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Languages of Universities | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | College/University | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6266 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 9 of 13 11 April 2011 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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What do you mean by "officially recognized" language? Saami in Finland? Ainu in Russia? In none of those there is higher education available.
In the case of smaller countries/languages, textbooks (or just books) in English or other big languages are used simply because there aren't any books available for the particular subject in the native language. Usually the subject is narrow and specific enough so that translating and publishing the books simply isn't possible, editions that small don't make sense. Just as simple as that. No need to be surprised by that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6391 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 10 of 13 11 April 2011 at 9:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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While there is plenty of oral instruction availible in Cantonese in HK universities, textbooks written in Cantonese is
simply unthinkable. Written Cantonese is considered vulgar and low-class and only suitable for comic books and SMSages. Edited by Ari on 11 April 2011 at 9:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonE Groupie Canada Joined 4879 days ago 54 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 13 11 April 2011 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
You're examples are exactly what I'm looking for. I'm interested in how big that number of languages used in higher education actually is. Then I'm curious about conjectures as to when most of these languages will be available online, following the mainly English "OpenCourseWare" example (i.e., when might it be possible to watch lessons online in calculus, psychology, history, etc... in all of the languages that actually teach those subjects.) I think it would be a great boon for students, and others, interested in languages to be able to learn about largely standardized subjects and courses online, via any of the main languages. Conjecture with me people. Is 5 years too optimistic? What about 10? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6266 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 12 of 13 12 April 2011 at 6:11am | IP Logged | ||
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There must be too many of these examples. Taiwanese in Taiwan (universities teach in Mandarin Chinese), Marwari in India (or any smaller Indian language, universities teach either in English or Hindi as far as I know), Shanghainese or any other language in China (education is in Chinese).
If we take my country as an example, you can get higher education in Latvian (90%), Russian (5%) and English (5%). 2 million people population. There are other local languages spoken (i.e. not languages of immigrants or anything), like Latgalian and Liv (Livonian, a Finno-Uiguric language). None of these are used in higher education. I do believe the situation tends to be the same elsewhere as well. There are too many of these recognized, but small languages. People would not choose education in these languages, even if it was available. You'd get limited options, and not learn terminology in a language most people in your country understand. People prefer getting education in bigger languages even if it means additional trouble for them. That is why getting education in English is so popular in many places. I'd rather mention an exception that I'm aware of. In Finland it IS possible to go to a Swedish language university. I did a quick Google search, and there seem to be quite a few audio lectures available in Russian. Not full courses though. http://www-r.openu.ac.il/lectures-audio/index.html (From Israel, in Russian) http://www.zipsites.ru/abooks/lektcii_rossiiskih_universitet ov/ (Several Russian universities) http://prm.ru/education/2010-04-26/91378 (a video lecture, plus a few audio ones) http://busines-training.in.ua/busines-training/matematika/27 9.html (audio and video lectures, various subjects) If any of these links are not fine to be posted on the forum, by all means delete them. I just posted them as an example of what's available. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6391 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 13 of 13 12 April 2011 at 7:03am | IP Logged | ||
Well, how's the landscape today? I of course have a limited number of languages, but on iTunes U there are courses availible in all the languages I know (English, Swedish, French, Mandarin and Cantonese) and for the one I'm studying (Spanish), so that's six out of six. I know there are courses in German, too, because I've accidentally stumbled on them when trying to find French-specific words to search for (anyone know if it's possible to search iTunes U by language?). I'd be surprised if there wasn't courses taught in Japanese availible. Other than those I have no idea, though. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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