For more than 10 years, Vanderbilt University, Duke University, and the University of Virginia have partnered to offer courses in languages not often taught in the Western academic curriculum through a shared course initiative. This joint instruction includes several less-frequently-taught languages:
- Haitian Creole
- Ki’che’
- Malagasy
- Swahili
- Turkish
This unique effort both helps to preserve these endangered languages for future generations and adds depth to students’ understanding of subjects connected with these languages and their originating cultures.
How it Works
The partnership allows students from across all three universities to learn their chosen language together. Classes are taught synchronously via Zoom, combining students from all three campuses into one section. Each language is based at one of the three schools:
- Vanderbilt: K’iche’ Maya
- Duke: Cherokee, Haitian Creole, Malagasy, Turkish
- UVA: Swahili
Students attend class on their respective campuses at a common time, using Zoom to interact with students in the class at the other two universities. The course instructor works from the school where the language is based.
Details
- All language courses are available at the beginner and intermediate levels.
- Classes are open to all Vanderbilt students, including undergraduate and graduate students.
- First- and third-semester-level courses are taught each fall, and second- and fourth-semester-level courses are taught each spring.
- Students learn to speak the language and study its cultural and historical contexts.
- Vanderbilt students enroll in language partnership courses through YES, as with any other VU course. Course codes are:
- CREO for Haitian Creole
- KICH for K’iche’ Maya
- MALA for Malagasy
- SWAH for Swahili
- TURK for Turkish
- For A&S students, courses numbered 1102 and higher are eligible for AXLE credit toward the International Cultures and foreign language proficiency requirements.
- A teaching assistant on each partner campus is available two hours per week to assist enrolled students with language practice. Please note: Start dates for the semester vary according to institution.
- Once you register for a course, please send an email to the instructor to find out the date when the class will start to meet.
- Times in YES are adjusted to Nashville on CST.
About The Languages
Elementary and Intermediate Creole classes build proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and provide an introduction to Creole studies. These classes also explore the following issues: health care, Haitian women's rights, and unpaid children servants.
The four-part sequence in Maya K'iche' (1010, 1020, 2010, 2020) is is designed to introduce students to three core content areas: K’iche’ language, Maya linguistics, and Maya culture.
This course will introduce you to the Merina dialect (spoken in the central high plateau), which is the Standard and official dialect of Madagascar, and thus used on the national TV and radio stations, official documents, and schools.
- An opportunity for you to learn a language and culture different from your own and engage positively with people from the Swahili region.
- Makes you competitive in the job market and looks good on your CV.
- Gives you many opportunities to work in Non-Governmental Organizati
Speaking Turkish will allow you to travel to Türkiye, a secular Muslim country with a vibrant economy and thousands of years of history. The earliest human settlements we know today, such as Göbeklitepe are in Southeast Türkiye.