THE UNIVERSITY has established the Department of Foreign Languages to handle all foreign language courses on campus, as part of “internationalization” efforts.
The new office will be the third language-centered general education department in UST, after the Department of English and Department of Filipino. It will offer subjects such as Spanish, French, Nippongo, German, and Korean, among others.
“We cannot afford to know, to speak, and to learn one language only with the trend that we are having now in globalization,” Cornelio Bascara, chairman of the new department, said in an interview.
“The keywords in the vision and mission of the University are internationalization and globalization,” he added.
The new department will integrate the previously “scattered” foreign language offices in the University, namely those in the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM), College of Science, Faculty of Arts and Letters, and the Graduate School.
Bascara wants to standardize the syllabi for foreign language subjects. Spanish will be promoted in particular because of UST’s historical and cultural linkages with Spain.
Spanish is offered in the College of Science, Faculty of Arts and Letters, and Graduate School, while foreign languages such as Nippongo, Korean, French, and German are taken by students in CTHM.
“Aside from making the curricular program of this department relevant as well as attractive to the students, there will be extra-curricular activities like the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Week, which will feature the cultural and historical relations between the Philippines and Spain,” he said.
There will also be visiting professors from Spain, as well as symposia, exhibits, and cultural presentations throughout the year.
Bascara, former chair of De La Salle University’s foreign languages department, earned his master’s (summa cum laude) and doctorate (magna cum laude) in History in UST. He took up his Master of Arts in Spanish at Instituto de Cooperacion Iberoamericana in Spain, and taught European languages and literature in Paris and Madrid, specifically at Université de Franche-Comté, Ecole Commerciale de la Chambre de Commerce et d’ Industrie de Paris, Centre Audio-Visuel de Langues Modernes, Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Madrid, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Jerome P. Villanueva
Wait, no mandarin? Large chunk of students in the university are chinky eyed… I hope the university would soon develop separate departments for the Spanish and Chinese. Heck, Chinese is more practical than Spanish.