For the first time this year, Brown will offer two courses in Catalan, a language spoken primarily in the Spanish regions of Catalonia and Valencia. The University will also offer a course in Swahili for the second year in a row.
The Catalan courses will be available for credit through the Department of Hispanic Studies, while the Swahili offering is a two-semester, not-for-credit class offered through the Center for Language Studies.
These languages are often necessary for students who study abroad in Barcelona and regions of Africa and have been sorely missing from Brown's course offerings, according to Merle Krueger, the associate director of the Center for Language Studies, and Enric Bou, professor of Hispanic studies and chair of the department.
Clara Dalmau i Palet, a native of Barcelona who will co-teach the Catalan courses with Bou, said only about 110 universities worldwide offer the language. In the United States, that number is closer to 10 or 12. Dalmau i Palet was hired this year as a visiting teaching associate in Hispanic studies.
Bou said there have been efforts in the past to bring Catalan to Brown, especially since Barcelona is one of the most popular destinations for studying abroad. Many Hispanic studies concentrators also study Catalan texts by authors from Barcelona.
"Many people ask if it's useful to learn Catalan," Dalmau i Palet said. "It is. It's an ancient language with a big literary and artistic tradition and a beautiful culture that would be great to know."
The Institut Ramon Llull in Barcelona is behind Brown's new Catalan program. Run by the government of Catalonia and the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Institut promotes Catalan language and culture abroad. It also provides teaching resources and trains its staff in teaching Catalan as a second language.
Similarly to last year, Brown will offer the Swahili course through the Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant Program. Fellows in the program spend one year at a university in the United States and teach language courses in exchange for free tuition. Mohammed Mgori, a fellow from Tanzania, will teach the course this year.
Though the course is not for credit, Krueger said enrolling in the course is "legitimate and quite ambitious" nonetheless.
"By the end of the year, students will be quite proficient if they stick with it," he said.
Swahili is the official language of the African Union and is widely spoken in East Africa. Last year, the CLS offered two sections of the course with 10 to 15 students each. This year, Krueger has received responses from about 80 people and said he is aiming to have two sections with 20 students each.
Antoinette Pole, a postdoctoral research associate in public policy, did not hear about the class last year but jumped at the opportunity to take Swahili this semester. Pole said she wants to travel in Africa and also plans to work in the Peace Corps.
"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," she said. "How often are you going to have the opportunity to study Swahili for free?"
Both Mgori and Dalmau i Palet have experience with teaching languages. Dalmau i Palet has taught Catalan to both natives of Barcelona and foreigners who had no previous exposure to the language. Mgori taught English in Tanzania and has been teaching Swahili there for the past year and a half. He has taught people with no background in the language, but he has never had students from the United States and expects some challenges this year.
"There are many cultural differences," Mgori said. "For example, in our country it's the teacher (who) does the teaching. Students are only allowed to ask questions in the end."
Still, Mgori said he expects a lot of cooperation from his students.
"I think I'll learn a lot from my students," he said. "They have a lot to share."
Dalmau i Palet said she has about 20 students in her Catalan classes, the majority of whom speak Spanish or French. Since Catalan is also a Latin-based language, she said it will be relatively easy for them to pick it up. But even those who don't know a Romance language will be able to learn, she added.
"Brown students are smart," Dalmau i Palet said. "I think all my students want to learn, and when you're learning a language that's what is important."
Dalmau i Palet said she wants to teach her students the language and "open the knowledge of Catalan culture" to them. When they read texts in class, she said, they will read about Catalan artists and authors.
Dalmau i Palet is at Brown on a one-year contract, but Bou said he hopes to keep the course going next year. Krueger also said he hopes the increasing level of interest in Swahili will yield a for-credit offering in the future - "sooner rather than later."
"I think it's very important that Brown have an indigenous African language," Krueger said. "They aren't taught in many places, and people who study abroad don't always learn the language beforehand. It's clearly a lack in our curriculum that we don't have one."
Krueger added that all the other Ivy League schools except Dartmouth College and Princeton University offer at least one African language. If he cannot find funding to offer the language permanently and for credit, Krueger said he would at least like to continue offering it through the Fulbright program.
