always had an interest in Russia and Russian politics. Russian was not taught at Wright State University, where he did his undergraduate studies, so he took German.
In 2006, the program graduated nine students and they all have jobs, he said. Six of them work for the U.S. government, two work for nongovernment organizations in Moscow and Serbia and one went on to earn a doctorate.
“In my opinion, I have never seen a better program,” Wochensky said.
Diana Norwood can be reached at [email protected].
