Kellams: It's unlikely anybody in the University of Arkansas Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures can help you learn Slim Gaillard's language Vout-O-Reenee, but they can help you with most of the other languages he spoke. And the department will host its annual Connections Fair in the Student Union on campus Wednesday, Sept. 9. We thought this was a great time to learn more about the department and learn more about learning a new language. We invited Linda Jones, chair and professor in the department, and Brenda Magnetti, a teaching assistant professor in the department, to come to our studio. Brenda says every language taught at the university will be represented at the Connections Fair.
Magnetti: So it's a beautiful opportunity for students to get to know us, to know exactly what each language is doing, and also for students to get to meet students who are taking the classes in most of these tables. It's not just the professors or instructors giving the information, but students who either study abroad or they are intermediate one or two considering a minor or actually major. So they are the ones convincing or talking to the students who pass by, or those who already heard about us being there.
Kellams: Linda, any idea how many languages are going to be represented or are taught on the campus?
Jones: All of our languages will be represented, which is at least 10 languages at last count, so to speak. And we have languages such as Arabic, Cherokee, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek. Don't let me forget anything. Russian as well. Japanese, Japanese and Chinese.
Kellams: Wow. You mentioned that there are majors, but you don't have to be a world language major or even minor to benefit from learning the languages, right?
Jones: Not at all. Not at all. Everybody can benefit from taking a language. It helps you to learn more about yourself, learn more about another culture. Learn more about how, why you speak English the way you speak English, but also the other language as well.
Kellams: Do you find students? I mean, it's been several years since the book "The World Is Flat" has come out, but obviously we're much more connected, whether it's through technology or travel, than we've been maybe, probably ever. Do you find that students are more encouraged to learn a second or third language?
Jones: I see more and more students who are actually taking courses because they want to take the courses. We also see students who are actively pursuing double majors, a language plus their career path. I have no better example than what we have with German and engineering, where we have numerous students who are taking both programs, and then they do an internship in the summertime, which really gives them an opportunity to use their language, while at the same time learning more about engineering as a result.
And this has led to some students, we have one student in particular that we highlight who's at Stanford finishing his Ph.D., who did this program, and it just opens up a vast amount of opportunity for students when they have a language with a career path as well. So we see students with business and language, highly encourage students to do Spanish and nursing, for example, Spanish and social work. And the list continues. All of the languages have a niche, if you will, in where students could really benefit from knowing them.
Kellams: I doubt if there's ever been a situation where someone on a resume or in a job interview said they knew a second or third language and it hurt them, right?
Magnetti: I mean, no, no, I still want the top value skill, consider, I think, by all employees to have a second language regardless the level, always better to have an advanced level. But it's definitely number one. And not too long ago, I was just talking to a lawyer in town who is only hiring people who in the CV, in his case, has a good level of Spanish. The moment they get the CV, they don't see any Spanish. Sorry. So it's just a local example.
Jones: In 1988, when I first came to the UofA and I met you, Kyle, I had a student in class. Her name was Reggie. Reggie, I hope you hear me. And she was pursuing a pre-med and she interviewed with Johns Hopkins. And I'll never forget this. She said to me that they were very excited that she was studying French because they wanted to be sure they had med students who had a humanities background and not just a science background.
And that spoke volumes to me, and I've never forgotten that. And I often discuss that with students. I say, look at the value you can bring just by opening up your mind to other people, to other languages, to other cultures, and how important that is for you and for them and for your career path.
Kellams: Some students, if we're thinking what we still consider the traditional college student coming directly from high school, so they're younger, some of them come in because they had two or three years of French or Spanish or German. But let's say you haven't taken foreign language in high school or you didn't really apply yourself there. Are you at a disadvantage when coming in?
Jones: Not necessarily. No, not at all. Typically what we see is a student who comes in who has had like high school French or Spanish, they will go continue on in that language. But I think the joy for somebody who hasn't language, hasn't had language in high school is they basically have a buffet before them of languages that they can choose from. And it's really fun.
For example, Russian this year has more students than we've had in quite a number of years. Maybe it was the basketball player who's playing for us now from Russia. I don't know, but I do know that Alla Savelieva, our teacher, is incredible. And I'm so excited for her to see that program growing.
Magnetti: And also the fact that students, when they start a language from zero here at UofA, they have so many activities prepared by each language. So it's not only going for those 15 minutes three times a week. Then they have conversation clubs, cinema clubs, cooking lessons. So it's not just those moments. And of course this helps them to enjoy more that process, that learning process.
Kellams: So one of the problems I had with Spanish, well, hang on, hang on, was that it was hard for me to remember, I'm used to putting modifiers in front of words, right? Yeah. And I don't know, I set up my own barrier in my brain, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had a challenge with that or something else in another language, especially if you've only spoken English your whole life. In the class, do you sometimes see it click with students when they're going like, okay, I'm beginning to become proficient. It's beginning to become more natural for me to speak this language.
Jones: Absolutely. You can see that. You can see their lights turn on when they finally get something. Oh, okay, I get it. Yeah. Too often students want to translate directly everything that they see in front of them, right? Let's see. Me llamo. Me llamo Linda. What they want to say is "Me llamo es Linda," meaning they want to put the word "is" in "my name is." And so we have to somehow turn the tide and say to them, let's don't think English, really focus in on thinking Spanish or French or whatever it may be to help you progress with the language.
Magnetti: I like to also think, tell them to think about formulas. It's always in a way a formula. So there are, for me, that is, at the start, a lot of memorization about basic structures like she just mentioned and a light for them to visualize this constantly while they're hearing it from the teacher or themselves, but then have a couple of cards that it's always then telling me that's the structure, that's the formula. And about the adjectives or the place. Yes, that's common and it happens even in advanced courses. So there is always a moment where they made it click. But for many students, I think also visualizing, having a lot of notes in colors helps.
Jones: So I think sometimes about learning English, all I can say is I am grateful that I am a native speaker of English because there are rules about English I can't even explain.
Kellams: Yeah. The rules are, it's like this until it isn't. Exactly. Yes. I mean, let alone the idioms and things like that.
Jones: Right. Gallagher? You probably remember the comedian Gallagher. He had a crazy spiel where he would talk about the difference between all the words that are in o-m-b or all the words that are in o-u-g-h. Yeah. And it's crazy how different they can be pronounced. And there is, to my knowledge, there is no rule unless it's just from Old English. Forgive me, English faculty. I'd have to ask you about it. But comb, bomb, tomb. Those are three words, and they're all pronounced differently.
Kellams: Okay, what about this? When you're 18, 19, 20, 25, that's when your brain's elastic. And you can learn easily. By the time you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s, it's too late.
Jones: Disagree. Disagree. It's about motivation and desire. I've seen a lot of folks in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s come in and take a language because they love it and they want to learn more about it. Maybe they want to travel abroad and more power to them. A lot of them do very, very well.
Magnetti: And time, I think, because yes, when you're 18 to 25, yes, you're maybe already studying for a degree, but you probably are working too. So you have so many things on your plate and you want to do it all, and you don't put the quality time on each of the things. So I think all the time it's important. But when it comes to, then, when you're in your 40s, 60s, yes, the desire, the now, the experience in your life, you want it and then you have that extra time. For me, it was really hard to memorize through those years. I became a better learner in my 30s.
Kellams: Brenda Magnetti is teaching assistant professor in the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Arkansas. And Linda Jones is chair and professor in the department. The WLLC Connections Fair is Wednesday, Sept. 9, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the International Lounge in the Arkansas Student Union. That is the room with, fittingly, all of the flags of the nations. Our conversation was recorded in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio last week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
