The department offers courses in Chinese, German, Japanese, and Russian.
Double majors combining the languages with some other discipline are also possible.
There have been graduates with double majors in Japanese and economics, Russian and geology, German and economics, Chinese and history, German and art, Russian and biology, and Japanese and psychology, to name but a few. In addition to departmental majors, students interested in China or Japan have available the broadly based, interdisciplinary major in East Asian studies that includes a language requirement. In lieu of majors, some students interested in languages elect to complete a secondary concentration, which consists of seven courses in Chinese, German, Russian, or Japanese. Most of our courses are taught in the target language, and stress the ability to speak, read, and write with fluency. In addition to regularly scheduled language tables, students and faculty also have the opportunity to converse informally at other extracurricular activities, including film festivals and presentations by guest speakers, and to get to know our four native speaking teaching assistants.