The Department of Modern Languages gives students the opportunity to become cross-cultural experts in an ever more globalized world. It offers a variety of language, culture and literature courses designed to foster understanding cultures other than one's own. The Department seeks to better prepare students to succeed in an ever more internationalized world.
Programs in Arabic, French and Italian offer the chance to explore languages that provide an excellent basis to further a variety of careers in fields such as education, international development, diplomacy and government, national security, communications, journalism, arts and culture, fashion, medicine, and global business and finance.
Why Study Arabic?
The Arabic language is the key to understanding the culture and history of North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. Arabic is also the language of the Quran, the holy book of over 1 billion Muslims, and it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Today, learning Arabic is crucial to understanding the social, political, and economical situations that affect the world around us. Emmanuel College prides itself as a teaching college with a global mission and small attentive classes. In fact, Emmanuel is the only college within the Colleges of the Fenway that offers Arabic language courses.
The Arabic program at Emmanuel include:
1- Beginning Arabic I
2- Beginning Arabic II
3- Intermediate Arabic I
4- Intermediate Arabic II
5- Arabic conversation and composition I
6- The Arab World through Its Literature
In beginning-level Arabic courses, students are introduced to Modern Standard Arabic. It assumes no prior knowledge of Arabic. Therefore, the course begins with an introduction to the Arabic alphabet together with a substantial amount of basic vocabulary, and basic grammar to allow students to form phrases and simple sentences. The course is intended to enable students to develop language and skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening).Intermediate Arabic I should help you develop proficiency in reading and writing Standard Arabic and in developing your knowledge of spoken Arabic. The course of Arabic Conversation and Composition is designed to introduce students to complex Arabic grammatical constructions, expand vocabulary, and improve both conversational and writing skills.
Why Study French?
French is spoken on five continents and by over 200 million people in 43 countries. Our program in French strives to connect students at Emmanuel College with these people and places, providing them access to the cultural and professional possibilities of today's global reality. Emmanuel College prides itself as a teaching college with a global mission and small attentive classes.
In beginning-level French courses, all four language skills (listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing) are developed simultaneously, each supporting and reinforcing the others. Emphasis, however, is placed on aural and oral proficiency. Intermediate students improve their linguistic skills through discussions centered on popular French films and participation in language tables. The Department also offers the popular faculty-led travel abroad program Darkness in the City of Lights, which is a literature and film course taught partially in Boston and partially in Paris. This exciting course explores locales in Paris that were especially important to its cultural and historical development during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Why study Italian?
Knowing Italian is greatly beneficial in many ways. Long established as one of the cultural centers of European civilization, Italy's position at the heart of the Mediterranean has allowed it to contribute a great deal to a broader European culture, history, and politics from the times of the Roman Empire, through the Middle Ages, and up to the present day. According to UNESCO, over 60% of the world's art treasures are found in Italy. Some of the most famous Western artists, from Giotto to Michelangelo, were Italian. Knowledge of Italian is vital to understand the contexts of this art. Italian literature features some of the world's most famous writers and thinkers, from Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch and Machiavelli, to Verga, Svevo, Pirandello, Gramsci and Umberto Eco, to name a few. Italy is one of the top five economies in the world, and many employers are seeking people who speak both Italian and English. In fact, Italy is a world leader in the culinary arts, interior design, fashion, graphic design, furniture design, machine tool manufacturing, robotics, electromechanical machinery, shipbuilding, space engineering, construction machinery, and transportation equipment. An estimated 7,500 American companies do business with Italy and more than 1,000 U.S. firms have offices in Italy, including IBM, General Electric, Motorola, Citibank, and others. Many Italian firms have offices in the U.S., especially in the Detroit metropolitan area.
In beginning-level Italian courses students are exposed to authentic written, visual and audio materials from the textbook, the Internet and other media. Intermediate students participate in "Tavola Italiana" where they talk in Italian with a peer student fluent in the language. Italian Conversation and Composition utilizes online newspapers as a primary source of information, as well as an e-book co-authored by Italian Lecturer Isa Orvieto. This text is designed to be interactively used on a computer, iPad or Kindle. The course also uses online newspapers as a primary source of information and plans a peer-to-peer exchange program with Italian students of Cattolica University. The exciting faculty-led study abroad course Today's Italyoffers a direct cultural experience of how Italy has developed into a modern country while holding onto its history, art and traditions. The course begins at Emmanuel and ends in Milan, where students spend four weeks immersed in the everyday life of a modern Italian city. While in Milan students also take an Italian language course at the renowned Cattolica University.
View the Academic Catalog to find course titles, numbers and descriptions.
The role of the youth violence prevention streetworker is a critical and an often-overlooked component of juvenile violence intervention strategies in major cities across the U.S.
For Nadel, the stage is her “second home,” and the community she’s found within Emmanuel’s Theater program, a second family. While she originally thought she would pursue college theater as a hobby, she soon realized the work would define her student experience and provide a foundation for life beyond Emmanuel.
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Assistant Professor of Communications and Media Studies Mark Flynn and Tristyn Surprenant ’20 take a look at food advertisements and the effects of mindfulness on television binge watching.
Growing up in a suburban town outside of Boston, going to college in the city had always been a goal for Jake. After touring Emmanuel's campus he felt it had the perfect mixture of “small campus feel and big city appeal.”
When Melissa started at Emmanuel, she chose what she believed to be two separate and distinct majors—studio art and history—to fulfill her both her personal and professional interests.
On campus and off, Jaxell Negron is all about building community. As an RA, he creates a strong, safe sense of rapport within his residence hall. Through the on-campus boxing club he co-founded, he gave students a new way to work out and relieve stress.
As a high school student Benjamin Craig's motto was, "Here's my plate, load it on." He brought that mentality with him to Emmanuel, where he has always been ready to take on a new opportunity.
Leveraging the people and places of Boston for inspiration, students in the English Department's "Ethics in Documentary Film" course grapple with the challenges and questions raised by creative work.
History and secondary ed major Michael Rainha left Emmanuel prepared to succeed in a classroom of his own thanks to dedicated professors, supportive peers and a career-solidifying practicum at North Quincy High School.
Petros Vamvakas is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Latin American Studies, Middle East Studies and Peace Studies Programs. His work focuses on security and democratization, as well as issues related to identity and race in politics throughout the Americas. As part of his teaching, he has escorted groups of students to Crete, Greece, and will be bringing a group of students to Cuba.
On the cusp of her senior year at Emmanuel, studio art major Hannah Lynch '19 was awarded the Emmanuel College Travel Fellowship for Advanced Study, enabling her to travel to at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina for a two-week workshop focused on textiles.
Emmanuel is a place where students broaden their sense of what’s possible and prepare for inspiring careers in an ever-changing world. Be here.
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