SPECIAL FROM Next Avenue By Stephanie Oswald You could study in a classroom, but why not get immersed in the culture as well? Old joke: What ...
Whether we do the job by sending our students overseas, by connecting them with the "international" communities in our own backyards or by making sure they experience the world in our classrooms, we have a duty to prepare our students for the global world.
As it turns out, learning languages is easier -- and more pleasurable -- for some folks than for others. In fact, there is a group of individuals who find the process so enjoyable that they take it to another level entirely. They're known as hyperpolyglots.
The lack of volition to travel overseas corresponds to a shocking ignorance about other parts of the world. Contemporary students are notoriously ignorant of world geography. Many of them think that Africa, for example, is one country rather than a continent of 53 sovereign nations.
A short tour of Central America -- Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama -- was a great opportunity to teach our girls how to travel with the added bonus of daily Spanish language use.
Fifty years ago, we needed language skills to keep tabs on our competitors. Today we need these skills to keep pace with them.
