It seems as though course registration is yet again upon us. Cheers to those of you that are graduating or are studying off-campus next year. But for those of you that are selecting courses at Grinnell, I wanted to share a thought that struck me once and refused to let me go — you should be taking a foreign language.
Studying foreign languages has changed my life. I did not come to Grinnell with a bent on majoring in Russian. In fact, it was one of the intro classes that sounded cool but really was just taking a chance on something my first semester. But when people ask me why I study Russian, I say I loved the process and that I learned how to read. How many adults can truly recall that? The feeling of meaning finally falling into place. Suffice to say, I think the learning itself is magical.
And this is not even to begin on the ways language brings you to people. I first think of my two host moms in Argentina and Chile. Would I have cried saying goodbye to them if we had been communicating through Google Translate? Would I have been able to problem solve as effectively, heard as much about Argentine politics in taxis, gotten as many restaurant recommendations, gone on dates or traveled on my own? Studying language brought me closer to others, but more importantly, to a new conviction in myself.
I’d like to think that the magic of reading a sentence without a mess of consonants melting off the page or seeing someone’s eyes light up when they realize you can understand their joke — or even make one in return — constantly permeates our lives.
Learning a language gives you more life to enjoy, more songs to listen to, movies to watch, books to read and friends to make. I guess that brings me to why I’m writing this now.
We are at a critical point in time where knowledge and expertise are under attack. As ignorance and fear become ever normalized in our daily discourse, an idea handed down to us is that critical study of the humanities — particularly foreign languages — is not worth our time. But do you believe this?
To me, there are few things more worthwhile than being able to speak to, and more importantly listen to, other people. The moment we lose sight of this, the moment we forget that inherent urge for connection, or worse yet outsource it to translation and generative AI, we have lost. I’m not saying that there is no place for either of those things in a broader learning landscape. I’m saying that when we push ourselves and choose imperfection and firing synapses, we make our own existence a little brighter.
If you look on Grinnell’s website under “The Liberal Arts,” you will find a list of six tenets of a liberal arts education, one of which is “language study.” Seeing this written out on the College’s website felt like confirmation of something — that language study is different from other things we do at school. And yet, as a campus community we give it so much less attention. I’ve found that science, social studies and humanities students alike neglect this unique branch of the liberal arts.
And I couldn’t stop wondering why. The conclusion I’ve come to is this — language study demands our vulnerability. To truly learn a language, you have to let everything you think you know be wrong. You have to give into the fact that everything from the sound of a letter to the structure of a sentence is different from what you take as a given. It is difficult to let each word out of your mouth be garbled and babyish. But if you push just a little further, a new world becomes yours.
My working hypothesis is that as a campus, we are shying away from that vulnerability. The enrollment in language classes across departments is low. The College has nixed the House Coordinator role, which will impact student leadership in Language House programming, if not dismantle it altogether.
What will be the next consequence of students backing off this pillar of the liberal arts? Language departments at Grinnell have a habit of bringing people together — native speakers and new learners alike. I worry that if we continue to let these opportunities for connection pass us by, there will be less institutional investment in this aspect of our learning.
I know, I know. You’re busy, it doesn’t fit in your schedule, you already have two majors. One thing I know about Grinnellians is that they’ll find a way if they really want to. We don’t have to save our exposure to culture and knowledge in a language other than English for a singular semester abroad. We can and should take academic risks here and now.
Every student on this campus is beyond capable of language learning, and just as a reminder, it is good to do things that are hard. I fear that each passing semester someone forsakes the language study tenet of the liberal arts, we devalue our commitment to being global citizens and to lives of authentic connection. Do yourself a favor. Take a chance. Take a language.
Kristen Bellinger `26 is a Russian and political science major.
